highlike

CAPACITIVE BODY
file festival

The installation “capacitive body” is a modular light system that reacts to the sound of its environment. Each custom-built module consists of an electro-luminescent light wire linked to a piezoelectric sensor and a microcontroller. Through its modular setup it can easily be adapted to various urban spaces. The sensors are used to measure vibrations of architectural solids in a range of low frequencies. These oscillations are triggered by surrounding ambient noise, for example traffic noise. The data sensor controls the light wires, which are tensed to a spatial net structure. According to the values of the measurement, light flashes are generated. With increasing vibrations the time between flashes becomes shorter and shorter. The stability of this nervous system gets to an end where it collapses and restarts again. A dynamic light space is thereby created, which creates a visual feedback of the aural activity around the installation.

Hills beyond a river
Music: “CHINA-瓷” by Mickey Zhang
file festival
“Hibanana Studio is a creative art&tech studio, swinging at the intersection of audio-visual performance & installation, moving images and interactive installations. We are inventing new forms of the moving image for display surfaces of the future. A series of interdisciplinary research and practices range from video, sound, light, interaction and spatial experience leads us to artworks, commissions, and exhibition.”

Presence and Erasure
Presence and Erasure is a portrait machine that explores the reality of automated facial recognition and how people relate to their self-image, instinctively and emotionally. Within a given spatial domain, the artwork constantly scans for faces in the vicinity and photographs them. When the artwork’s algorithm detects a certain quality within a photograph, this image is temporarily printed at large scale by exposing a photochromic surface to light impulses. Each automated portrait remains for little more than a minute, before gradually dissolving into blankness. RANDOM INTERNATIONAL began to combine transient mark-making with automated portraiture early on in their practice, in 2008. Presence and Erasure marks the latest development in this body of work and assumes a minimal, industrial aesthetic that references their earliest studies on this theme. The physical impact of facial recognition and machine vision is emphasised by the exposure of the printing process itself, contrasted against the aesthetic of the high resolution portraits generated. RANDOM INTERNATIONAL intend this as a counter to the perception of surveillance footage as always being low quality, aiming to create a deeper reflection on the nature of surveillance today as well as the resounding cognitive and emotional dissonances.

Aether
AETHER is an audiovisual live performance using spatial sound and light, designed location specific for each iteration. Walls of materialized laser light surround the artists while constantly reshaping the environment, organically modulating synchronous to the surrounding sound.

Waldian
Waldian is a standalone, wall hanging sound and light fixture capable of playing a near infinite amount of melodic permutations over a predetermined musical scale, complemented by emerging light patterns from twelve separate LEDs spread across the sculpture. In technical terms, Waldian contains two oscillators, an envelope generator and a voltage controlled amplifier, all controlled by impulses from a network of logic gates akin to those of early computers. These impulses are essentially the nerves in the electronic ecosystem, deciding over pitch and amplitude changes as well as creating bursts of light to highlight the entrances of each note. Finally, there is a tube overdrive stage that creates harmonic and subharmonics based on how far away the two oscillators are from each other in frequency. Most parameters are customizable, such as the aforementioned pitch, amplitude and overdrive, but the responsiveness and envelope of the light bursts can also be adjusted, directly affecting the appearance of the light patterns.

Symphonie Cinétique

The exhibition project focuses mainly on the cor­relation and inter­action of three elements: reflection, sound and movement. Symphonie Cinétique narratively inter­relates the three elements, and brings out their inherent, almost mystic harmony. The result of this process is an artistic synthesis, a unique spatial experience. At the premiere, Arnalds performed the Symphonie Cinétique live on piano and tablet. This fascinating interplay between music, light and movement served as a prelude to the exhibition.

3DESTRUCT
3Destruct is an immersive installation, a large semi transparent cube that generates light an sound, and as the visitor walks through, he loses his landmarks in this non-linear universe that destroys any spacial coherence.

SOUND of LIGHT
SOUND of LIGHT is a synesthetic sculpture which interprets and dynamically transforms sunlight into audio frequencies. It is a site specific installation designed for the former music pavilion in Hamm, Germany, which was built in 1912.

ondulation

We enter a room and are plunged into semi-darkness. The room is dominated by an immense basin of water, ripples radiating across its surface in concentric rings. Intuitively we know that the sounds around us are closely related to the ripples, a fact reinforced by the water’s reflected movements on the surrounding walls through a sophisticated play of light. As we get closer, it becomes clear that the sounds are emanating from speakers concealed under the basin, the source of the ripples on the water’s surface. The water acts as a medium in the sense that it acts as middle ground: stimulated by the sound and swept by the beams of light, it produces richly evocative reflections. A latent photographic metaphor is at play in the installation: the water seems to take on the properties of a sensitive plate, with the sound imprinted upon it and revealed by the movement and stunning reflections projected on the walls.

