Liisi Küla
- Faculty of Fine Arts
- Contemporary Art
- MA
- The Sound of Light
- Tutor: Raul Keller
- Sound and video installation
- 6' 7''
My installation “The Sound of Light” is a video and sound installation the purpose of which is to draw out the space and invite the audience to sense its dimensions. Through multi-channel sound and video I create synesthesia and assimilate sound with some visual characteristics. The installation helps to visualize abstract sound, the creation of which is difficult to imagine. The video part of this installation consists of slow shutter speed photos, which all together form a moving image. The video represents the trace of sound that exists independently, outside of the screen we can experience the sound sonically.
None of the photos taken have been post-processed by an image editing program. Most post-processing, including video speed and contrast, is included with the video editing program. The peculiarity of such a video is done deliberate and visually gif style, which I have used in my other art works, for example, in the audio and video installation “Por Enquanto” The visual side consists of the movement of light on two screens, the sound side of the work draws the same shapes through multi-channel sound. To implement the idea, I used the Max Msp program, with the parameters of which I synthesized abstract sounds. When I moved the camera to take long-exposure pictures, I move a similar cursor in Max Msp to create visual images when creating sounds. The described method of operation, for example, draws sounds through several channels. “Sound of Light” is a room installation, which I show in the dark room to create a feeling similar to closed eyes. For comparison, we can imagine a dark forest, where instead of seeing we hear sounds and perceive our surroundings with other senses. The light source in a completely dark room is two screens on which the video described above is projected. The screens are placed side by side with a small gap, so the viewer can walk through the two screens and see the video on both the right and left. The sound is directed to the corners of the room. The six-minute space installation is set up in the TASE exhibition in a dark room that can be visited according to the visiting times or sessions. The work is constantly experienced, there is no definite beginning and end, the installation “Sound of Light” remains in repeat mode. In addition, I want to document the work as a short film.
We mainly accept the reality we are familiar with. It is difficult to accept or imagine different realities. For example, the world of colour-blind people or synesthetes is in different shades due to their differences in perception. Among blind people, there are those who perceive sounds in great detail, sometimes in color. Their perception of the world is very different from that of the seers, and it depends on whether they have ever seen it or not – the perception of a person who has actually seen the world as a child or adolescent is quite different from a person who is blind from birth. There are animals that see more colour than we do, such as Mantis shrimp (stomatopoda), which have 16 colour receptors in their eyes against human
There are 5 different senses (according to traditional views): touch, hearing, smell, sight and taste. Perception is how the brain perceives the body and the information that the world transmits. The aim of this masters work is to look at our perceptions from a synesthetic perspective, focusing on the visualization of sound. The idea behind the written part is to point out the difference in perceptions and to shake the current opinion about the boundaries of “reality”. On the one hand, the innate difference in synesthesia is inherent in a small percentage of the population, and on the other hand, many artists have portrayed a similar symbiosis of perceptions through their work.
