Just checked out the Dublin version (I took the pic above) of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Vectoral Elevation here on the streets of the Irish capital. It was good to finally see the project after first hearing about it back in 1999 when Rafael gave a talk at the Webby Awards about the Mexico version of the project. Everything you can say about the project, is really different than what it’s like to experience it close up. Walking around the center of O’Connell st, surrounded by the lights, is a really moving experience. I’m not into the whole sappy thing, but the ephemeral quality of the lights and the fluidity of the movement really makes your head spin when you look up. When I saw him present this back then, I made a project afterwards that attempted to fill in the gaps of his project, by giving the people in the space a way to communicate back to the people online. Looking at it tonite, I’m not sure if that approach is really necessary in this case.