A site-responsive sound and light environment (12 incandescent lightbulbs, 14 channel audio).
Description
“Room Dynamics” is an audiovisual installation consisting of 12 incandescent light bulbs and 14 channels of sound. The 12 bulbs – each coupled to a small audio speaker hanging above the bulb – are arranged into a permeable site-responsive media architecture which both occupies the gallery space and is in dialog with its surrounding architectural character.
The media architecture is animated by a generative, algorithmic, multi-modal composition, exploring the perceptual and affective states arising from the interactions of dynamic media architectures and the material architectures within which they are embedded. The 12 “points” of light and sound – perceived as “sounding bulbs” – manifest various dynamic behavioural states, ranging from individual activities to collective operation. Each subsequent behavioural state exerts itself on its surrounding environment: reshaping its appearance and volume, creating movement and perspectival changes. Through these activities, the gallery space is activated: making available architectural features, articulating navigable pathways, “colouring” and “shading” the experiential space through which the spectator navigates.
The arrangement of the bulbs varies from location to location, and seeks to accentuate and respond to existing architectural features. In this sense, the work is re-configured and adjusted in each presentation.
The combination of generative and algorithmic compositional techniques alongside the movement of an active spectator gives rise to an individual re-negotiation of shifting compositional structures. In this manner, the work seeks to create a non-repeatable individual experience, which may last a short duration (~5 minutes) or lead to a longer engagement with the presentation space (up to ~2-3 hours of original generative material with no direct repetition).