Harries/Heder Public Art - Urban Ring/Speed of Light

Speed of Light Tour Performance

Drawing of Searchlight

Location:	Eight communities around Boston. Evening of May 1, 1994
Size:	20 mile connecting route
Sponsor:	Mags Harries & students' project. Funding - LEF Foundation
Materials:	Bicycle riders, 8 Hollywood spotlights, Suitcases with artifacts, portraits of people in the community and stories told from each community, light sticks
Budget:	$4,500

The Speed of Light Tour was a multi-media community-based public art event that aimed to tie together eight communities around Boston; East Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, the Fenway, Roxbury and South Boston.

In September of 1993, Mags' Public Art Class at the School of the Museum of Fine Art's accompanied a group of architects, urban designers and community members on an informal tour of the proposed circumferential transportation ring around the City of Boston (The Urban Ring).

Route Map

Cyclists

Suitcases

Transfer

From that experience evolved the concept of the Speed of Light Tour, a multi -media evening bicycle ride that involved eight communities on Boston's periphery. It visually highlighted the need for lateral mass transit between the participating communities, as well as their relationship to Boston.

Tour Symbol

The tour began in East Boston at sundown, a light beamed into the sky at the arrival of cyclists at each destination along the route, until it finished in South Boston. At each spotlight, new cyclists and a suitcase filled with artifacts, portraits and collected stories from each community joined the tour. Conceptually the lights beaming into the sky depicted the location of each community in the Boston skyline, alas it was foggy that night!

All Photos by Beckett Logan

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