SOUND OF LIGHT
Würth Museum La Rioja
La Rioja, Spain, 2017
Imagine that you could hear the colours you perceive… The sculpture/architecture SOUND OF LIGHT, a joint project by PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE (Marco Canevacci, architect) and sound artist Marco Barotti, explores the possibilities of synaesthesia (the ability to hear sounds associated with colours and vice versa). The sculpture, which will be installed in the museum’s main atrium, dynamically interprets and transforms sunlight into audible frequencies.
A high-quality camera located at the top of the structure captures the light and divides it into six colours: the three primary colours of the light spectrum, red, green, and blue (RGB), and the three secondary colours, cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY). Inside the pneumatic structure hang six columns in these six colours, designed to receive the frequency of the light and convert it from a visible impulse into an audible sensation. A series of woofers attached to the base of each column transform the entire architecture into a giant loudspeaker.
SOUND OF LIGHT allows for an experience halfway between the audible and the sonic, a reality that combines colour, form, sound, and vibration. Light is not a stable element, and therefore neither is the sound inside the structure; the sound changes according to the exterior light and also depending on the visitors’ point of view, allowing them to develop an individual visible and sonic spectrum.
The project was developed by Marco Canevacci and Marco Barotti as a site-specific installation for the Urban Lights Ruhr festival in 2014. This is the first time it has been shown in Spain. It was awarded the LET’S COLOR 2015 prize in the category of Colour Innovation in Technology and Design.
Artists
Marco Canevacci, Marco Barotti
Photos
Marco Canevacci
Special Thanks
Silvia Lindner
Carmen.Palacios
and all the wonderful TEAM of the Würth Museum La Rioja: hasta pronto!
