The Museum at The Times is a repository of artworks, furnishings, windows and even gargoyles that have adorned various headquarters of The New York Times.
Most acquisitions are happily welcomed. The next acquisition, however, is being accepted regretfully because it means that “Moveable Type” — a scintillating, engaging and kinetic work of public art in the lobby of The Times’s building at 620 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan — is to be removed after 17 years.
Visitors are invited to experience the immersive 54-foot-long installation for themselves between now and mid-August, when it is to be taken down.
“Moveable Type” is composed of 560 screens suspended on wires. On a rotating basis, they display words, numerals, phrases, questions, quotations, shapes and diagrams drawn from The Times’s live digital report. The array is ephemeral and ever-changing. The visual display is augmented by sounds — clicks, clacks, beeps, bells and a windlike whoosh — that echo through the lobby.
Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, the creators of “Moveable Type,” have pledged to give one or more of the 4½-by-8½-inch screens to the museum — either from the installation itself or from a stockpile of 50 spares. (Only four screens have had to be replaced since the artwork was inaugurated in 2007.)
Each screen is a sandwich. Facing viewers is a vacuum fluorescent display with 32,768 luminous pixels, behind which is a printed circuit board. This off-the-shelf unit was made by Noritake Itron of Japan for use in control panels and medical devices.
Behind it is a second, custom-made printed circuit board that holds a central processor chip running the Linux operating system. The screens were assembled at Perfection Electricks in Queens. The whole installation is controlled from a second-floor utility closet that holds three computers and other gear.
The Times said in May that it would share details in coming months about what will replace “Moveable Type.” The artwork will be returned to Mr. Rubin and Mr. Hansen. There are no current plans for its installation elsewhere.
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