Brooklyn-based artist Raul Vincent Enriquez's latest art installation, "I in the Sky," kicked off a couple weeks ago in New York.
Forty-eight stories above Times Square, short video portraits-the end-result of a subject's staring into a camera in the nearby chashama gallery for 30 seconds while 30 photographs are produced-are projected onto a towering 2,500 sq. ft. LED screen. Having been manipulated by computers and animators, the resulting images take on an odd, flickering flip-book quality.
Enriquez says the only concept he's trying to convey is the importance of eye contact. "We just need more eye contact; it's what makes us human," he says, in Wired's coverage. "I think it's really fascinating. It can be the invitation to a fight or a sign that you're understanding somebody."
Over the next seven weeks, the project hopes to display 10,000 distinct portraits. There's an open casting call: free portraits from noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 112 W. 44th St. in Manhattan (the chashama gallery).