MID AND PLAYMODES
radial and blaus
‘radial’ and ‘blaus’ are two interactive lighting installations, both a result of the collaboration between catalonia-based digital research collectives MID (media interactive design) and playmodes. ‘blaus’ introduces the abstract realm of three dimensional geometry through the mediums of audio and illumination – this could manifest as a cube or a blossoming flower, a grid or a jellyfish, a mutant framework of reflecting lights which submerge the audience into a multi-faceted universe, driven by hidden forces of the architecture. ‘blaus’ is an immersive space where audio-visual elements relate
intimately to impact on the visitor. the process led the designers to build most of the software and hardware elements themselves, by means of algorithm design, digital fabrication techniques and craft handwork. on the hardware side, the use of open source technologies, such as arduino, allowed us to create a flexible electronic system easily addressable by opensound – control data. ‘duration open source software by
james george was used in order to independently control, compose, and play a full score for the laser diodes, servomotors, lights and music.on the sound design side, all music and sound effects are made through the use of audio programming environments such as predate and reactor.
custom digital instruments are made in order to exactly match the resonant frequency of the space and its harmonics.
‘blaus’ is an immersive space where audio-visual elements relate intimately to impact on the visitor.

The Harmonic Series

File Festival

Created by Manuela Donoso and Luisa Pereira, The Harmonic Series is a collection of mechanical devices , software, sculptures and prints that explore the relationship between musical and visual harmony.Inspired by the nineteenth century mathematician Jules Lissajous who invented a device to visualize sound vibrations using two tuning forks and a beam of light reflected from one mirror to the next to a screen, Manuela and Luisa have re-created and extended this experiment using recent tools. An electronic version of the device replaces the tuning forks with microphones and speakers, allowing people to sing different musical intervals, and contrast the resulting figures with the more chaotic ones generated by percussive sounds. An application plays groups of three notes and plots 3d Lissajous figures for their frequency ratios. The frequency ratios for major, minor and diminished chords are 4:5:6, 10:12:15 and 20:24:29 respectively. These chords were plotted using the app, and then printed as posters and sculptures that reveal a tight relationship between aural and visual harmony.

Camera Lucida: Sonochemical Observatory
Camera Lucida (chamber of light or lucidity) directly transforms sound waves into light emissions by means of a phenomenon known as sonoluminescence. After adapting to the darkness surrounding the installation, one gradually perceives the detailed configurations of glowing sound fields.

ADAD
This installation is a mechanism that serves as a kind of interface between planetary processes and an audience. It consists of 12 transparent piezocrystals, grown especially for the project, and 12 motorized hammers that strike them. The installation is connected to the internet. Its core algorithm is controlled by data from a meteorological site which shows lightning strikes in real time (on average, 10~200 lightning flashes occur on the planet every minute). Each time the installation receives information about a lightning strike, a hammer strikes one of the crystals, resulting in a small electrical discharge produced by the crystal under mechanical stress. Each of these charges activates a powerful lamp and sound effects.

Henryk Górecki
Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra Op. 40
Harpsichord: elisabeth chojnacka
Less than nine minutes long, the bipartite Concerto for Harpsichord (or Piano) and String Orchestra, which the composer sometimes called a “prank”, is a veritable volcano that carries the listener away from the very first bars with its immense energy. Its repetitive, motoric nature and rhythmic vigour suit the specific, slightly clattery sound of the harpsichord which is usually somewhat amplified, complemented by the chordal texture of the strings. In both parts, the mood of the piece clearly draws on the highlander music of the southern Podhale region, of which Górecki was a great admirer. In the context of his monumental sacred music from the same period, this Concerto is like the artist’s brief “respite”. It reflects the whirl and “profane” energy of a folk dance.
Elżbieta Chojnacka, to whom the piece was dedicated, has always stressed that every performance of the Concerto, which she has played throughout the world, ends with an encore. The piece meets with such acclaim from the audience, and is one of the most striking – and most joyful – compositions in the composer’s output. “A spectacular plaything”, as Teresa Malecka has described the piece.

FILE FESTIVAL

FILE LED SHOW

saccade
OUCHHH STUDIO
Neuroscientific-Installation
We are invited to São Paulo for our vertical light and sound installation which will transform the facade of São Paulo’s one of the most important architecture which is Fiesp Led Building.
We started this project with the idea that Neuroscience and simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of fixation in the same direction algorithms, and we transform the high-resolution led screen into a media canvas which transformed into living architecture.

micro | macro
micro | macro transforms Hall E in the MuseumsQuartier into an oversized world of moving images and sounds. In his immersive installation, multimedia artist Ryoji Ikeda creates a field of imagination between quantum physics, empirical experimentation and human perception. In collaboration with nuclear scientists at CERN, Ikeda has translated complex physical theories into a sensory experience. The Planck scale is used by scientists to denote extremely small lengths or time intervals. Concepts like space and time lose their meaning beyond this scale, and contemporary physics has to rely on speculative theories. And on art. Visitors to micro | macro enter a world of data, particles, light and sound that makes the extremes of the universe perceptible to the eye and ear. In the micro world we penetrate the smallest dimensions of the unrepresentable, while in the macro world we take off into cosmic expanses that allow us to experience the infinite space beyond the observable universe. In this maelstrom of data, an acoustic and visual firework bridges the gap between theoretical understanding and sensual perception.

