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Leonardo, Vol. 12, pp. 125-126. Pergamon Press Ltd. 1979. Printed in Great Britain. KINETIC ART: TWO FLASHING-LIGHT INSTALLATIONS AND RELATED PAINTINGS Thorbjmn Lausten* I have described in an earlier article two flashing-light installations that I demonstrated in Denmark in 1974and 1975 [I]. In one, ‘Flux Field’, I illuminated a gallery display room by continuously flashing at different intervals several types of electric lamps. A series of my paintings that present varied light absorption properties was displayed for viewing under these lightingconditions. In the other installation, ‘WhiteSound’, I illuminated my studio by four electric lamps whose individual light output varied with the amplitude of the sound received within particular frequency ranges. I shall now describe two other more recent installations. 1. ‘PRESENSE, 1975/76’ This installation was a direct development from ‘White Sound’, however a greater number, 13,of light bulbs were used and some were in color. Most of the lights, intended to suggest the frequency range of the visible spectrum, were in circuits actuated by three sound frequency bands taken to represent the audible spectrum. My aim was to demonstrate a transformation from audible to visual stimuli. This installation was presented in public in 1977 at Tranegaaden, Copenhagen. Twelve of the lamps hung from the ceiling in three rows of four lamps, such that each row was at a different height above the floor (Fig. I). Similar to the situation in ‘White Sound’, the lamps in the lower row responded in brightness to the amplitude of the lowest frequency band, those in the highest row responded to the amplitude of the highest band, and those in the middle row responded to the amplitude of the middle band. In one manner of actuated the lighting. The device that I employed for separating the sound input into frequency bands is commonly used in musical and light-show performances (manufactured by Josty-Kit, Copenhagen). The auxiliary electronic equipment is described in Ref. 1. The lamps employed (products of Philips, Holland) were as follows: in the lowest row, three 115 watt incandesant lamps having a carbon filament and one 40 watt lamp, red; in the middle row, three 150watt opalized lamps and one 40 watt lamp, green; in the highest row, three 150 watt matte lamps and one 40 watt lamp, blue (Fig. 2). The thirteenth lamp, a 160 watt mixed mc:t ndewcnl mercury vapor lamp (Osram, Fed. Rep. Ger.), was not connected to a sound actuated circuit; it was operated, on-off, by spectators. In a second manner of operation, a portable infrared transmitter was used that emits radiation over a distance of about 6m. The radiation is received by a photocell, and its output is divided into three frequency bands for the actuation of the three rows of lamps. The transmitter and photocell receiver are shown in Fig. 2. The transmitter, a battery-operated device (9 volt), was constructed by the Danish engineer Jsrgen Nielsen. The input to the transmitter from the microphone was amplified, modulated and transmitted by means of four special diodes built in a plastic lens, a component of the type often employed in alarm devices. The input to the photocell was demodulated and divided by three frequency filters. *Artist, Ebbesensvej 10, DK-8641 Sorring, Denmark. (Received 30 March 1978.) Fig.2. Electronic components employedfor ‘Presense.1975/6’ 125 126 Thorbjwn Lausten 1977’ and ofpainring ‘TL 77,l o c a l Time, 1977’. vinyl polymer painr, sailcloth, 180 x 283 cm, 1977. (Gallery Aarhus Kunstbygning, Aarhus, Denmark, 1977). In 1975 I wondered whether my installation could be made to respond to signals from a geostationary Earth satellite. But, since the closest one, a military satellite of the U.S.A., was positioned too far away (westof Ireland), enormous antenna facilities would have been required. Nevertheless, I still consider a geostationary satellite as a possiblesourceof signals for one of my installations in the future. For the demonstrations described I had to turn to the use of a radio. A portable infrared transmitter was employed alternatively at will to carry signals by means of a beam/field to the infrared receiver to be demodulated. Juan Downey’sarticle has led me to speculate about other ways...

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