Events

"Hindsight Is Always 20/20" at the DUMBO Arts Festival

Academic
 
For NYU Community

Join R. Luke DuBois, Assistant Professor of Digital Media this weekend for a special, 3-day exhibition of Hindsight Is Always 20/20 taking place as part of the 2012 DUMBO Arts Festival.

Originally commissioned for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the piece consists of a large public sculpture of 43 light boxes. The work examines the history of American political discourse through the metaphor of vision. Drawing from the annual State of the Union (SOTU) addresses given by Presidents to Congress, Hindsight consists of a single Snellen-style eye chart for each president who gave SOTU addresses from George Washington through George W. Bush. Instead of the typical characters present in an eye chart, the piece employs words drawn from their speeches, presented in order of most frequent (top line) to least frequent (bottom line) word. The result is a startlingly clear snapshot of the lexicon of each presidency, containing a mix of historically topical keywords and rhetoric unique to each president and the time period in which they served in office.

The piece will be on view in Brooklyn Bridge Park on the lawn by the carousel, providing a beautiful setting for the sculpture against the backdrop of the East River and Manhattan Skyline. The festival opens on Friday, September 28, and runs through Sunday, September 30th.

Click here for more information on the project and the DUMBO Arts Festival.

More information on Hindsight and other projects by R. Luke DuBois:

http://hindsightisalways2020.net
http://lukedubois.com
http://bitforms.com