Add to Cart

Add to Cart is an urban-screen project that deals with the methods and techniques of advertising and selling in contemporary consumer culture. The screen will display the icon of a shopping cart as it appears on the “add to cart” button used on retail sites throughout the Internet. This icon has become a universal symbol of “the purchase.” The icon will undergo a panoply of stock effects used in electronic billboard advertising--bright, shifting colors; pulsating lights; jittery, hyperkinetic animation effects. The forms of commerce will appear, but entirely emptied of content. The piece will subvert the traditional purposes of electronic commercial signage, using its eye- and attention-grabbing tactics to lead to an examination and questioning of those methods, a dissection of the concept of “selling.”

Add to Cart is proposed for the Prudential Arena’s 4,800 sq. ft. media-screen façade in Newark, NJ. The screen can be seen from a distance of more than 10 miles east of the location from cars and passenger trains, as well as from the air by departing and arriving flights at Newark Liberty International Airport. The arena’s unique display is attached to the east-facing window wall and is constructed of 19 slat-like LED screens which, when seen from a distance, cohere into one overall image. The 2D Add to Cart image will be slightly pixelated due to the limited resolution of the screen. It will be programmed to appear for approximately two minutes at random intervals interspersed between programmed advertising.