Optofonica – Anharmonics, Synthaesthesia & Sound Spatialization

optofonica
Sonolevitation – Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand

Optofonica is an ongoing project and experimentation lab founded by TeZ [Maurizio Martinucci], Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, and including Martijn Van Boven as a fellow artist, devoted to the investigation of synaesthetic artworks and sound spatialization techniques.

The collective divide their time by working on their own personal projects, forming specific internal collaborations, as well as inviting established artists and musicians to get involved for special projects.

A good example of the latter is the Optofonica Capsule constructed by TeZ and Janis Pönisch. The capsule is a sensory chamber constructed for the solitary and immersive experience of audiovisual artworks. Resembling a giant flys head, the user enters the capsule and is allowed to define her/his own program of audiovisual works (a collection of pieces curated TeZ himself). The confinement cuts out any external sensory information and the sound surround technology provides a ‘tactile audio’ experience. The capsule has already travelled widely around the World, destinations have included Transmediale in Germany, Nemo in France, and Elektra in Canada.

A companion DVD compilation documenting the artworks viewable in the capsule has been released on the Line imprint [part of 12k]. Often transcending typical science-art barriers, the works explore such phenomena as magnetism, fluid dynamics, acoustic levitation and brain-wave interference.

optofonica
Anharmonium – TeZ

TeZ’s most recent personal work, Anharmonium, concentrates on utilising cymatic processes to create sonic visual projections using high density light sources. Currently installed in the Melkweg media room, the piece explores ‘interference patterns within a sonically activated fluid illuminated by laser emissions to create an augmented meditative space – a psycho-physical observatory.’

Whereas a lot of recent works exploring visual phenomena generated by sound remain strictly within the realm of computation, TeZ’s Anharmonium operates outside the digital box relying on the physical properties of sound on materials and the inherent emergent properties of light reflections interacting with sonified fluid dynamics. In this respect TeZ’s operations are more akin to pre-computational methods of generating synaesthetic experiences. It’s not so much of a surprise then that the analogue aesthetics generated by Anharmonium are more akin to the work of someone like Thomas Wilfred and other pioneer syntheasthetes. The Anharmonic aesthetics include the apparent illusion of extruded form-lattices transforming and merging in 3-dimensional space.

Related:
Camera Lucida – Sonochemical Presence
10000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid

One Response to “Optofonica – Anharmonics, Synthaesthesia & Sound Spatialization”

  1. The Institute for Re writes:

    […] dataisnature.com » Optofonica – Anharmonics, Synthaesthesia & Sound Spatialization Published: December 6, 2011 Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment Name: Required […]

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