Release Date: Oct 29, 2014
Midnight Moment: Brain City by Noah Hutton
November 1-30, 2014, every night from 11:57 p.m.–midnight
Image: Human Brain Project. Courtesy of the artist.
(New York, N.Y.) October 29, 2014 — Documentary filmmaker Noah Hutton’s Brain City will be shown on Times Square’s billboards from 11:57 pm to midnight each night this November. This film is a part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts. This month’s presentation is partnership with Eyewire, The Human Brain Project, Neurodome and CLARITY.
Capturing imagery from the leading neuroscience labs around the world, Brain City is a journey through the vast avenues of the human brain. The array of screens in Times Square will surround the viewer in the latest visual reconstructions of the brain, providing a sense of being surrounded by complex systems, inside and out displaying brand new digital simulations, fly-throughs, and microscopic images of neurons from several major neuroscientific endeavors.
Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, said, “As the Crossroads of the World, Times Square serves as the neural center of New York City. Noah Hutton’s work reminds us of the vastly complex systems that make Times Square a center of communications, commerce, and transportation.”
Sherry Dobbin, Times Square Arts Director, said, “The beauty of Hutton’s Brain City is in its complexity. Midnight Moment’s unique platform allows us to display the micro-level workings of the brain at a macro-level and overwhelm the audience with the power of that imagery.”
“Noah Hutton’s Brain City promises to bring an intriguing moment to the visitors of the Crossroads of the World. These scientific visuals across our high-tech digital screens will surely make an impact on the Midnight Moment viewers this November,” said Harry Coghlan, Chairman of the Times Square Advertising Coalition.
Noah Hutton, artist, said “Technology is changing the world around us as well as the vision of what is inside of us. This piece aims to use the power of analogy to form connections between internal and external worlds. In doing so, I hope to affect perceptions of scale and the interconnectedness of all systems.”
The following digital screens are participating in the November Midnight Moment:
7TS, ABC Super Sign, American Eagle Times Square, Bank of America, Branded Cities 7 Times Square, Branded Cities 1 Times Square, Branded Cities NASDAQ Tower Times Square, Branded Cities Thomson Reuters, CBS Outdoor 1515 Broadway, CEMUSA, City Outdoor, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD127, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD128, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD129, CNN Screen, Disney Store Spectacular, JVC Screen, NASDAQ, Sherwood Outdoor, Superior Digital Displays Three Times Square #5, Thomson Reuters, V Media Times Square, Viacom North & South.
About Midnight Moment
Midnight Moment is the largest coordinated effort in history by the sign operators in Times Square to display synchronized, cutting-edge creative content on electronic billboards and newspaper kiosks throughout Times Square every night. The program premiered in May 2012 and is organized and supported by the Times Square Advertising Coalition in partnership with Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, with additional partners of participating sign holders and artists.
Each night, Times Square becomes a digital art gallery through dazzling visuals on select billboards and newsstands. Every show begins at 11:57 p.m. with a "countdown" that signals the start of the three minute nightly presentation. Past artists featured in the program include Ryoji Ikeda, Daniel Canogar, Alfredo Jaar; Isaac Julien; Robert Wilson; Tracey Emin; Seoungho Cho; Vicki DaSilva, Surabhi Saraf, and Elly Cho; Erika Janunger; Takeshi Murata; Bel Borba with Burt Sun and André Costantini; Zach Nader; Brian Gonzalez (aka Taxiplasm); Björk; JR; Ryan McGinley; Jack Goldstein; Nature Theater of Oklahoma; Ezra Wube; Laleh Khorramian; Brian Dailey; Leslie Thornton; and Yoko Ono. For more information on past projects, please visit TimesSquareNYC.org/MidnightMoment.
###
Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) is a trade association comprised of major advertisers, retailers, real estate firms, media companies and other businesses involved in the outdoor sign industry in Times Square, along with organizations representing Broadway and the community. Members of TSAC include: ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Daktronics, D3 LED, Digital Domination, Hines Management, Jamestown One Times Square, Lamar Advertising Company, Landmark Sign & Electric, Metro Media Technologies, Newmark Knight Frank, North Shore Neon, P.R.omotion!, Sherwood Outdoor, SL Green, Times Square Alliance, The WOW Factor and Thomson Reuters. www.timessquareadcoalition.org. Follow TSAC on twitter at @TSACNYC.
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Visit TimesSquareNYC.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.
Noah Hutton is a documentary filmmaker working on a fourteen-year film about neuroscience research around the world, including the U.S. BRAIN Initiative, the Human Brain Project, and other major institutes and labs. His first feature documentary, Crude Independence, premiered at SXSW in 2009. In addition to filmmaking, Hutton also writes and curates shows about art and neuroscience. As the founder of the website The Beautiful Brain, he curated the group art show Subjective Resonance Imaging at the 2013 Human Brain Mapping summit, was a featured speaker at the 2013 Association of Neuroaesthetics Symposium at the Vennice Biennale, and co-curated the 2014 Impakt Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Eyewire is a leading example of “citizen science”: it is a game to map the brain from Sebastian Seung’s lab at Princeton. The visuals shown in Brain City have been meticulously mapped from microscopic images of the brain by over 150,000 users.
The Human Brain Project is a coalition of 112 labs across Europe, working together to carry out the goal of reserve-engineering the human brain on supercomputers with new types of chips that mimic the behavior of neurons themselves.
Neurodome, based at Rockefeller University,is an attempt to bring the latest imagery from brain scanning techniques into the public dome format—a planetarium—styled fly-through of neural circuits in vivid 3D.
CLARITY is a visualization method for brain tissue that involves turning its lipid content transparent, revealing the stunning neural structures they support. It was developed by Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford.
###
Media Contacts:
For Times Square Arts: TJ Witham (212) 452-5234│ TJWitham@TimesSquareNYC.org
Marisa Wayne (212) 843-9216 │MWayne@Rubenstein.com
For TSAC: Justine DiGiglio (212) 205-6632 │Justine@NicholasLence.com