Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (1967) is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal. Currently, Lozano-Hemmer lives and works in Montreal and Madrid.
As electronic artist, he develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency".
His large-scale interactive installations have been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the UN World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Center in Japan (2003), the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the memorial for the Tlatelolco Student Massacre in Mexico City (2008), the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010), and the pre-opening exhibition of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi (2015).
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Art Biennials and Triennials in Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Montréal, Moscow, New Orleans, Seville, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. He has received two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, "Artist of the year" Rave Award from Wired Magazine, a Rockefeller fellowship, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, the title of Compagnon des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Quebec, and the Governor General's Award in Canada.
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.
As electronic artist, he develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency".
His large-scale interactive installations have been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the UN World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Center in Japan (2003), the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the memorial for the Tlatelolco Student Massacre in Mexico City (2008), the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010), and the pre-opening exhibition of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi (2015).
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Art Biennials and Triennials in Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Montréal, Moscow, New Orleans, Seville, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. He has received two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, "Artist of the year" Rave Award from Wired Magazine, a Rockefeller fellowship, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, the title of Compagnon des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Quebec, and the Governor General's Award in Canada.
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.
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2011, X is not the new Y
A small format artwork where
over 500,000 combinations of proper names, companies and cities are
presented as random inequalities by two electronic paper displays. |
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2010, Autopoiesis
When people look at
themselves in this small mirror they see the word "Autopoiesis"
projected on their forehead. The concept of self-creation described by
Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela is an inspiration for all art
that depends on participation to exist |
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2010, People on People
An installation designed to
displace the public’s image in real-time, creating a platform for
embodiment and interpenetration. The piece consists of floor-mounted
projectors that cast the shadow of the public onto a wall and another
set of hanging projectors which project images inside the shadows. |
 |
2000, 33 Questions per Minute
"33 Questions Per Minute"
consists of a computer program which uses grammatical rules to combine
words from a dictionary and generate 55 billion unique, fortuitous
questions. The automated questions are presented at a rate of 33 per
minute --the threshold of legibility-- on 21 tiny LCD screens encrusted
on the support columns of the exhibition hall or mounted on a wall. The
system will take over 3,000 years to ask all possible questions. A
keyboard allows participants to log on to the building and add their own
questions to the automatic flow |
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2000, 33 Questions per Minute
"33 Questions Per Minute"
consists of a computer program which uses grammatical rules to combine
words from a dictionary and generate 55 billion unique, fortuitous
questions. The automated questions are presented at a rate of 33 per
minute --the threshold of legibility-- on 21 tiny LCD screens encrusted
on the support columns of the exhibition hall or mounted on a wall. The
system will take over 3,000 years to ask all possible questions. A
keyboard allows participants to log on to the building and add their own
questions to the automatic flow |
 |
2013, Airborne Projection
“Airborne” was an interactive
installation commissioned by the Chrysler Museum of Art to transform
Norfolk’s public space into a poetic shadow play. Participants blocked
the light of two projectors casting their shadows on a 900 sqm wall, and
these were tracked by computerized surveillance systems. Out of the
shadows emanated bellowing smoke which was mapped onto the wall and
accumulated in it. Readable within the smoke were clouds of text,
themselves turbulent, from salient poetic texts on light and shadow. |
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2016, Bilateral Time Slicer
A biometric tracking system