Atomos

Atomos grows out of the smallest unit of matter. Bodies, movement, film, sound and light are atomised into miniature shards of intense sensation.Ten incredible dancers perform the unique style of Wayne McGregor – sculptural, rigorous, jarring and hauntingly beautiful. McGregor is accompanied by a team of sensational artists including longtime collaborators lighting designer Lucy Carter and filmmaker Ravi Deepres, and neo-classical ambient composers A Winged Victory For The Sullen.

Coro pêndulo
Pendulum Choir é uma peça coral original para 9 vozes A Cappella e 18 macacos hidráulicos. O coro é constituindo por um corpo vivo e sonoro. Esse corpo se expressa por meio de vários estados físicos. Sua plasticidade varia de acordo com sua sonoridade. Varia entre sons abstratos, sons repetitivos e sons líricos ou narrativos. Os corpos dos cantores e suas vozes brincam com e contra a gravidade. Eles se tocam e se evitam, criando polifonias vocais sutis. Ou, apoiados por sons eletrônicos, rompem sua coesão e explodem em um voo lírico ou se dobram em um ritual obsessivo e sombrio. O órgão viaja da vida à morte em uma alegoria robótica onde a complexidade tecnológica e o lirismo dos corpos em movimento se combinam em uma obra com acentos prometéicos.
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Pendulum Choir is an original choral piece for 9 A Cappella voices and 18 hydraulic jacks. The choir is constituted by a living and sonorous body. This body expresses itself through various physical states. Its plasticity varies according to its sound. It varies between abstract sounds, repetitive sounds and lyrical or narrative sounds. The singers’ bodies and their voices play with and against gravity. They touch and avoid each other, creating subtle vocal polyphonies. Or, supported by electronic sounds, they break their cohesion and explode in a lyrical flight or bend in an obsessive and dark ritual. The organ travels from life to death in a robotic allegory where technological complexity and the lyricism of moving bodies combine in a work with Promethean accents.

beyond pages

The data projector loads images of a leather bound tome onto a tablet which a light pen activates, animating the objects named in it – stone, apple, door, light, writing. The soundscore immaculately emulates the motion of each against paper, save for the syllabic glyphs of Japanese script, for which a voice pronounces the selected syllable. Stone and apple roll and drag across the page, light illuminates a paper-shaded desklamp; door opens a video door in front of where you read, a naked infant romping, lifesize and laughing, in.

Piano
Iwai’s Piano — As Image Media (1995), a later sound work, is related to these early interactive experiments. Here the user, seated at the piano, triggers a flow of images that depress the piano’s keys; a consequence of this action releases yet another flight of images. The resulting interactive installation synthesizes two different aesthetics: sounds (simple melodies), images and a mechanical object (the piano) with digital media. A projected score and computer-generated imagery transform the piano into image media, hence the work’s name. Sound is the triumphant component in these works, for it activates and shapes the visual work. But the visual aspect of Iwai’s installations is lovely. His interactive systems appeal to the creative impulses of adults and children alike with their celebration of animation, computer potential, and the joy of sound.07

Affinity
Affinity is an immersive interactive light and sound installation inspired by the human brain. Each light globe represented a memory, as people approached Affinity different memories could be heard. When people touched the memory a light would trigger, the longer they touched the further their light would travel throughout the sculpture. Affinity features 62 different colour combinations and 112 points of interaction.

COW

Ekman talents extend to the lighting and stage design and his eye for structuring an environment is unerring. There is no set as such, excepting the plaster cow which dangles overhead, but the stage surface has its share of movement as little island-blocks rise up and pits sink down. The extreme tilting of the stage at one point causes unfortunate Bauch to roll, cow-like, almost into the pit. COW has its iconic Ekman moment in the scene that opens on a stage full of swirling dancers in white skirts set in a magical silvery mist. Mikael Karlsson, whose music partners the piece provides a subtle and evocative soundscape. He offers a hint of percussive rhythm picked up by the dancers who launch into an ecstatic dance: a stage full of whirling dervishes, until they collapse exhausted.

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Ekmans Talente erstrecken sich auf die Beleuchtung und das Bühnenbild, und sein Auge für die Strukturierung einer Umgebung ist unfehlbar. Es gibt kein Set als solches, außer der Gipskuh, die über ihnen baumelt, aber die Bühnenoberfläche hat ihren Anteil an Bewegung, wenn kleine Inselblöcke aufsteigen und Gruben sinken. Das extreme Kippen der Bühne an einer Stelle führt dazu, dass der unglückliche Bauch kuhartig fast in die Grube rollt. COW hat seinen legendären Ekman-Moment in der Szene, die auf einer Bühne voller wirbelnder Tänzer in weißen Röcken in einem magischen silbernen Nebel beginnt. Mikael Karlsson, dessen Musikpartner das Stück ist, bietet eine subtile und eindrucksvolle Klanglandschaft. Er bietet einen Hauch von perkussivem Rhythmus, der von den Tänzern aufgenommen wurde, die einen ekstatischen Tanz beginnen: eine Bühne voller wirbelnder Derwische, bis sie erschöpft zusammenbrechen.

