Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Frequency and Volume, Relational Architecture 9, Biennale di Venezia, Italy, 2007.

Barbican Centre
Silk Street
020 7638 4141
London
The Curve
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Frequency and Volume
October 9, 2008-January 18, 2009

Working at the crossroads between architecture, sculpture and performance, the Mexico-born, Canada-based artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is well known for developing large-scale installations in public spaces. His work encourages both social interaction and audience participation through the deployment of new technologies.

The artist’s immersive sculptural environments are at the forefront of artistic experimentation with new media, and regularly focus on political issues of surveillance and information ownership.

For his first solo UK exhibition in a public gallery, Lozano-Hemmer transforms The Curve into an immense interactive environment. Frequency and Volume is composed of 48 radios, which can potentially all be tuned to different channels simultaneously. The 90-metre long arc of the gallery wall becomes a visual and sonic representation of London’s radio spectrum, constantly changing according to the physical position of its visitors.

On entering the space, participants’ shadows are cast on the wall. Monitored by a video tracking system, each shadow tunes in to a radio frequency, changing channels as it moves around the gallery. The outline of a projected shadow affects the tuning, while its size controls the volume, thus the human body becomes an antenna able to tune into different frequencies. The resulting sound environment is a continuously evolving composition created by multiple contributors .

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. In 1989 he received a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada.
In his practice as an electronic artist, he develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Using robotics, projections, sound, internet and cell-phone links, sensors and other devices, his installations aim to provide "temporary antimonuments for alien agency". His work has been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the United Nations' World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the Yamaguchi Centre for Art and Media in Japan (2003) and the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004).

His work in kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installation and photography has been shown in two dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), the Sydney Biennale (Australia), the Liverpool Biennial (UK), the Shanghai Biennial (China), the Itaú Cultural (Brazil), the Istanbul Biennial (Turkey), the ARCO art fair (Spain), Bienal de la Habana (Cuba), Architecture and Media Biennale (Austria), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), the Musée des Beaux Arts (Canada), European Media Art Festival (Germany) and others. His work is in private and public contemporary art collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Jumex collection in Mexico and the Daros Foundation in Zürich.

At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica, a distinction and two honourable mentions. He also won two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, "Best Installation" at the IDMA awards in Toronto, a "Design Review Gold Award" given by I.D. Magazine, a Cyberstar award in Cologne, a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco, "Artist/performer of the year" at Wired Magazine's Rave Awards, an Excellence Prize at the CG Arts Media Art Festival in Tokyo, WTN award in the Arts Category, a Rockefeller fellowship, a Langlois Grant, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, HorizonZero best interactive installation and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany.

He has given many workshops and conferences, most recently at Goldsmiths college and The Bartlett school of architecture in London, ICC in Tokyo, Loopholes symposium at Harvard, at the MIT MediaLab, the Guggenheim Museum, IDCA in Aspen, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, UC Berkeley, Berlin Transmediale, British National Museum of Photography and the Art Institute of Chicago.

His writing has been published in Kunstforum (Germany), Leonardo (USA), Performance Research (UK), Telepolis (Germany), Movimiento Actual (Mexico), Archis (Netherlands), Aztlán (USA) and other art and media publications. He has been in several international juries and committees, including the Fondation Daniel Langlois, ISEA, Hexagram, Prix Milia d’Or in Cannes, GMD in Bonn, the International Art and A-life award and Cyberconf in Madrid. He has been a resident artist twice at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Frequency and Volume, Relational Architecture 9, Biennale di Venezia, Italy, 2007.