Some Thoughts On Todd's "Sonic Light Bulb" & Intersensory Phenomena

Todd,

The main device in your piece uses a three-step transduction process: sound energy to electrical impulses to light energy. We use transducers all of the time in the media arts. For example, the sound artist uses a microphone as a transducer, usually as a method of “capturing” sound and fixing it to a medium (analog tape or digital representation) for manipulation. Your work is fundamentally different in that it takes sound energy and ultimately transforms it into light energy. What follows is an experience that explores the overlap between what we normally think of as discrete senses.

 I am reminded of the existence of rhythm in written language, dance, and film editing. Rhythm tends to be favored as an aural representation, music being perhaps its most obvious incidence. But we often discuss written language in terms of rhythm as well. The famous metrical-line rhythm iambic pentameter for instance is ten syllables per line, five alternating pairs stressed and unstressed:

   u       /           u         /         u         /        u       /          u          /
mac-BETH! mac-BETH! mac-BETH! be-WARE mac-DUFF!

Iambic pentameter still works unspoken because we automatically associate the words we read with their sounds. Thus, even though no sound energy is being generated by words on a page our brain tells us how they sound.

Rhythm in dance and film editing is different from this in the sense that neither are perceived or interpreted sonically (unless they contain a sonic component as in the case of tap dancing). When we talk about rhythm in dance we are talking about the change in body position over time, especially instances of repetition and the alternation of weak or strong body movements (like stressed or unstressed syllables). In film editing it might be a succession of evenly spaced fast cuts. Both of these instances utilize rhythm as a visual sensory experience; however, in dance the dancer also experiences rhythm with his or her somatic sense. The dancer feels the rhythm.

It seems to me we can experience rhythm through three of our senses: hearing, sight, and touch. I'm fairly certain we can't taste or smell rhythmically (might be interesting to research!). As you continue to develop your sonic light bulb I encourage you to explore this kind of sensory overlap––"intersensory phenomena" I'm calling it, though I'm sure somewhere there exists a coined clinical name. I spoke to you in class about seeing how it reacts to simple music. Perhaps this would be a good place to start?

Nick