A Shakespeare Accelerator: Experiments in Kinetic Language

In this residency and exhibition, artist Ben Rubin transformed EMPAC’s interior into a laboratory of words and motion: projecting glowing white text from Shakespeare’s complete dramatic works onto walls, walkways, and other surfaces. Designed as a permanent site-specific installation for the building’s lobby, the artist sought to “create a kind of supercollider for Shakespeare’s texts, where the particles to be accelerated and smashed together are scenes, lines, and phrases. Which words, when hurled toward each other, will cause a reaction? Which collisions will most likely provide traces of the incandescent energy, wit, and emotion that existed at the moment of these plays’ creation?”

Ben Rubin is a New York City-based media artist who has worked with composer Steve Reich, architects Diller Scofidio & Renfro and Renzo Piano, performers Laurie Anderson and Arto Lindsay, theorists Bruno Latour and Paul Virilio, and artists Ann Hamilton and Beryl Korot. He frequently collaborates with UCLA statistician Mark Hansen.

Quote Unquote was an interdisciplinary series presenting work by artists that use an existing text as a departure point for time-based works including installation, film, and performance.