Why light?

In the next months, I will be releasing a series of sound-art pieces and Max patches that explore the physical aspects and social significance of light.

I was first inspired to explore the medium of light in august 2020. I took a cab to Berlin Tegel Airport from my apartment in the early morning. I passed the entire 30-minute trip looking at the city's everchanging artificial light-scape, looking at how different buildings emit different light colours, how the light bounced from apartment complexes onto the asphalt, how passing different kinds of street lights created light rhythms, etc.

I think there are many parallels between how we experience light and how we experience sound. Both mediums are intangible. You can't really grasp light or sound. Sound and light are both time-dependent; just as much as you can't "freeze" your experience of sound, you can't do the same to light. Light and sound are distorted by space, and in many ways, they are a key element of how we make sense of space.

The thing that interests me the most about light in this project is how it is used to mark the ownership of space. The way light is used by governments to illuminate public areas is entirely different from how corporations use it to illuminate businesses. On the micro-level, individuals chose to light bathrooms differently from how they light kitchens or bedrooms. Technology has radically changed how light is used both in public and private spaces in the past 50 years. Cities transition away from yellow sodium lights towards more cost-effective and neutral lights, and young people embrace RGB LED strips to bathe their bedrooms in bold colours.

Thanks to the newfound ubiquity of cameras and the popularity of image and video sharing platforms, light has become a key component of how we express ourselves both privately and socially. By developing publically available instruments inspired by light, this aspect of expression extends towards sound practices. By recording performances of these instruments and manipulating those recordings in a musical context, anyone can interact with their personal relationship towards light through the medium of sound. These instruments will form the expressive core of my light-based sound works.

With this musical project, I aim to develop a new sonic language to examine questions related to how light interacts with society and how individuals and technology affect nature through light. In the future, I want to extend and iterate on this language by releasing more open-source patches and by developing new sound projects, both linear (albums, EPs) and non-linear (installations, interactive experiences).