SHAPE ARTISTS PRESENTED:
“Lumière”, an audiovisual composition for lasers and sound, is a long term artistic research project by frequent CTM collaborator Robert Henke, supported by SHAPE’s Yair Elazar Glotman aka Ketev.
The work explores syntax, meaning and narration within a newly developed audiovisual language. An exploration of the synchronicity and divergence of light and darkness, slow movements and sudden bursts of motion and noise, “Lumière” elevates Henke’s expertise as he commands six powerful lasers to draw repeating shapes, ephemeral objects, and ultra short pulses of light in an improvised dialogue where shapes create sonic events and vice versa.
The stunning sound and laser show is based on hundreds of audiovisual “notes”, creating a highly synchronized immersive experience. The lasers, projected onto a large screen, are partially obscured by a wall of fog, which also makes their intensive beams visible in the air, forming fragile temporary objects above the audience. The special quality of the laser light allows complete darkness to be combined with moments of extreme brightness, pure white with intense saturated colors and precise movements with complex organic shapes.
Premiered in 2014, the work has continued to evolve and is now ready to be presented as “Lumière II”. This latest version is driven by several pieces of software, written by Henke himself, which allow the creation of rapid successions of vector graphic images, as well as the associated sonic events, driven by a text-based scripting language. “Lumière II”, the current version of “Lumière”, is a complete re-work of the initial ideas, with a different focus and aesthetics. While the first version was based on improvisation with resulting rough and spontaneous gestures, the second iteration is the opposite: a carefully crafted composition which is constantly refined and extended.
VENUE: Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 10178, Berlin, Germany
