Interview with Stereotank, Creators of Times Square's 'HeartBeat' (VIDEO)

This is an interview with the creators of Times Square's HeartBeat, Sara Valente and Marcelo Ertorteguy of Stereotank. Brooklyn-based design studio Stereotank's design was selected for the 2015 Times Square Valentine Heart, a public art installation celebrating Valentine's day in Times Square. For the 2015 competition, Times Square Alliance partnered with The Architectural League of New York and invited architecture and design firms to submit proposals. Out of seven designs, the Selection Panel selected Stereotank's HeartBeat. VernissageTV met with Sara Valente and Marcelo Ertorteguy of Stereotank in Times Square to learn more about the project and their studio. In this video, the two architects and designers talk about genesis and the concept of HeartBeat, its transformation into HeartSeat, their background as architects and designers, and their other projects that often combine plastic tanks and sound.



Stereotank's HeartBeat for the 2015 Times Square Valentine Heart was a participatory sculpture that consisted of a massive heart glowing to the rhythm of a low frequency heartbeat sound. Placed in the middle of busy Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, the audience was invited to come together, listen, an also play on HeartBeat's various percussion instruments.


Sara Valente and Marcelo Ertorteguy of Stereotank.

"What's common between Love and Music? Love is about sharing and being 'in tune' with somebody, so it is the creation of music, a concert is a combined action where the performers are also 'in tune' creating harmony. Heartbeat orchestrates Times Square's unique, active, flickering atmosphere." - Sara Valente and Marcelo Ertorteguy of Stereotank

HeartBeat was active from 9 February until 2 March, 2015. On 3 March, HeartBeat was transformed into public seating, then being called HeartSeat. The transformation was highlighted as part of Armory Arts Week on March 3.


Stereotank's HeartSeat in Times Square.

Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente graduated from the School of Architecture and Urbanism of The Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2005. After conducting a design studio about the common territories between architecture and music at the same school, they moved to New York to pursue a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University graduating with honors in 2007.

They currently live and work in NYC as architects and simultaneously develop a research about the relationships between space and sound through the design and construction of inhabitable sound instruments and installations.

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