Calls for entry are a fact of life in the art world.

It's not as common for an artist to put out a call for helpers - exactly 80 people of diverse backgrounds, ages and ethnicities - to set the timers on digital displays that are part of a massive piece of public art.

But the process of soliciting assistance is not just a bid for cheap help.

Tatsuo Miyajima believes that inviting a broad cross-section of the public to help is part of the underlying message of ENGI, the Percent for Art piece commissioned by the city for the atrium of the Denver Art Museum's new Frederic C. Hamilton Building.

"Usually I work with people who know about art," Miyajima said recently, in an interview conducted with the interpretive aid of his assistant, Chiaki Sakaguchi. "Now I want to work with people who might not even come to the museum, to get them involved."

The idea grew out of watching people working on the building. "They work here morning to night, but once the museum is complete, they never come back."

The 80 people eventually chosen for the project will set timers during a lecture and workshop Aug. 9 at the convention center. The event is open to the public - whether they've been picked for duty or not.

Among the public figures scheduled to take part: Mayor John Hickenlooper, former first lady Wilma Webb and former city council president Rosemary Rodriguez

Miyajima, born in 1957 in Tokyo, began his career making performance art and painting. But by the 1980s, he had moved into the realm of digital technology. One example, the 2000 projection piece Floating Time, was installed at the museum for a period in 2005. Miyajima completed postgraduate studies at the Tokyo National University for Fine Arts and Music, where he earned a bachelor's degree in painting, and has worked in New York, Berlin and Paris under various grant programs.

As with much of his work, Floating Time and ENGI involve using flashing numbers moving from 1 to 9 (no zeroes are included), or from 9 to 1. This practice follows the three concepts that run through his work: constant change, connection with everything, and continuation forever.

"I was looking for the best material to use with the three concepts," said Miyajima, after a visit to the soaring atrium, where 80 holes have been cut over the four levels to hold LED counters that will spin endlessly against the angled white walls.

The impetus for the piece came from museum architect Daniel Libeskind's concept of Nexus, which was the catchphrase for the building. "It is a relationship with others, and connections. I wanted to play off that," Miyajima said.

The number 80, "is not particularly significant. I saw the space and the balance of things and thought 80 would be the best number."

A city selection panel chose ENGI in 2003 through a limited call aimed at about 20 artists, said John Grant, who was public art administrator for the city during the process.

The cost stands now at about $568,000, down from the original $600,000 commission because the work was reconfigured as the shape of the atrium changed. Originally Miyajima proposed putting a piece on the bridge that links the new structure to the existing building designed by Gio Ponti. But officials shifted the site because they feared the high light level on the bridge would make it difficult to see the mini-LED screens.

The artist selection eventually came down to Jenny Holzer, who works in digital text crawls, or Miyajima.

"His work is very much about the present," said Grant, now special projects director for the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver. "It is about how people are seeing things now. Because it is a brand new building, a new start for the (Denver Art) museum, it is how people view things today."

Including in the process a wide variety of people to set components of the piece at their own speed was attractive to the selection panel, Grant said. "It means the participation of the public."

The call that went out for helpers produced more than 350 responses, and Miyajima is reading every one of them. As of last week, he had selected about 60 percent of the final tally.

Those tapped so far range from a man with Alzheimers and his grandson, to an 11-year-old boy who is the adopted child of a gay couple. In the first case, the younger man noted that his grandfather had been an accountant and was used to working with numbers; in the second, the boy said he was thinking about the recent death of his grandmother and about the passage of time.

"Those people, with different backgrounds, will come together," said Miyajima. "The most significant thing for us is not the beauty of the piece. The story of the peoples' lives is the most important."

Installation is to begin Aug. 23, said architect Chris Jahn, of Fuse Studio. He was hired about two years ago to work with Libeskind's firm, local architect Davis Partnership, and Miyajima to coordinate the project. A model of the atrium was converted into a computer model on which the artist worked, Jahn said.

Miyajima has been here about a week, staying in a downtown condo with his wife and 7-year-old daughter. He'll return to his home in Ibaraki prefecture, outside of Tokyo, before returning for the actual installation.

By that time, much of the atrium scaffolding will be down, and the walls will be cleaned. Individual lifts will hoist workers to the 80 openings, plugging the 2-inch wide counters into the holes surrounded by mirrors.

"People can see their reflections in the mirrors, and reflections of other works," said Jahn. "It makes the pieces more interactive."

That fits another of Miyajima's tenets: Art in You, said Jahn. "The viewer is as important as the piece of work."

Or as Miyajima put it, the flash of counters, and the reflections of numbers, walls and people in the mirrors "will be like a kind of symphony, harmonizing."

Tatsuo Miyajima's "ENGI"

• What: A workshop for 80 selected Denver residents to help set speeds for the digital display LED counters in Miyajima's Percent for Art piece going in the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building. Opens with a reception and lecture by the artist

• When: 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 9

• Where: Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St.

• Information: 720-865-4313

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2677.

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