بوب ويلسون
鲍伯·威尔逊
בוב וילסון
ロバート·ウィルソン
밥 윌슨
БОБ УИЛСОН
Arvo Pärt
Adam’s Passion
Estonian Arvo Pärt is one of the three most performed contemporary composers worldwide. His music has been described as contemplative, sacred, and timeless. “Time for us is the time of our own lives. It is temporary. What is timeless is the time of eternal life. Like the sun, we cannot look at these two directly, but my intuition tells me that the human soul is connected to both of them—time and eternity,” says Pärt. Much like Robert Wilson’s own universe, where time and space are the basic architecture of everything, it is as if these two artists have been waiting to collaborate with one another! ADAM’S PASSION will be a journey into the worlds of sound, light, visual art and performance. It will celebrate Arvo Pärt’s 80th birthday—all in a spectacular venue, the Noblessner Foundry, a vast, old industrial building by Tallinn’s harbo

50Myconnect

Myconnect “offers the experience of a symbiosis of connection between humans, nature and technology. The spectator becomes an actor by lying in a capsule, equipped with a helmet and body sensors measuring the variations in his rhythm This data is modulated and transmitted to a closed universe of mycelium culture (white mushroom) to produce alterations using electrical resistance. These variations in turn generate signals, sent back to the person in the form of vibration, sound and light. Each cycle can be different depending on whether the experience is stimulating or calming. This type of perceptual exchange enabled by technology reveals how much the human being is an integral part of the complex network that links him to his environment.

Noumenon

A truly universal artist, the American Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) devoted his life to a radical form of staged art he called “dance theater.” Inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the experiments of Bauhaus members such as Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s, Nikolais devised a style of abstract dance that encompassed costumes, stage sets, choreography, lighting, and music, all under his control. Also in 1963, Nikolais met analog synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, who was at the time just starting his business in New York. He was fascinated by the sounds of Moog’s machines, and with the money provided by a a Guggenheim Fellowship, Nikolais bought the first ever commercially produced Moog synthesizer. It was the primary sound-source for all of Nikolais’ scores from 1963 to 1975. The instrument is now housed at the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

frequencies (light quanta)

The project is part of an ongoing process entitled «frequencies», exploring basic sound and light dichotomic systems. Here, frequencies (light quanta) stems from a fascination towards science, light, and granular synthesis allowing to create clouds/grains of sounds. The conceptual focus lies in the quantum — the smallest measurable value of energy —, on the smallness of matter. The whole project is based on the possible conceptual relationships between basic quantum physics principles applied to the audio-visual creative process: particles, probabilities, wave/particle duality and discontinuity. Metaphorically structured around these notions, the audio-visual composition stems from 100 sound and light micro-sequences that develop themselves, generating an ever expending but yet disruptive form in time and space. With the use of randomness, the vectorial graphics are always creating new ways to look at the visual, physically superimposing pattern images.

Lightning Ride
“With Lightning Ride, it is now poles of technology, organics and mysticism that collide with  electricity as a connecting point. The video is produced from excerpts of “Taser Certifications”, a sort of ceremony authorizing in the United States the use of Tasers in the condition of being tased by someone else. Filtered with the Photoshop’s “oil painting effect”, slowed down and accompanied by a disturbing soundtrack, the succeeding images show us bodies and faces whose deformations and positions evoke a feeling of pain as well as a Christian ecstacy. Everything unfolds as if the miracle of electricity, symbol of the rationalization of the world, revived paradoxically an aspiration to transcendence, antipodes joining each other and disappearing in profit of a new map of possibilities.” (Sarah Ihler-Meyer)

Blooming
“Blooming” is an interactive audiovisual installation that highlights the importance of human connection. It takes the form of a life-size 3D Cherry blossom tree, which is a common symbol of social ties and transience of life in East Asian culture. As a response to participants’ skin-to-skin contacts, heart rate, and gestures, “Blooming” blossoms according to their intimacy. As audience members hold hands or embrace, the digital Cherry tree flowers bloom and scatter. When they let go off their physical contacts, the flower return to its pre-bloom state. The color of the flowers turns white or red based on participants’ heart rate as they interact with each other. (the faster the heart rate, the redder the tonality; the slower the heart rate, the whiter the tonality). In addition to the visual responses, sounds are also modulated according to the tree’s different stages: pre-bloom, blooming, petals falling.

