Susurrus Lights, Aggregate

Susurrus Lights, Aggregate I – IV (2014 – )

Microphones, fluorescent light tubes, mixer, amplifier, dc-signal power control, speakers

In the installation Susurrus Lights, Aggregate conventional fluorescent lamps are dissolved from their functional and efficient determination. In deficiency and excess states they release their seemingly organic momentum.

The characteristic sounds from switching on and off the fluorescent lamps – a subliminal sensation in our everyday experience – are put into focus by being picked up by microphones and played back live through loudspeakers.

The extracted audio signal from one lamp serves as voltage control for each other lamp in order to constitute a functional circuit. It generates continuously evolving rhythmic patterns of sound and light impulses. Whereas on a structural level they resemble figures of generative computer music, it is the very constellation of material components which causes this audiovisual chain reaction.

The idea of information, which is read out, quantified, interpreted and finally processed, is challenged by encountering an unconventional setup of devices that functions on the basis of a perpetual transformation of energy states. Light and sound inextricably originate from the same entity and create the impression of an object to object relation, which, due to the irregular, distorted correlation of its entities, always produces new patterns; a self-engendering machine with an unpredictable development.

Incorporating the material of the fluorescent lamp Susurrus Lights, Aggregate, evokes a model of progress and efficiency that is no longer valid in today’s conceptions but its role has shifted towards functioning as a symbol for urban decay. This decay is also reflected in the overuse of the materials, which adds another layer of transformation to the work. During a longer period of exhibition the sound character can change from harmonic glass-like tones to more harsh and violent eruptions, whereas on the visual level the afterglow of flickering tubes intensifies.

Every instance of this work series is a site-specific intervention in which the architecture of the respective space is fragmented and perceptually reconstructed in the ever changing rhythm of the fluorescent apparatus.