Resonating-With-Light is an installation that consists of multiple small electronic units in a natural environment with sunlight. Each unit collects solar energy and transforms it into a repetitive bouncing of itself onto a metal tube, creating a kinetic and acoustic reaction to sunlight. The assembly of units and metal tubes together create a gentle acoustic texture that subtly blends with its natural surrounding, waxing and waning with the changing sunlight throughout the day.

According to the first law of thermodynamics there is a fixed amount of energy that constantly transforms into different forms: solar energy, kinetic energy, temperature changes, sound waves, etc. With every transformation the available energy goes into higher and higher entropic states: more and more evenly dispersed energy, as the second law of thermodynamics states.

But then, how does life exist? Doesn’t life seem like a phenomenon fully opposite to the laws of thermodynamics—a local concentration of energy into a single form? Maybe that is a good definition for life: that which defies the second law of thermodynamics.

The artist creates an artifact, i.e., something made by a human being. Nature, that which is not created by human beings, shows us the sublime: the always perfect balance. The artist can only try to make something as sublime as nature.


Presentations:

08.2006
The first iteration of Resonating-With-Light was presented at ECOS2006 conference in Nantes (FR).


Detailed info:

Resonating-With-Light is an installation that deals with the following:
- Creating a work that tries to imitate some characteristics of nature. More specifically, to exemplify simple natural phenomena that can create complex emergent behavior.
- Presenting the work in an outside environment and thus merging it with nature which it tries to imitate.
- Creating algorithmically generated patterns through the use of multiple simple, identical, physical automata.
- Using solar energy to make these electronic automata as autonomous as possible.
- Making these automata sensitive to it's environment, in order to further merge the installation with it's surroundings. This is done by using small solar cells.
- The generated patterns come in the form of movement of the objects, and sound.
- Musically, it works with percussive sounds and changing rhythmical patterns. Firstly, because percussive sounds use less energy. Secondly, because a previous sound-installation I made, Inside-The-Oscillator, covers similar concepts, but in contrast works with sustained sounds.


Inspirations for this project:

The short story The Last Question by Isaac Asimov.
Peter Vogel
Felix Hess
Douglas Irving Repetto's Crash and Bloom


Thank you:

Apo33
Dominique Leroy
Marc Boon
Frank Gorter
Gert Aertsen
Jo ...
everybody from META


Support:

This project has been realized with support from The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) and The Mondriaan Foundation.