TIMES SQUARE JUMBOTRON GETS PERSONAL
Monumental Life Questions Posed in Larger-Than-Life Format
New York, NY – September 9, 2009 – Beginning on September 18, anyone who looks up to the marquees and flashing lights of Times Square will be faced with life’s big questions. Interspersed with the car commercials and women’s lingerie ads, 10Q’s annual question and reflection campaign will be displayed on PR Newswire’s giant electronic billboard, asking passersby a question a day for 10 days. Questions range from, “Is there something you wish you had done differently this past year?” to “What global event most affected you last year, and why?”. This interactive digital installation, a companion to the 10Q website (www.DoYou10Q.com), is designed to make viewers contemplate some of life’s most important questions.
“For thousands of years, the Jewish High Holy Days, the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, have been a time of introspection and reflection,” says 10Q co-creator Ben Greenman. “But why should the people observing those holidays have all the fun? The 10Q project is designed to be a modern take on this tradition, and the Times Square billboard provides an opportunity to slow down and take stock at one of the world’s busiest intersections.”
Every day for ten days, the PR Newswire jumbotron will broadcast questions about life and the world around us. Viewers are invited to ponder the questions and submit their answers at: www.doyou10q.com. At the end of the ten days, the answers are sent to a secure vault for safekeeping. One year later, the vault will open and participants will receive their answers in their email inbox. Then the process begins anew.
“The idea has beautiful Jewish roots, but there’s nothing inherently religious about this project; 10Q is designed to be accessible to anyone who sees value in taking a step back and looking at what’s been going on in their world,” said co-creator Nicola Behrman. “Ultimately, it’s by engaging in these acts of reflection that we get to really see who we are, what’s important to us and where we’d like to see ourselves in the future.”
Who can do it? Do you have to be Jewish to take part? Do you have to believe in God to take part?
10Q is for anyone interested in pondering their world. The questions are not religious in nature. They are about your place on the planet, and the planet’s place within you.
Where did 10Q come from?
British screenwriter and playwright, Nicola Behrman and New Yorker editor and novelist Ben Greenman cooked up the idea a year ago at a REBOOT conference. Together with Amelia Klein, program director for REBOOT, they piloted the project in 2008 with fifty friends and over a thousand people of every age, nationality, and denomination took part. In 2009, the project has been developed and supported by a team of likeminded members of the Reboot Network including Josh Spear (Undercurrent), Ross Martin (MTV), Jeff Berman (MySpace) and Rachel Sklar (mediaite.com).
ABOUT REBOOT, www.rebooters.net
Founded in 2003, REBOOT is an innovative network of creative, young Jews dedicated to helping a new generation explore and redefine Jewish identity, community, and meaning. Reboot envisions a world in which Judaism has depth and meaning, one in which young people are inspired to ask questions, to re-examine what they have inherited and figure out how to make it relevant and resonant. Reboot fosters collaborations that create films, books, CDs, salons, events and local communities to engage and impact the larger Jewish community and the world in a similar pursuit.
