Quote your city: You be my ally app by Jenny Holzer

By Sybaris

American artist Jenny Holzer (Ohio, 1950) launched today her first art project in a smartphone app. Through her career, Holzer has been placed quotes of famous authors and original phrases over the façades of iconic buildings or even in the most unsual supports, such as trailer boxes.

Comissioned by the University of Chicago, the app named “You Be My Ally” was design to offer the users the opportunity to superimpose some phrases on their own surrondings. Around 29 quotes were already uploaded for the user to select them and use them over a building, a car, a house or any kind of surface—like a government headquarters, why not?—to make an ephemeral intervention of their city. Some of the phrases are related with current social issues, such as politics, violence, racism, among others.

You Be My Ally is available now for free in youbemyally.uchicago.edu. To make the experience even more interesting, a specially designed software for this app allows to project the phrases with a LED effect, jus as Holzer’s works.

This project could be a interesting tool for engage ourself to our city landscapes, but also to simulate the intervention of public buildings that usually you can not intervene. How would you use this app?