There Will Be a Giant Laser Beam Shooting Between Two Boston University Buildings

Photo via Mary Sherman

If you happen to look in the sky tomorrow and see a bright-green laser passing between two Boston University buildings, don’t be alarmed: it’s just art.

According to an advisory posted on the Boston University Police Department’s homepage, the “Talking Towers Laser Project,” is a “temporary public artwork on the Charles River Campus, which includes projecting a red green laser through the Boston skyline.”

The laser, which was originally supposed to be red, but later changed to green, will be passing between BU’s School of Law and the Student Village 2 through October 13, from dusk until dawn, according to the post by BU Police.

The three-day laser debut is being introduced in Boston as part of the TransCultural Exchange’s 2013 Conference at the school. This year’s conference theme is “Engaging Minds,” according to the conference website. The biennial conference was started by artist and pioneer Mary Sherman in 1989.

The laser itself is an installation created by artist Florian Dombois, and serves as the “metaphorical centerpiece” for the event, according to the university. The laser art is called “uboc No. 1 & stuVi2.”

“It is an elegant metaphor, the perfect Conference centerpiece,” said Sherman, Executive Director of TransCultural Exchange, in a statement. “Situated at a unique crossroads, the laser stretches across the only juncture in America where all the most common modes of transportation and ways in which people are brought together converge.”

The display will be in a place where various modes of transportation interconnect, including the Massachusetts Turnpike, a busy flight pattern from planes leaving Logan Airport, the Charles River, the Commuter Rail, and the BU Bridge. “As such, it is the idea reflection of the Conference’s convening of people from around the globe, united by their belief in the power of art,” according to event organizers.

Dombois’s art installation will also include what is described as a “real-time” conversation, which will be projected onto a small screen, between the two buildings, which are more than a half-mile apart. “The laser will also function as a range finder, which will measure the distance—the architectural and geophysical dialog—between the two.”