San Jose Public Art Program is unveiling their temporary art project, called Who's on First, What's on Second, along the light rails on South First & Second streets this month. Projects will rollout over the next year and vary in duration from a few weeks to two months.
The $300,000 budget will go towards 8 projects by artists: JD Beltran, Jon Brumit, Hector Dio Mendoza, Chris Eckert, Bill Fontana, Jordan Geiger, Helena Keefe, and the team of Chip Lord and Bruce Tomb. (Press release here.)
Chris Eckert, (Phantom Galleries 2004) was one of the few resident SJ artists invited to submit a proposal and was awarded the grant to actualize his idea, Light Haiku.
from Chris: Light Haiku is an exciting new public art project developed for downtown San Jose by visual artist Chris Eckert and recording artist/poet pc muñoz. One of eight public art projects selected by the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs for their new temporary art program Who’s on 1st/What’s on 2nd, Light Haiku enables compelling artistic expression through cutting-edge technology.
The project merges haiku, an ancient form of Japanese poetry, with sophisticated engineering and contemporary content. Eckert’s Light Cannon, a unique computer controlled spotlight designed and built specifically for Light Haiku, will “write” original poetry on an enormous 650 square foot luminescent screen in downtown San Jose nightly between 6:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.
The installation, located between first and second streets south of San Fernando Street, will run from December 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008. Featured poetry, anchored by muñoz who has contributed over two hundred haiku specifically for this installation, will include solicited submissions from guest poets around the world as well as local gradeschool children.
On November 17th, 2007 from 7-10 p.m., a one-night advance preview party for Light Haiku will be hosted by the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. Eckert’s light cannon will be temporarily installed and used to write haiku on a scaled down screen. muñoz will be performing live poetry readings in time with the light cannon while being improvisationaly accompanied by avant-garde cello legend Joan Jeanrenaud (longtime Kronos Quartet member) and hip-hop/funk drummer Kevin Carnes (known for his work with Broun Fellinis, George Clinton, and others). For more information or photographs, visit LIghtHaiku.com Congratulations Chris!!