Off Center

Typical of the internet age, I’m hearing about art down the street from an Italy-based Belgian, but, given how cool it is, I’m glad. Minneapolis’ new Cesar Pelli-designed Central Library will include a digital artwork by multimedia artist Ben Rubin, Regine at we-make-money-not-art reports. The electronic light sculpture, tentatively dubbed Word Up, uses LED tubes to spell out the titles of books from the library’s holdings, letter by letter, on two elevator shafts visible from outside the building. A metaphor for the flow of information libraries represent, the design seems “to evoke the idea that library patrons have become part of a giant reading machine: the LED signs will, says Rubin, ’scan as if they were text hanging in the air.’” The new library opens in May.