finds the axis of symmetry of members of the public and splits a live
camera image into two slices. With each new participant time slices are
recorded and pushed aside. When no one is viewing the work, the slices
close and rejoin creating a procession of past recordings. |
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2016, Bilateral Time Slicer
A biometric tracking system
finds the axis of symmetry of members of the public and splits a live
camera image into two slices. With each new participant time slices are
recorded and pushed aside. When no one is viewing the work, the slices
close and rejoin creating a procession of past recordings. |
 |
2007, Reporters With Borders
"Reporters With Borders" is a
high resolution interactive display that simultaneously shows 864 video
clips of news anchors taken from TV broadcasts in the United States and
Mexico. As the viewer stands in front of the piece his or her
silhouette is shown on the display and within it reporters begin to
talk. Every 5 minutes the piece switches the video clips - from a
database of 1600 - and classifies them along gender, race and country,
so that for instance on the left there are only American reporters and
on the right only Mexicans |
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2007, Blow Up
"Blow-up" is a high
resolution interactive display that is designed to fragment a
surveillance camera view into 2400 virtual cameras that zoom into the
exhibition space in fluid and autonomous motion. Inspired by Antonioni,
the piece is intended as a an exercise to underline the construction of
presence through a simulated, live compound eye. |
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2015, Zoom Pavilion
Zoom Pavilion is an
interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three
walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the
public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the
presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within
the exhibition space. Independent robotic cameras zoom in to amplify the
images of the public with up to 35x magnification: the zooming
sequences are disorienting as they change the entire image “landscape”
from easily recognizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. |
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2015, Zoom Pavilion
Zoom Pavilion is an
interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three
walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the
public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the
presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within
the exhibition space. Independent robotic cameras zoom in to amplify the
images of the public with up to 35x magnification: the zooming
sequences are disorienting as they change the entire image “landscape”
from easily recognizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. |
 |
| 2015, 984x1984
“1984x1984" is the tenth piece in Lozano-Hemmer’s Shadow Box series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. The piece shows a grid of thousands of random numbers extracted from addresses photographed by Google Street View. Scanned by Google from the front doors of buildings around the world, the numbers have an immense variety of fonts, colours, textures, and styles. As a viewer walks in front of the piece, his or her silhouette is represented within the display, and within its form, all numbers countdown to show the number 1984 repeated throughout. The piece was made as a homage to George Orwell’s eponymous dystopian novel, 30 years after his predicted date for the collapse of privacy |
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2010, People on People
An installation designed to
displace the public’s image in real-time, creating a platform for
embodiment and interpenetration. The piece consists of floor-mounted
projectors that cast the shadow of the public onto a wall and another
set of hanging projectors which project images inside the shadows |
 |
2007, Sustained Coincidence
"Sustained Coincidence" is an
interactive installation activated by the spatial relationships of
visitors within a gallery. The piece consists of a series of
incandescent lightbulbs that light up in reaction to the participants’
positions, in such a way that the shadows cast on the opposing wall are
always overlapping. The piece is inspired by the phantasmagorias on the
one hand and surveillance and digital analysis on the other |
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2007, Sustained Coincidence
"Sustained Coincidence" is an
interactive installation activated by the spatial relationships of
visitors within a gallery. The piece consists of a series of
incandescent lightbulbs that light up in reaction to the participants’
positions, in such a way that the shadows cast on the opposing wall are
always overlapping. The piece is inspired by the phantasmagorias on the
one hand and surveillance and digital analysis on the other |
 |
2011, The Year's Midnight
"The Year's Midnight" is an
interactive installation that shows the viewers' image on screen,
unprocessed, except for plumes of white or black smoke that emanate from
their eye sockets until the whole display is filled with a dense smog.
Live and recorded eyeballs extracted from the video accumulate on the
bottom of the display, similar to traditional representations of St.