Glitch Robot
The Installation consists of several robotic actors. When the actors make contact with their instruments, they produce a sonic impression of an omnipresent texture of modern life: electronic music. The music robots used in this performance consists of recycled and 3D-printed parts such as harddisks, relays, tongues, motors and solenoids. Glitch Robot connects mechanical, visible movements to audible sound by using small sound-producing robots. Thus, the installation highlights the origin of the sound in a way no conventional medium of electronic music production is able to. Typically, electronic music eliminates the haptic aspect of sound-generation, creating a void in understanding of how sound, and thus music, is mechanically created.

SECHS
SECHS brings Bach’s heritage together with modern composition techniques and a refined kinetic light sculpture – emphasizing and re-interpreting his innovation in symmetry, repetition and composition. Following the likes of Wendy Carlos’ critically acclaimed ‘Switched on Bach’ — the first electronic interpretation of Bach’s work — and later re-interpreters such as Max Richter for Vivaldi, Acket & Vos present this completely new rendering of one of the world’s most influential composers. Together with the kinetic light sculpture by Christopher Bauder and spatial sound innovators 4DSOUND the composition is translated to a spatial immersive experience.

ROTOЯ
The Rotor is equipped with a four channel speakersystem and a 360° camera. The artists control the speed of it’s rotation which directly influences the projected video-images as well as the sound-characteristics and the perception of the object itself. Acceleration & deceleration become main parameters, which enables the artists to compose an otherworldly piece that seems to follow it’s own logic. A strange communication between audio, video, object and light establishes itself and seduces the audience. There is the hypnotic movement of the sculpture while inevitable auditory and visual feedback is used as a central aesthetic element: The rotating speakers are amplified by static microphones, provoking complex feedback loops and patterns, that trigger psychoacoustic sensations.

光
光正在使用高精度激光在屏幕上绘制连续的抽象形状，并与声音完美同步。强烈的光线与完全的黑暗形成对比，缓慢的动作和微小细节的演化与强而有力的手势一样重要。结果既是古朴的又是未来主义的。新兴的模式为许多可能的解释留出了空间。象形文字，一种未知语言的符号，建筑图纸，数据点之间的连接或类似Tron的早期视频游戏放大了1000倍。

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Light

Light is using high-precision lasers to draw continuous abstract shapes on the screen, perfectly synchronized with the sound. Intense light contrasts with total darkness, and slow movements and the evolution of small details are as important as strong gestures. The result is both quaint and futuristic. Emerging models leave room for many possible explanations. Hieroglyphs, symbols in an unknown language, architectural drawings, connections between data points, or early video games like Tron are magnified 1,000 times.

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Lumière

La lumière utilise des lasers de haute précision pour dessiner des formes abstraites continues sur l’écran, parfaitement synchronisées avec le son. La lumière forte contraste avec l’obscurité totale, le ralenti et l’évolution des petits détails sont aussi importants que les gestes forts. Le résultat est à la fois pittoresque et futuriste. Les modèles émergents laissent place à de nombreuses explications possibles. Les hiéroglyphes, les symboles dans une langue inconnue, les dessins d’architecture, les connexions entre les points de données ou les premiers jeux vidéo comme Tron sont agrandis 1 000 fois.

Constellations
File Festival
FILE HIPERSONICA

This work begins from the exploration of an imaginary celestial space which is translated into sound space. How does each celestial sphere – starting from its manifestation as a unit – interact with the cosmos where it belongs? How does it react to its law? How does it transform itself integrating with the system, until the loss of identity? In contrast to this process, the constellations act by highlighting the bodies in their uniqueness through the creation of symbolic links: beyond their meaning, they stand as a classification and articulation device of the individual within the system.
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Questo lavoro parte dall’esplorazione di uno spazio celeste immaginario che si traduce in spazio sonoro. In che modo ogni sfera celeste – a partire dalla sua manifestazione come unità – interagisce con il cosmo a cui appartiene? Come reagisce alla sua legge? Come si trasforma integrandosi con il sistema, fino alla perdita di identità? In contrasto con questo processo, le costellazioni agiscono mettendo in evidenza i corpi nella loro unicità attraverso la creazione di collegamenti simbolici: al di là del loro significato, si pongono come dispositivo di classificazione e articolazione dell’individuo all’interno del sistema.

基督教波尔坦斯基
בולטנסקי
クリスチャン·ボルタンスキー
Кристиан Болтански

Homage

R.I.P 1944-2021

Preoccupied with collective memory, mortality, and the passage of time, Christian Boltanski creates paintings, sculptures, films, and mixed-media installations that approach these themes in a range of styles, symbolic to direct. Boltanski often makes metaphorical use of found objects, as in No Man’s Land (2010), an enormous pile of discarded jackets set to the soundtrack of thousands of human heartbeats, suggesting the anonymity, randomness, and inevitability of death. In Monuments (1985), electrical bulbs cast a seemingly bittersweet light on pictures of child holocaust victims. Describing his interest in personal histories, Boltanski has said, “What drives me as an artist is that I think everyone is unique, yet everyone disappears so quickly. […] We hate to see the dead, yet we love them, we appreciate them.”

