photograph: Boris Popović
photograph: Boris Popović
LUMINOPHONE
Can You Hear Lights Around Us?
P R E F A C E : L I G H T U N E . G
Luminophone is the first static luminoacoustic object created through the summation of the developments in the audio technology through the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century, and can be most easily described as an RGB gramophone. In our RGB Luminophone we combine components created and used through 300 years: 19th century music box metal plates, step motors from the 20th century and the Arduinos from the 21st century. The RGB Luminophone consists of three almost identical components, which correspond to the three colours in the RGB division of light. As these colours - red, green and blue - added together reproduce a whole range of other colours, the three parts of the RGB Luminophone represent three different parts of the basic structure of the whole sound image (R-rhythm, G-glitch, noise, B-body or texture). Instead of vinyl records, the luminophone contains three metal plates which were used in music boxes in the late 19th century. Instead of a gramophone needle, a handle with RGB lightning is used, and beneath the metal plates there are solar cells. When the light passes through the holes on the metal plate, it reaches the solar cells and sound is created and transferred to the speakers. The luminoacoustic composition is recorded on a digital medium (SD card) and contains sequences that govern the RGB diodes, plate rotation speed, and sound effects applied to the sound of the light.
video: Boris Popović
video: Dinka Radonić, interview Karolina Rugle
LIGHTUNE.G, was founded in 2011 by Croatian multimedia artists Bojan Gagić and Miodrag Gladović, from a desire to present the results of their luminoacoustic research, which they started a year before. The name of the duo emerged from their first experiments, which they performed with the classical tungsten light sources, which produced sound of 50 Hz (~G1).
After the first series of performances / concerts / installations, called Lighterature Readings, in which they created music using various types of artificial lighting and nine solar panels, they later started researching the sound produced by a natural light source - the Sun. In 2013 they presented their ‘mobile luminoacoustic’ project - Route 666, and a year later they built their first luminoacoustic object - Luminophone.
Later on, they have collaborated with many other artists and festivals (Mirela Ivičević, Hugo Morales, Ana Horvat, Davorka Begović, Cantus Ensemble, Showroom of Contemporary Sound, Heart of Noise, TouchMe, Device Art, Sonica, AudioArt...).
They received several awards, including the 3rd prize at the Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, USA (2012), the 2nd prize for multimedia content of the Croatian EXPO Pavilion (2012), the Audience Award at the T-Natječaj HT@msu.hr for Croatian Contemporary Art (2014), and a special mention from the jury at the Biennale di Venezia (for the light and sound design of architect Ana Dana Beroš' installation, 2015).
LUMINOACOUSTIC is a performance technique based on the analogue conversion of light into sound. This conversion is done using the photovoltaic effect of the solar panel. The silicon cells of the panel transform the light source frequencies into a modular sound image. The technique was developed by Lightune.G.
The difference between the luminoacustics and other art projects based on the use of photovoltaic effect(*) is that in luminoacoustics we can actually hear the sound of the light itself. The basic work methodology is divided into working with artificial light sources (neon, halogen, tungsten, LED, video projection, laser, lighters, UV, bicycle lighting, strobe ...) and working with the natural source of light, sun(light). When using artificial light, the structure of the sound image/composition is created through combinations of diverse light sources, as well as by the changes of the intensity of the light itself, while in working with sunlight, the principle is reversed, ie, the shadows of varying densities and velocities create an audible spectrum of sound.
year: 2014
curator: Davorka Begović
medium: luminoacoustic object
first installation: Showroom of Contemporary Sound
copyright: all rights reserved, Bojan Gagić, 2024.