Lucy. The project's name is the beginning of John Donne's "A Nocturnal
Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day", a mournful poem which
inspires this work |
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2006, Third Person
"Third Person" is the second
piece of the ShadowBox series of interactive displays with a built-in
computerized tracking system. This piece shows the viewer's shadow
revealing hundreds of tiny words that are in fact all the verbs of the
dictionary conjugated in the third person. The portrait of the viewer is
drawn in real time by active words, which appear automatically to fill
his or her silhouette. The collector may choose to display the words in
English, Spanish or French, or a combination of the three languages |
 |
2006, Third Person
"Third Person" is the second
piece of the ShadowBox series of interactive displays with a built-in
computerized tracking system. This piece shows the viewer's shadow
revealing hundreds of tiny words that are in fact all the verbs of the
dictionary conjugated in the third person. The portrait of the viewer is
drawn in real time by active words, which appear automatically to fill
his or her silhouette. The collector may choose to display the words in
English, Spanish or French, or a combination of the three languages |
 |
2006, Third Person
"Third Person" is the second
piece of the ShadowBox series of interactive displays with a built-in
computerized tracking system. This piece shows the viewer's shadow
revealing hundreds of tiny words that are in fact all the verbs of the
dictionary conjugated in the third person. The portrait of the viewer is
drawn in real time by active words, which appear automatically to fill
his or her silhouette. The collector may choose to display the words in
English, Spanish or French, or a combination of the three languages |
 |
2011, The Year's Midnight
"The Year's Midnight" is an
interactive installation that shows the viewers' image on screen,
unprocessed, except for plumes of white or black smoke that emanate from
their eye sockets until the whole display is filled with a dense smog.
Live and recorded eyeballs extracted from the video accumulate on the
bottom of the display, similar to traditional representations of St.
Lucy. The project's name is the beginning of John Donne's "A Nocturnal
Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day", a mournful poem which
inspires this work |
 |
2010, Pulse Index
"Pulse Index" is an
interactive installation that records participants’ fingerprints at the
same time as their heart rates. The piece displays data for the last 765
and over participants in a stepped display that creates a horizon line
of skin. As new recordings are added, the oldest ones disappear, —a kind
of memento mori. To participate, people introduce their finger into a
custom-made sensor equipped with a digital microscope and a heart rate
sensor; their fingerprint immediately appears on the largest cell of the
display, pulsating to their heart beat. |
 |
2010, Pulse Index
"Pulse Index" is an
interactive installation that records participants’ fingerprints at the
same time as their heart rates. The piece displays data for the last 765
and over participants in a stepped display that creates a horizon line
of skin. As new recordings are added, the oldest ones disappear, —a kind
of memento mori. To participate, people introduce their finger into a
custom-made sensor equipped with a digital microscope and a heart rate
sensor; their fingerprint immediately appears on the largest cell of the
display, pulsating to their heart beat. |
 |
2006, Pulse Room
"Pulse Room" is an
interactive installation featuring one to three hundred clear
incandescent light bulbs, 300 W each and hung from a cable at a height
of three metres. The bulbs are uniformly distributed over the exhibition
room, filling it completely. An interface placed on a side of the room
has a sensor that detects the heart rate of participants. When someone
holds the interface, a computer detects his or her pulse and immediately
sets off the closest bulb to flash at the exact rhythm of his or her
heart. |
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2010, Sandbox
Sandbox is a large-scale
interactive installation created originally for Glow Santa Monica. The
piece consists of two small sandboxes where one can see tiny projections
of people who are at the beach. As participants reach out to touch
these small ghosts, a camera detects their hands and relays them live to
two of the world's brightest projectors, which hang from a boom lift
and which project the hands over 8,000 square feet of beach. In this way
people share three scales: the tiny sandbox images, the real human
scale and the monstrous scale of special effects. |
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2005, Under Scan
"Under Scan" is a public art
installation based on self-representation. Thousands of
"video-portraits" taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and
Nottingham are projected onto the ground; at first, the portraits are
not visible because the space is flooded by white light coming from a
high-powered projector. As people walk around the area, their shadows
are cast on the ground, revealing the video-portraits in short sequences |
 |
2005, Under Scan