SOL
SOL is a minimalistic environment, leading visitors into the reaches of their perception. The installation builds on loss of control, shifts in awareness and a feeling of dislocation and timelessness. SOL is the third work in an ongoing series of phenomenological environments, after the live performance FEED, 2005 and the installation ZEE, 2008. The all encompassing darkness of SOL is lifted, in intervals and for parts of seconds only, by animated bursts of intensely bright light. Falling back into darkness, visitors experience abundant retinal after-images, that gradually drift away until eventually the next eruption of light is triggered. In the surround sound-scape of SOL, electronic drones mix with swarming field recordings, amidst a sea of infra-bass.

Ufabulum
Soundcrash are proud to present the electronic music innovator that is Squarepusher! Beginning his sonic experiments in 1994, Squarepusher constantly strives to push the boundaries and limits of electronic music. In May 2012 Squarepusher unleashed his latest musical venture ‘Ufabulum’, an album of music generated purely from digital programming, ensuring his influence within today’s global music electronic scene is as vital as ever. For his first headline ‘Ufabulum’ album show in London, Squarepusher will take over the historic music hall Hackney Empire with his largest ever light-show to date! This is a unique opportunity to witness one of electronic music’s pioneers in an extraordinary setting.

Median
When examining any living substance at a microscopic level, there are almost no perceivable boundaries between human and non-human bodies. In this work, Hiroaki Umeda, a Japanese choreographer, dancer and visual artist, pursues his longstanding belief and fascination that a human body is an intrinsic part of nature, where there is simply no distinction with other living things. For Umeda, choreography is not only limited to human bodies but for anything that is capable of movement. In MEDIAN, he explores the choreography of cells, molecular forms and organic synthesis, bringing into human visibility another world of movement, light and sound.

Abstract
Movement, sound and light interweave in Abstract. It presents a repeating 20 minutes loop inspired by the concept of relativity. Time can be perceived as a vertical dimension in which the pixels travel. This movement will be used to freeze time while the audience keeps their feet firmly on the ground.

PLEXUS
Aurélien Bory is a Toulouse-based choreographer working at the intersection of dance, circus and visual art. In Plexus, he encloses the Japanese dancer Kaori Ito in a forest of tensioned vertical cables. It’s as if she’s in a transparent cuboid cage. We can see her, but her image is blurred by the shimmer of Arno Veyrat’s lighting as it moves across the cables. Ito strains against these confines, writhing, flailing and hurling herself against the cables. Every sound is hugely amplified, so with her every movement we are assailed by a high-tensile jangling and groaning. At intervals she subjects her environment to furious challenge, racing backwards and forwards within the limited inner space so that the cage rocks on its axis. At other times she positions herself between the cables so that they bear her weight, and hangs there like an exhausted insect, faintly articulating her limbs.

“Poem for an artificial intelligence”

the sun is a beautiful thing

in silence is drawn

between the trees

only the beginning of light

this realm of rain

grey sky and cloud

it’s quite and peaceful

safe allowed

And, arguably, worse:

I am a coal-truck

by a broken heart

I have no sound

the sound of my heart

I am not

What hath God wrought?
The title of the installation is a line from the Book of Numbers in early modern English. It was the first message transmitted by telegraph in 1844, the first communication technology on the basis of electricity and binary coding. The artwork is fed by the 100 most used words in Thomas More’s book ‘Utopia’, feeding the correspondence between a series of telegraphs. The telegraphs translate the words into sound and light. Written rolls of paper drift to the floor. Slowly but surely, mistakes slip into the closed system and the meaning of the words alters. The Morse orchestra deals with the rationalism of the Renaissance and its belief in progress and posits by contrast an aesthetic of a self-regulating system in which the fault rules and defect becomes beauty.

Waves
WAVES is an attempt to return to basic experiences provided by light and sound. The intersecting waves of ligh and sound are creating a multi-layered spectrum, which allows us to experience ourselves and others as different wavelengths: either intertwining or dissolving.

Frame Perspective
Measuring 30m x 30m x 2.4m and featuring LED lights and 8 audio channels, Frame Perspective transforms a cavernous space at the Maison de la Région. On specific dates throughout the Constellations festival Ratsi has prepared a light programme in the space, accompanied by a sound composition played by Thomas Vaquié (see the festival programme for more details). Frame Perspective continues Ratsi’s interrogation of reality through the creation of exploratory and peripheral spaces. The installation’s repeating forms create new dimensions in the Maison de la Région, interrupting the lines of the architecture. Meanwhile the composition of interacting lights and sounds disrupts the sonic and visual textures of the space and resonates with the visitor on uncharted frequencies. The effect is to immerse the visitor into a fluctuating environment which connects digital technologies with physical spaces and raises questions about how reality is constructed and experienced in digital, physical and other realms.

