Precedent Media

Poème Mécanique is a "sound sculpture" that surrounds its audience and produces a composition of sound using flip-dot mirrors disks. The was created by Tobias Ebsen and is currently in Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme, Montreal. His intention was to " create a moment of intimacy and contemplation in a vibrant, noisy public space". What I like about this piece is the completely unorthodox setting for a sound piece; normally, sound compositions are normally meant to be heard in an environment that allows the audience to clearly hear it. This piece defies this guideline and intentionally exists within a noisy environment, challenging its audience to focus on the piece above the surrounding noise. I do think that the work's audacity is something of a hindrance, however, as I had trouble hearing the composition through the surrounding bustle (this could just be a feature of the video, however). I think it could better incorporate the environmental noise as opposed to fighting against it. In my project, I would like to try a similar premise where I challenge the audience to focus a specific media that would be normally overlooked, though I would like to incorporate the surroundings better.

Light Kinetics was made by Madrid based creative studio Espadaysantacruz. The piece is an interactive light machine controlled by a physics simulator, where light mimics the behavior of matter. What I like about the piece is that it attributes qualities to light that make it more malleable by human hands; people can't touch light, but in this piece it seems like light can be moved like an inanimate object. It conveys a sense of wonder and power onto the interactor. That said, I do feel like the piece is somewhat limited, as after several minutes of playing with this piece I can imagine it'd get old quick. I feel like the work would be stronger if the interactions wasn't limited to rocking the light back and forth or flicking it forward. What Light Kinetics does that I want to incorporate into my final project is give the audience a sense of ability, that my piece confers into them a power that makes their environment seem more malleable.