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Digital Seas: Quayola’s ‘Storms’ Transforming New York’s Times Square
Until March 31st, over 95 synchronized electronic billboards in New York’s Times Square are screening “Storms” – a video work by London-based Italian media artist Quayola. The artwork presents a digital interpretation of deep-sea waves, reimagined through new media tools, and takes over Times Square every night as part of the March Midnight Moment series.
The Midnight Moment is a public art initiative by the Times Square Arts program that showcases digital art in one of the most popular areas of New York City. Under this program, a different artist or group of artists is featured on the electronic billboards of Times Square each month, typically starting at 11:57 PM and lasting for three minutes every night throughout the month.
The Midnight Moment series aims to transform Times Square into a public art gallery, displaying digital artworks to millions of people passing through the area. These artworks often explore diverse themes and techniques, ranging from abstract visual compositions to social and political commentary, all relevant to contemporary society and culture, offering viewers a brief but powerful visual experience.
This series provides a unique platform for artists to reach a diverse audience and democratizes access to contemporary art by presenting it in a public and highly visible space. The initiative began in 2012 and has since become a significant cultural attraction in New York City, featuring the works of renowned artists such as Pipilotti Rist, Yoko Ono, and KAWS, among others.”
Until the end of March, Midnight Moment is screening Quayola’s artwork, ‘Storms.’ This mesmerizing depiction of deep-sea waves and landscapes is reimagined through contemporary technology. Quayola’s poetic portrayal of the ocean employs digital tools to explore the tensions between seemingly opposing forces: the real and the artificial, the figurative and the abstract, the old and the new.
“Storms” was inspired by the romantic painter J. W. Turner’s depiction of stormy seas. In his work, Quayola aimed to find a new way to represent nature through the lens of new technologies. In Storms, the author wanted to create an experience that simulates the original power of the seas at a scale that recalls the contemplation of a vast natural landscape.
To create this work, Quayola chased storms on the coast of Cornwall to capture ultra-high-definition videos of the rugged sea in various lighting and meteorological conditions—the data from the original videos served as guidance for simulations. Various computer vision and machine learning strategies were used to extract this data, describing the movement of the waves and extrapolating color palettes and features from the landscapes.
According to the artist, in his work, he attempted to reflect on the fact that we live in a time transformed by new technologies, which amplify human perceptions and leave an impression on reality.
Quayola employs technology as a tool, exploring the interplay between the tangible and the simulated, the figurative and the abstract. In his artistic practice, manual action is replaced by the algorithm articulating a new non-human virtuosity. Quayola sees data as a means of expression, viewing the machine, its language, and code as an aesthetic innovation that takes new shapes. The marriage of artistic sensibility and irreducible computational potential generates a new form of the technological sublime, which is no longer an experience relative to the power of nature but rather a disturbance and fascination for the new technological languages.
As viewers watch, waves spread across a surreal landscape, crafting a visual narrative where nature’s raw power is digitally reinterpreted. This fusion of creativity and technological advancement prompts a reevaluation of the relationship between the natural world and its technological counterparts, proposing a harmonious coexistence that enriches the travel experience of visitors to Times Square with a new aesthetic realm.
Quayola’s “Storms” is presented at Times Square in collaboration with Artnet, a leading online platform for the global art market. It provides users with the most precise picture of an ever-changing art world and explores the possibilities of digital art, enriching dialogues at the intersection of art and technology. Artnet is the leading international destination for art, with more than 60 million users annually. Its features include an art marketplace, auction results database, news and analysis, artist and gallery listings, and an art price database. Artnet offers a hub for buying, selling, researching, and connecting within the art world.
