Lights, Language and Sound

     Why was I so distracted by that light? I kept talking, but I wasn't looking at the person I was talking to.  I was transfixed on the light pulsing and fading with the words that I spoke.  The experience was confusing and I was left with the question of why I became so transfixed on the flickering light in the corner of the room?  Why I became more conscious of the volume, timber, and rhythm of my own voice and how the simple example we saw in class could be utilized in an art experience?


     The changing of phenomenon A into a the syntax of phenomenon B forces an evaluation.  In our example this evening we translated sonic information into visual light information.  We saw how our input as a user and creator of sound effects the luminance, intensity, and color of a light bulb using hardware that interprets sound into electronic resistance.


     What is the potential of such a technique? What approaches can be used to utilize these effects and technologies to create a meaningful art object and experience?  I specifically use the word experience here; the input-to-feedback chain that we see calls attention to our role as sound makers.  The experience itself can be uncanny.  The act of carrying on a conversation while a pulsing light is translating your words into a symbolic Morse code in real time calls attention to words being spoken in those moments, the act of vocalizing can become as important as words themselves.  The speaker, or sound maker, is presented with their own voice mediated by a household object into a language that is not decipherable by the speaker.


     This uncanniness is a result of the translation and disconnect experienced by the viewer and participant.  Similar uncanny examples can be made from non-sonic events. When describing things like grass or flowers we often use descriptors like pretty, colorful, thorny, long, not words like slow moving, agile, or patient.  If these plants or flowers are viewed through the lens of a time lapsed film they take new life as an animated uncanny being.  The plant hasn't changed, but the context in which we experience has.  A disconnect occurs when we compare all the previous data about plants against the new information that we are being presented with.  This disconnect is the uncanny, it is the mechanism that has the potential to initiate a critical discourse in the viewer.


     A source for this disjuncture of previous experiences and the experience of sound transformed into light is a result of the viewer's newness to the sensation.  The process of translating sounds into pulses of light is a commonly used practice to alert  deaf and hard of hearing persons of specific sounds.  If a baby cries the sound will be picked up by microphones installed into the room and trigger lights in the home to pulse 3 times in quick succession, if the doorbell rings a long single pulse will be seen and an endless list of sonic events can be given visual representation as light.  This systems relies on familiarity with translating representational flashes of light to their real world events.  Because there is no such codified correlation between the fading and brightening of the light and the input from the user in the art installation the soundmakers and viewers have no frame of reference to compare the pulsing flashes against.  They are not privy to the translation of light pulses and their sonic origins.

     A second source for this disjuncture is the simultaneous sensation of both making sound and observing that sound in real time.  This is a similar experience to what Synesthetes perceive when presented with stimuli.  Synesthesia is a  condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.  Synesthetes may see the color purple and have a specific taste triggered, observe a sequence of numbers and have them represented by patterns of color, or taste a food and experience pins and needles in their fingers.   Simultaneous stimuli can distract the brain.  One synesthete, Wagio Collins, writes that when she views a film the colors, sounds and visual stimuli can overwhelm her experience and she only sees auric colors on the screen instead of the film.  Imagine seeing a symphony of color with every word you speak or sound that you hear floating before you eyes.  Now imagine how distracting that could be.  That scenario is closely linked to the mental experience of the viewer or soundmaker in this type of art installation.

    To what ends can this technique be used?  We discussed many ideas and options about how this apparatus could be implemented.  Large scale, 30 or more units, creating a dance of light on the exterior of a building from the sound being created inside that building, recording the sounds of a building's foundation shifting and translate that into light, including the viewer as a participant and performer within a piece where the viewer is prompted to perform an action and that action results in sound that is then translated into light, and the list goes on from there.  The element of communication through sound and light is inherent in this proposed type of work and the physical location/venu, arrangement, and level of user knowledge and interaction leave the door wide open to a myriad of works that can address just as disparate of topics and ideas.