Cory Arcangel work features as the Midnight Moment in Times Square throughout March

28 February 2022

Cory Arcangel takes over Times Square every midnight in March for Midnight Moment – the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight. With Another Romp Thru the IP (Times Square Edit), Arcangel revisits his 2009 improvisation made on a Sandin Image Processor (IP), an analog computer invented in the 1970s by graphic artist Dan Sandin. Using this precursor to the digital video revolution, Arcangel creates a vibrant throwback to technology of a bygone era across the iconic landscape of Times Square.

“In our era of phones, screens, Zooms, etc., I wondered what Times Square — the mountain top of today's media landscape! — would look like if we rewound about 50 years and filled it with imagery made on an artist-built tool from the 70s — the Sandin Image Processor. Where would we end up? Could we tell the difference?”
— Cory Arcangel

Embodying Arcangel’s signature approach to art-making, Another Romp Thru the IP manipulates analog computer technologies and raw data into visuals that are at once striking and nostalgic. Created during a residency at Alfred State Institute for Electronic Arts (IEA), Arcangel’s original improvisation in this series appeared in his 2011 solo exhibition, Pro Tools, at the Whitney Museum. The title of the work references Five Minute Romp Through the IP, a 1973 video made by Sandin in which he explains the possibilities of the instrument. An advocate of education, Sandin freely published schematics and other documentation of the Sandin Image Processor.