Encapsulated environmental system: Paludarium YASUTOSHI
This machine is fully equipped with a mist machine as if wrapping plants in a fog from both sides and drip feed-water system which can be activated depending on the situation in order to maintain the condition of a plant and control inside temperature and humidity. Also the cylindrical shape can fully capture the natural light by 365°angles from glasses, and it can correspond to plant growth by having the series’ largest scale of height. Fans on the ceiling play a role of wind, and a plant can listen music from the waterproofed speakers. The machine takes in essential elements – rain, wind, light and sound – by artificial means and completes a small world where its ecological cycle is condensed. It enables us to admire the beauty of the plants by not being affected by external environment.

Scenario Scenery
Scenario/Scenery is a performative art installation in which the sculptural parts both act and serve as scenery. The work is inspired by the early theatre weather machines, which stood in the wings and were used to create sound effects of rain, wind and thunder. In Scenario/Scenery, these machines have mutated and been fitted with modern solar panels, which means that the energy that powers them is generated by the machines themselves. The work is designed as a theatrical stage where wind, rain, lightning and thunder machines together perform an act controlled by the rig of halogen lamps suspended above.

Kinematope
Kinematope is specific twice over. First, for being formulated as a response to the perceptual qualities and inner structure of the place it activates. Second, its kinematic nature is directly connected to the function of the train station itself: transit, transport, motion. Kinematope uses ephemeral and intangible materials, projected light and sound, to set the space in motion. It makes use of elements from the cinema apparatus to generate a spatial film. It is a direct filmic experience that omits the mediation of the camera, transporting the observer into a virtual space-time and maintaining at the same time the real, physical bonds of the body with its environment.

Futures
Futures uses the optical illusions created by light, sound and mirrors to transport audiences to a place where good things have happened and the future we want exists now. Futures is an immersive space in which audiences experience illusions that can reveal everything from how they process space and time to their perception of consciousness. It is a modular light installation that takes a number of forms. It is shown here as a walkway of mirrors and lights, tunnelling inwards towards a vanishing point.

Liminal Scope
Liminal Scope is an immersive light and sound installation, in which three rings frame the transit of light through space. The audiovisual score enmeshes harmonic frequencies, rhythmic motion,
and gradients of color, orchestrating a narrative which navigates tension and release. Our form of reality is mutually constructed by our perceptions along with their limitations. The installation’s rings form an aperture that focuses and reveals a spatial quality of light, which usually remains unseen. Liminal Scope is a meditation on these perceptual limitations as they
relate to our shared and individual perspectives on reality.

Spectra-3
The piece is the latest instalment of their ongoing Spectra series, a merging of physical and virtual sculptures that take inspiration from space, technology, and our relationships to them, to provide elegant and sensory experiences using sound, light, and reflection. Spectra-3’s design and movement is inspired by the radio telescopes of the Very Large Array (VLA) located on the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico. The piece combines computer-aided design with real-time input from the public’s movements, to inform its physical actions as it rotates on motors, augmenting the space with the enchanting hues and patterns of reflected light and spatialized sound.

Ljós
Ljós (Icelandic for ‘light’) has been conceived in continuity with the research carried out by fuse* in the field of digital and performative arts, which explores the deep connection between light, space, sound and movement. In Ljós, the performer is the means that allows the viewer to access a surreal and dreamlike space, a dimension with no gravity nor time, made by sounds and images reacting and interacting in real time. A shape-changing universe, which evolves from amniotic fluid in the beginning – protecting and supporting the performer – to the setting for violent explosions and transformations later – leading her to a direct contact with ground and Earth.

Your double my double our ghost
The installation acts a space for the consideration of intimacy and meditation– both alone and with others that may share the space – through the merging of the viewer’s own reflections articulated through a composition of shifting light and emerging sounds which fill an otherwise dark chamber. Functioning similarly to the classic funfair mirror– the flexible silver two-way mirror sheeting forming an ethereal hanging centrepiece– the work invites the viewer to consider representations of themselves which appear distorted and transient, and which merge with those around them to form ‘new presences’. In this sense the viewer may see themselves multiplied or doubled with another viewer, or find themselves alone in a rare moment of literal reflection providing a contemplative space or eliciting a hallucinatory fantasy bringing forth ideas in neuroscience around the Self and Other.

Light Cloud
The Light Cloud at the Merck Innovation Center detects visitors’ movements in the room and translates them into many different moods. The generative sculpture stimulates and facilitates intense encounters between people and technology. The room-filling installation consists of four curved strands that are concentrically superimposed and slightly shifted in relation to each other. OLED elements that are attached to the strands and controlled by sensors react to the visitors’ movements and to sound compositions. In combination, this generates a complex mosaic in which sound and light interact playfully and the viewers leave traces.

Threshold Release Ornament
MSHR is the art collective of Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy. The duo collaboratively builds and explores systems composed of sound, light, sculpture, software and circuitry. Their practice is a self-transforming cybernetic entity with its outputs patched into its inputs, the resulting emergent form serving as its navigational system. These outputs primarily take the form of installations and performances that integrate interface design with generative systems and a distinctive formalist approach. MSHR’s name is a modular acronym, designed to hold varied ideas over time. MSHR emerged from the art collective Oregon Painting Society in 2011 in Portland, Oregon, USA.