"Under Scan" is a public art
installation based on self-representation. Thousands of
"video-portraits" taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and
Nottingham are projected onto the ground; at first, the portraits are
not visible because the space is flooded by white light coming from a
high-powered projector. As people walk around the area, their shadows
are cast on the ground, revealing the video-portraits in short sequences |
 |
2005, Under Scan
"Under Scan" is a public art
installation based on self-representation. Thousands of
"video-portraits" taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and
Nottingham are projected onto the ground; at first, the portraits are
not visible because the space is flooded by white light coming from a
high-powered projector. As people walk around the area, their shadows
are cast on the ground, revealing the video-portraits in short sequences |
 |
2003, Amodal Suspension
"Amodal Suspension" is a
large-scale interactive installation where people can send short text
messages to each other using a cell phone or web browser. However,
rather than being sent directly, the messages are encoded as unique
sequences of flashes with twenty robotically-controlled searchlights,
not unlike the patterns that make up Morse code. Messages "bounce"
around from searchlight to searchlight, turning the sky into a giant
switchboard. |
 |
2003, Amodal Suspension
"Amodal Suspension" is a
large-scale interactive installation where people can send short text
messages to each other using a cell phone or web browser. However,
rather than being sent directly, the messages are encoded as unique
sequences of flashes with twenty robotically-controlled searchlights,
not unlike the patterns that make up Morse code. Messages "bounce"
around from searchlight to searchlight, turning the sky into a giant
switchboard. |
 |
2003, Amodal Suspension
"Amodal Suspension" is a
large-scale interactive installation where people can send short text
messages to each other using a cell phone or web browser. However,
rather than being sent directly, the messages are encoded as unique
sequences of flashes with twenty robotically-controlled searchlights,
not unlike the patterns that make up Morse code. Messages "bounce"
around from searchlight to searchlight, turning the sky into a giant
switchboard. |
 |
2011, Articulated Intersect
“Articulated Intersect” is a
large-scale installation that produces an interactive canopy of light
that can be modified by the public using six large lever-controllers
that protrude from the ground. As a participant points one of these
levers three powerful robotic searchlights automatically intersect in
the sky to create an apex at that location. The participant may direct
the apex anywhere over the city in real-time, creating an animated
tetrahedron inspired by the work of Richard Buckminster Fuller |
 |
2011, Articulated Intersect
“Articulated Intersect” is a
large-scale installation that produces an interactive canopy of light
that can be modified by the public using six large lever-controllers
that protrude from the ground. As a participant points one of these
levers three powerful robotic searchlights automatically intersect in
the sky to create an apex at that location. The participant may direct
the apex anywhere over the city in real-time, creating an animated
tetrahedron inspired by the work of Richard Buckminster Fuller |
 |
1999, Vectorial Elevation
"Vectorial Elevation" is an
interactive art project originally designed to celebrate the arrival of
the year 2000 in Mexico City's Zócalo Square. The website www.alzado.net
enabled any Internet user to design light sculptures over the city's
historic centre, with eighteen searchlights positioned around the
square. These searchlights, whose powerful beams could be seen within a
15 kilometers radius, were controlled by an online 3D simulation program
and visualised by digital cameras. A personalised webpage was produced
for every participant with images of their design and information such
as their name, dedication, place of access and comments. |
 |
1999, Vectorial Elevation
"Vectorial Elevation" is an
interactive art project originally designed to celebrate the arrival of
the year 2000 in Mexico City's Zócalo Square. The website www.alzado.net
enabled any Internet user to design light sculptures over the city's
historic centre, with eighteen searchlights positioned around the
square. These searchlights, whose powerful beams could be seen within a
15 kilometers radius, were controlled by an online 3D simulation program
and visualised by digital cameras. A personalised webpage was produced
for every participant with images of their design and information such
as their name, dedication, place of access and comments. |
 |
2011, Tape Recorders
Rows of motorised measuring
tapes record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation.
As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the
closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches
around 3 meters high it crashes and recoils back. Each hour, the system
prints the total number of minutes spent by the sum of all visitors |
 |
2011, Tape Recorders
Rows of motorised measuring
tapes record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation.
