Lockdown creative family helps design Covid memorial artwork

In A Crack in the Hourglass, a media work by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, people are invited to submit a photo and story of a loved one lost during Covid. Over a period of approximately 40 minutes, a modified robotic tracer draws the image of the loved one using hourglass-shaped sand. When the drawing is finished and after a short pause, a mechanism gently tilts the platform and the sand falls. Then the machine begins to draw another portrait. The process is broadcast live, showing the robotic arm drawing each portrait. The number of Covid deaths is no longer abstract; they are tangibly represented in the portraits of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.

Our family had a unique window into the creative process behind A Crack in the Hourglass. In March 2020, when the pandemic brought everything to an abrupt halt, our family became locked down and our home-work-school-leisure worlds collided.

My husband, Stephan Schulz, is head of R&D at Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's studio, Antimodular Research. I am the executive producer of the POP Montreal International Music Festival with a background in visual and media arts. In short, we are a family of creative innovators, and we were well equipped to face the pandemic.

MATERIALS

hourglass sand glass container AxiDraw SE/A3 plotter Teensy 3.2 Microcontroller Antistatic Polyurethane Tubing, ¼" ID, 3/8″ OD McMaster-Carr 5790K24 3D printed custom nozzle Black cardboard, 32″×40″x1.25mm thick Peterboro Black Core Mat Linear actuator, 2″/50mm stroke, DC 12V AliExpress 1915825523 Motor driver board, VNH5019 Pololu 1451 USB cameras: Kurokesu C1 Micro M12 (1) and C920 (1) EMBROIDERY MOTOR

Figure A