The Hive  Kew Gardens

“The proposal involves the idea of ​​’temporary’ in an interesting way. It uses the temporary aspect of the installation to carefully engage with the purpose and short and long-term needs of the land,” said the judges. Originally designed for the Expo 2015 from Milan, The Hive was transferred to Kew Gardens, in central London, for two years, where it was part of an event space. Designed to give visitors a glimpse into the life of working bees, the pavilion was built with 169,300 individual aluminum components equipped with hundreds of LED lights. As the meadow surrounding the structure grows, several species of plants begin to flourish, bringing with them the sounds of real bees that enhance the multi-sensory experience of the pavilion.The aesthetic and symbolic installation represents its namesake, with the aim of showing visitors the importance of protecting the honeybee.

Array [wave]
Wave depicts a sculptural volume unfolding over time – the Shape of Light seized in perpetual movement. It uses ephemeral and intangible materials – light and sound – and can be traversed by the observer, immersing them into the shapes cast by the undulating light columns. The work creates a malleable experience of scale: it shifts between object and environment depending on the observer’s position inside, outside, or at the boundary of the installation.

Between I you I and I me
BETWEEN | YOU | AND | ME is a wall of sound and light. Like any other wall, it defines an architectural space. Given its ephemeral, dynamic media – ultrasound and beams of light – the wall can be perceived only when the visitor comes close and interacts with it. Two thin membranes of light form a visible frame filled with sound. Multichannel, extremely vectored hypersonic speakers render audible various textures of broken glass: a sound architecture within the wall, comprised of juxtaposed single sound beams, whose constellation changes depending on the visitor’s position. Observed from a distance, the wall fades away: clear transparency and only faintly resonant tones attest to its non-existence.

Broken Panorama
The Specular series is a project that presents a set of audio-visual installations of different light sculptures created through the use of projected light and reflective materials.
Each sculpture redirects light in a different way and the reflective property of the material allows each sculpture to blend with its environment while also modifying our perception of its shape. Networks of algorithms generate interlinked sound and light. A cycle repeats but with infinite variations in multi-temporal-scales.

sound cloud
London-based designer kazuhiro yamanaka has created the ‘sound cloud’ a light-emitting quantum glass speaker system installation for saazs ‘a glass house’ program. the structure is composed of five interactive monolithic glass panels, formed with the intention of modelling the integration of innovative glass within architecture and design. the sound and light radiating from ‘sound cloud’ shift in unison, their synchronization may be altered by the viewer as they adjust their aural and visual experience by means of a touch-screen controller.
yamanaka aspired for the visitors to ‘be able to hear the sound move from one to another, jumping back and forth and echoing from the panels.’
a sound module is attached to each panel. as it vibrates,the three layers of glass move at a frequency, which creates optimum sound quality. the sound for the installation was developed by the france-based sound designer, gling-glang. yamanaka and gling-glang devised a soundscape by which ‘sound cloud’ visitors were able to sense the sculptural construction of the music in walking through the installation’s glass-paneled pathway.
the glass is outfitted with a light-emitting system known as ‘LED in glass’, invented by quantum glass. through this technology, the panels become a source of light. the ‘sound cloud’ is illuminated as the LED bars are fitted around the edge of the panel in order to direct beams of light through the edge of the extra clear glass sheet. as a result, light refraction occurs from the front side by means of a white enamel screen print on the opposite side.
yamanaka chose to slightly obscure the brightness of the glass sound system by creating a thin layer from millions of light dots, culminating in a cloud-like shape.

Soft Manipulator
A playful interactive installation where the audience experiments with rhythms, mechanics and objects. Everyday items like glasses, pots, as well as small music instruments are placed on a light plattform. Seven robotic mechanic devices can be manipulated interactively by the audience, manipulating the sound of the objects. The six robotic mechanics beat the objects, creating a constantly changing polyrhytmic web of sound and rhythm.

Triph
“When left alone with no audience, the object glows dimly as if it were asleep. Yet when visitors approach, the installation slowly comes back to life. Colour gradients pour into each shape, whilst mirrored surfaces start reflecting light – all to the orchestra of an encompassing soundscape. This project invites visitors to become part of something. An immersive light experience in which the audience directs the intensity, audio and colour palettes simply by approaching, moving around in and between the large geometric shapes of the installation. Truly, a merging of art, interaction design, sound, tech and vision. As visual architects, our aim with ‘TRIPH” is to demonstrate that a number of different techniques can be combined into a mix of unexpected shapes and materials, that in turn help to create a new truly unique way of experiencing a story. Both in daylight condition and at night. With our self-initiated work, we aim to find undiscovered methods of narrative, questioning the ways people discover and open themselves up to new conceptual work.” Circus Family