As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the
closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches
around 3 meters high it crashes and recoils back. Each hour, the system
prints the total number of minutes spent by the sum of all visitors |
 |
2013, Vicious Circular Breathing
Vicious Circular Breathing
is a hermetically-sealed apparatus that invites the public to breathe
the air that was previously breathed by participants before them. The
installation consists of a glass room with double sliding doors, two
emergency exits, carbon dioxide and oxygen sensors, a set of motorized
bellows, an electromagnetic valve system, and 61 brown paper bags
hanging from respiration tubes. In the piece, visitors’ breath is kept
circulating and made visible by automatically inflating and deflating
the brown paper bags around 10,000 times a day, the normal respiratory
frequency for an adult at rest. |
 |
2013, Vicious Circular Breathing
Vicious Circular Breathing
is a hermetically-sealed apparatus that invites the public to breathe
the air that was previously breathed by participants before them. The
installation consists of a glass room with double sliding doors, two
emergency exits, carbon dioxide and oxygen sensors, a set of motorized
bellows, an electromagnetic valve system, and 61 brown paper bags
hanging from respiration tubes. In the piece, visitors’ breath is kept
circulating and made visible by automatically inflating and deflating
the brown paper bags around 10,000 times a day, the normal respiratory
frequency for an adult at rest. |
 |
2013, Vicious Circular Breathing
Vicious Circular Breathing
is a hermetically-sealed apparatus that invites the public to breathe
the air that was previously breathed by participants before them. The
installation consists of a glass room with double sliding doors, two
emergency exits, carbon dioxide and oxygen sensors, a set of motorized
bellows, an electromagnetic valve system, and 61 brown paper bags
hanging from respiration tubes. In the piece, visitors’ breath is kept
circulating and made visible by automatically inflating and deflating
the brown paper bags around 10,000 times a day, the normal respiratory
frequency for an adult at rest. |
 |
2013, Voice Tunnel
An installation designed to
transform the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City with 300 theatrical
spotlights that produce glimmering arches of light along the tunnel’s
walls and ceiling. Participants control the intensity of each light by
speaking into an intercom at the tunnel’s center which records their
voice and loops it. Louder speech increases the lights’ brightness
proportionally, creating a Morse-like code of flashes throughout the
tunnel. The individual voices can be heard as pedestrians walk through
the tunnel, on 150 loudspeakers, one beside each light arch and
synchronized with it. At any given time, the tunnel is illuminated by
the voices of the past 75 participants: as new participants speak into
the intercom, older recordings get pushed away by one position down the
array of light fixtures until they leave the tunnel, so that the content
of the piece is changing constantly |
 |
2013, Voice Tunnel
An installation designed to
transform the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City with 300 theatrical
spotlights that produce glimmering arches of light along the tunnel’s
walls and ceiling. Participants control the intensity of each light by
speaking into an intercom at the tunnel’s center which records their
voice and loops it. Louder speech increases the lights’ brightness
proportionally, creating a Morse-like code of flashes throughout the
tunnel. The individual voices can be heard as pedestrians walk through
the tunnel, on 150 loudspeakers, one beside each light arch and
synchronized with it. At any given time, the tunnel is illuminated by
the voices of the past 75 participants: as new participants speak into
the intercom, older recordings get pushed away by one position down the
array of light fixtures until they leave the tunnel, so that the content
of the piece is changing constantly |
 |
2013, Voice Tunnel
An installation designed to
transform the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City with 300 theatrical
spotlights that produce glimmering arches of light along the tunnel’s
walls and ceiling. Participants control the intensity of each light by
speaking into an intercom at the tunnel’s center which records their
voice and loops it. Louder speech increases the lights’ brightness
proportionally, creating a Morse-like code of flashes throughout the
tunnel. The individual voices can be heard as pedestrians walk through
the tunnel, on 150 loudspeakers, one beside each light arch and
synchronized with it. At any given time, the tunnel is illuminated by
the voices of the past 75 participants: as new participants speak into
the intercom, older recordings get pushed away by one position down the
array of light fixtures until they leave the tunnel, so that the content
of the piece is changing constantly |
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