PENDULUM

- mai 2007-

was realized during the event FRONTIERE/GRENS/BORDER
in Comines-Warneton (Belgium)
 

The installation proposes a poetical thought on the transposition of scientific data (numbers, algorithms,…) in visual and sound events. A planisphere, a pendulum, and various objects of measurement weave chains of data in the hope of finding a border between intellectual - Cartesian beauty and empirical sensitivity.

The centre of the installation is a pendulum (an oscillator) that undergoes various physical influences and disturbances (breath - ventilator, human presence …). Several sensors react to human presence and activities and modify the data according to some accidents that the hazard or the moving around of the spectators cause.

 

 

This “laboratory” extends to various spaces:
- an outdoor spot (on the the roof of the arts centre) visible from the inside, on which some scientific tools are fixed - a weather station and an antenna -
- an internal room round where the pendulum hangs
- an access to the adjacent public library.

A webcam relays images collected through a telescope on a screen. They give a false vieuw of the experiment. This retinal point of view refers to a known visual astronomical effect (i.e. an eclipse,… ) which does create some ambiguity with “reality”. This dialogue between cognitive perception and empirical perception conditioned the use of the library as a satellite space for the installation. At the entry you can see a vanity.
The external sensor influences the color of the synthesized images (heat makes images yellower or more red - brown, while cold makes them more bluish).

“Oscar” (a skull mounted on a tripod) reacts when somebody gets close to it. It lights up, produces sound and its jaw goes on moving. It sends information to the computer system which creates spheres in the synthesized images.

 

 

 
A true telescope gives strange and false images because of a manipulation of its lens
A preliminary draft : a small pendulum with a terrestrial sphere. The whole thing was build with a meccano.
A vanity is in the library. On the farthest screen, the world (in synthesized image) is moving in the same way as the pendulum which is in the central room. It is seen with the sun behind it.
The flame of the virtual candle moves when people blow or move near to it.
People can touch some objects. These actions change the synthesized images and generate sounds.
A printer gives the synthesized images that the installation generates.

To watch at some created images ... click
images---click
To listen at life sound track (mp3)... click
Also read : LE HASARD ET LA NECESSITE of Jacques Monod click

With the support of:

La Communauté française de Belgique Wallonie - Bruxelles, secteur des Arts numériques
Le centre culturel de Comines-Warneton
Le centre de lecture publique de Comines-Warneton
Pc-Connexion de Comines-Warneton
Ets. Montfort d'Houthem
La ville de Comines-Warneton