The River is a Circle (Times Square Edition)
Audio Guide
New Years Eve:
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Broadway between 41st and 49th Streets
New York, NY
Start:
Sep 1, 2025
End:
Sep 30, 2025
Nightly, 11:57pm – 12am
View Public Programming
Broadway between 41st and 49th Streets
New York, NY
Start:
Sep 1, 2025
End:
Sep 30, 2025
Nightly, 11:57pm – 12am
View Public Programming
A multi-channel animation that journeys through a complex choreography of ecological and social systems, The River is a Circle (Times Square Edition) by artists Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz depicts a split view of the Hudson River that spans centuries. Below the water, we encounter schools of fish, oyster reefs, maritime wreckage and divers; above the water, ships and barges move through colonial times and the ever-evolving Meatpacking District into an imagined future — speculating on circular systems and the potential for a cyclical flow towards more modest means of maintaining our environmental networks.
Co-presented by Times Square Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Armory Show, Zurkow and Schmitz’s The River is a Circle (Times Square Edition) is a special edit of the longer piece titled The River is a Circle (2025), made in collaboration with Schmitz and Blake Goble, and on view at the Whitney through January 11, 2026 as the second Hyundai Terrace Commission. Part of Zurkow’s solo exhibition Parting Worlds, the large-scale animation is driven by algorithmic probability and real-time weather and marine traffic with a custom software system that continuously reflects New York City’s current meteorological conditions and seasons.
This month’s Midnight Moment also marks the fifth collaboration between Times Square Arts and The Armory Show, which takes place from September 5–7, 2025 at the Javits Center.
A multi-channel animation that journeys through a complex choreography of ecological and social systems, The River is a Circle (Times Square Edition) by artists Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz depicts a split view of the Hudson River that spans centuries. Below the water, we encounter schools of fish, oyster reefs, maritime wreckage and divers; above the water, ships and barges move through colonial times and the ever-evolving Meatpacking District into an imagined future — speculating on circular systems and the potential for a cyclical flow towards more modest means of maintaining our environmental networks.
Co-presented by Times Square Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Armory Show, Zurkow and Schmitz’s The River is a Circle (Times Square Edition) is a special edit of the longer piece titled The River is a Circle (2025), made in collaboration with Schmitz and Blake Goble, and on view at the Whitney through January 11, 2026 as the second Hyundai Terrace Commission. Part of Zurkow’s solo exhibition Parting Worlds, the large-scale animation is driven by algorithmic probability and real-time weather and marine traffic with a custom software system that continuously reflects New York City’s current meteorological conditions and seasons.
This month’s Midnight Moment also marks the fifth collaboration between Times Square Arts and The Armory Show, which takes place from September 5–7, 2025 at the Javits Center.
A cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape since 1994, The Armory Show opens New York’s fall art season by bringing the world’s leading international contemporary and modern art galleries to the Javits Center each year. The fair emphasizes thoughtful programming, elevated presentations, curatorial excellence, meaningful institutional partnerships, and engaging public art activations. In 2023, The Armory Show was acquired by Frieze, one of the world’s leading organizations for modern and contemporary art.
The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.
Support for Midnight Moment is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the Times Square Advertising Coalition, with additional in-kind support from the Times Square EDITION Hotel. Midnight Moment is made possible by the Times Square Advertising Coalition, ABC SuperSign, American Eagle, Big Outdoor, Branded Cities, Clear Channel, Coca-Cola, Diversified, Express, Heritage Outdoor Media, Levi's, LG, Line Friends, McDonald's, Microsoft, Midtown Financial, Morgan Stanley, New Tradition, Outfront, Paramount, Prudential, Sensory Interactive, Sephora, Sherwood Equities, Show + Tell, Silvercast, Swatch, TSX, and T-Mobile.
Broadway between 41st and 49th Streets
New York, NY
Nightly, 11:57pm – 12am
Still courtesy of the artists
Marina Zurkow (b. 1962) engages with research, speculation, and diverse media (software, animation, food, print) to foster intimate multispecies and geophysical connections for viewers and participants. She works as a founding member of the collaborative initiatives More&More, Dear Climate, The Iceberg, and Climoji. Recent exhibitions include Parting Worlds, presently at the Whitney Museum of American Art; WHAT IF? at MoMA’s Creativity Lab (New York); and The Breath Eaters, Wolfsonian Museum (Miami). Zurkow is a 2025 Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture grantee, a 2022 fellow at the Environmental Media Lab, Princeton University. She has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Rice University, NYFA, NYSCA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Creative Capital. She resides in the Hudson Valley, New York, is represented by bitforms gallery, and teaches at NYU.
Learn More About
Marina Zurkow
Marina Zurkow (b. 1962) engages with research, speculation, and diverse media (software, animation, food, print) to foster intimate multispecies and geophysical connections for viewers and participants. She works as a founding member of the collaborative initiatives More&More, Dear Climate, The Iceberg, and Climoji. Recent exhibitions include Parting Worlds, presently at the Whitney Museum of American Art; WHAT IF? at MoMA’s Creativity Lab (New York); and The Breath Eaters, Wolfsonian Museum (Miami). Zurkow is a 2025 Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture grantee, a 2022 fellow at the Environmental Media Lab, Princeton University. She has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Rice University, NYFA, NYSCA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Creative Capital. She resides in the Hudson Valley, New York, is represented by bitforms gallery, and teaches at NYU.
Learn More About
Marina Zurkow
Marina Zurkow (b. 1962) engages with research, speculation, and diverse media (software, animation, food, print) to foster intimate multispecies and geophysical connections for viewers and participants. She works as a founding member of the collaborative initiatives More&More, Dear Climate, The Iceberg, and Climoji. Recent exhibitions include Parting Worlds, presently at the Whitney Museum of American Art; WHAT IF? at MoMA’s Creativity Lab (New York); and The Breath Eaters, Wolfsonian Museum (Miami). Zurkow is a 2025 Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture grantee, a 2022 fellow at the Environmental Media Lab, Princeton University. She has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Rice University, NYFA, NYSCA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Creative Capital. She resides in the Hudson Valley, New York, is represented by bitforms gallery, and teaches at NYU.
Learn More About
Marina Zurkow
James Schmitz (b. 1975) explores the expressive intersections of art, data, and science, driven by a vision to create novel tools for artistic expression and utilize them in his art practice. Since 2022, he and Marina Zurkow have collaborated on generative software projects, most recently at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been a Research Resident at ITP/New York University and was a quantitative researcher in the finance industry for over a decade. He is the author of the Python Processing framework py5. He resides in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York.
Learn More About
James Schmitz
James Schmitz (b. 1975) explores the expressive intersections of art, data, and science, driven by a vision to create novel tools for artistic expression and utilize them in his art practice. Since 2022, he and Marina Zurkow have collaborated on generative software projects, most recently at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been a Research Resident at ITP/New York University and was a quantitative researcher in the finance industry for over a decade. He is the author of the Python Processing framework py5. He resides in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York.
Learn More About
James Schmitz
