Dublin Ships is a temporary public artwork commissioned by Dublin City Council as part of the Dublin City Public Art Programme. 

The artwork is generated via a live electronic information system (an Automatic Identification System, or AIS) which tracks the locations of ships. The names of the most recently arrived and most recently departed ships from Dublin Port are output to two large LED screens sited at the Scherzer Bridges beside the Samuel Beckett Bridge. 

The artwork is concerned with the meanings and poetic qualities of ship names. The ship names include allusions to maritime trade, cargoes, historical figures and distant places. The juxtaposition of the two ship names generates a form of poetic writing. The work also attempts to interrupt the speed of instantaneous data and returns it to the speed of movement of real entities in space. 

View the log.

The Scherzer Bridges on the North Quays, one set at Custom House Quay, the other on North Wall Quay, near the Samuel Beckett Bridge, serve as a reminder of the industrial past of the area. These were constructed to a design patented by William Scherzer of Chicago and installed in 1912. The bridges were built to allow water-based traffic to access the Royal Canal and Spencer Dock, and operated as lock gates between the River Liffey to keep seawater out of the docks and canal.

No longer in use due to the removal of their diesel engines and their roadway surfaces, when operational traffic could be stopped; bridges lifted to allow a ship through and closed again in four and a half minutes. The Scherzer Bridges are a form of bascule bridge (from the French term for "balance scale") which uses counterweights to lift the bridges quickly and with the use of relatively little energy. In this case the counterweights are the large rectangular structures (on which the LED signs for Dublin Ships are displayed) and these were filled with water, enabling the bridges to lift.

Ruairí Ó Cuív and Niamh O’Doherty at Dublin City Public Art Programme / Dublin City Council / Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government / Ruadhán O'Donoghue for programming / Daniel Cussen at TOG for help and advice re AIS / Przemek Gorzelanczyk of Alpha View Signage / Demitris Memos and Savvas Kampouridis at Marinetraffic.com / Gráinne Shaffrey and Eamonn Kehoe at Shaffrey Associates / Architects Tim Murnane, Hopewell Kawonza and Ross Somers at Punch Murnane Consulting Engineers / 
Eamonn O'Reilly and Charlie Murphy at Dublin Port Company for support/ Paul McAdam, Paul Cooper, Andrei Katsko, Anthony Rogers, Gary Keville at Traffic Management Limited 
/ Paul Clegg and Clara Hickey at DDDA / Michael Kenny, Senior Engineer / Dublin City Council Waste Water Treatment Plant for hosting an antenna / Matthew Harmey and Patricia Spillane for hosting an antenna / Francis Halsall for writing text / Liz Coman / Brian, Kevin and Johnny at AAD / Feargal Fitzpatrick and the Fine Art - Media Department / David Lacey and the artist's friends and family for support and encouragement.

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