In ‘sonoluminescence’ the actual emphasis on science and art convergence meets the urge to give sound a visual dimension that has pervaded the listening space in the last decade, in vjing practices as well as generative art or live coding performances. Sonoluminescence means to transform high frequency sound waves into emissions of light irradiated in a gas infused liquid. The Camera Lucidainstallation by Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand is implementing these concepts in a spectacular environment, and it has been exhibited extensively in the last years. Now the two authors have involved a first quality roster to contribute with original tracks (Alva Noto, Carter Tutti, Coh, Taylor Deupree + Richard Chartier, Alexander Kaline, Kenneth Kirschner, Matmos and Asmus Tietchens), and this dvd collects the Camera Lucida outcome. Apart from the amazement and hypnosis generated by the slowly changing small sparkles of liquid light, the first question that arises is: could it be considered an ‘objective’ type of music visualization? The answer might be yes. The chemical reaction, in fact is coherent with the input data, so respecting strict physical and natural laws. The tracks then can be considered as acoustic environments, eager to trigger chemical elements and sparkle some liquid light in the dark. So far form a mere ‘special effect’, here the connection between light and sound is consequential and so logically constructed. The music structure is then moving along with light and its harmonic results seem to be as fascinating as beautiful flower colors observed closely.
(Blow Up, Italy)
LINE’s first DVD release has been eagerly anticipated to say the least. Coming as a Pal DVD with a seperate section on the disc containing audio files of the various sound pieces it’s an intriguing combination of visual stimulii and sonic exploration. The featured artists include Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier, Alva Noto, Asmus Tietchens, Coh, Matmos, Carter Tutti, Kenneth Kirschner and Alexander Kaline. The installation is a fascinating work and uses superheated gases and sound to make a pulsating visual display. Hypnotic, otherworldy and entrancing, the audio aspect of this work really accentuates the look of the piece and the high end / low end rumbles, minimally rhythmic and pulsating drones and electronic processing on offer really covers a wide range of contemporary minimalism. What’s really interesting is the fact that the music is surprisingly accessible and definitely showcases the work of the artists. I’d definitely recommend this as it’s a brilliant project which is realised immaculately and with style. Superb.
(Smallfish, UK)
In ‘sonoluminescence’ the actual emphasis on scince and art convergence meets the urge to give sound a visual dimension that has pervaded the listening space in the last decade, in VJing practices as well as generative art or live coding performances. Sonoluminescence means to transform high frequency sound waves into emissions of light irradiated in a gas infused liquid. The Camera Lucida installation by Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand is implementing these concepts in a spectacular environment, and it has been exhibited extensively in the last years. Now the two authors have involved a first quality roster to contribute with original tracks (Alva Noto, Carter Tutti, CoH, Taylor Deupree + Richard Chartier, Alexander Kaline, Kenneth Kirshcner, Matmos and Asmus Tietchens), and this dvd collects the Camera Lucida outcomes. Apart from the amazement and hypnosis generated by the slowly changing small sparkles of liquid light, the first question that arises is: could it be considered an ‘objective’ type of music visualization? The answer might be yes. The chemical reaction, in fact is coherent with the input data, so respecting strict physical and natural laws. The tracks then can be considered as acoustic environments, eager to trigger chemical elements and sparkle some liquid light in the dark. So far forming a mere ‘special effect,’ here the connection between light and sound is consequential and so logically constructed. The music structure is the moving along with light and harmonic results seem to be as fascinating as beautiful flower colors observed closely.
(Neural, Italy)
I know the whole idea of a DVD concept record is a little passe, to say the least, but don’t turn away quite just yet – this deserves a much closer look. Housed in a sleeve designed to show off the quite stunning visuals on offer here, my first reaction was to think ‘nice generative computer graphics’. how wrong I was. Camera Lucida is the result of collaboration between scientific laboratories in Japan, Germany, Russia and Belgium which explored sonoluminescence, the reactions of sound when introduced to certain liquids. Well that’s what I can gather anyway, not being the scientific type I do struggle with some of the technical stuff here but in essence this is visual material made from light in liquid – looking at it only gives you a tiny inkling of what to expect, this is stunning stuff and totally breathtaking when you realise that this is actually happening in real life. The final piece on the disc begins with the lights on in the laboratory so you can see the tank where the reactions are taking place, and it looks something like the heart of a spirit – it looks like Industrial Light and Magic are involved, let’s say. All this and I haven’t even begun to explain the soundtrack yet, just reading the list of contributors should be enough to whet your appetite; Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier, Alva Noto, Asmus Tietchens, Matmos, Carter Tutti and more all offer original material created from the sounds of the somniluminescent experiments. This might sound a bit weird, and you’d be right to think so – the sound was recorded using a hydrophone (a microphone which can be submerged in liquid to record high frequencies) and picks up almost inaudible sound, and these recordings served as the source material which the sound artists were to work with. I guess there’s always a danger when you know the ‘story’ behind a production like this that you won’t be able to distance yourself from it, but knowing where the sound came from really enhances the mystery. A truly audio visual experience from beginning to end, something you’ll want to play in total darkness with your speakers turned to maximum – this is one of the finest discs of its kind, trust LINE to be able to get it right eh? Essential viewing and essential listening, all in one package. Buy.
(Boomkat, UK)
‘Sonic Aurora’ is the key area of investigation for Russian /American researchers and artists Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand. It’s a study that reveals the unusual qualities of ‘Sonoluminescence’, in which ultrasonic waves in liquid creates ‘micro bubbles’ that reach unthinkably high temperatures and in doing so create visual representations of sounds that are fed into the process. Their work using ultrasound and ‘hyperlight’ is presented here in collaboration with a range of sound artists whose compositions are the basis for a series of sound/light interplays that reference ‘physics, chemistry and computer science’. Matmos, Taylor Deupree + Richard Chartier, Alva Noto and Coh (amongst others) all contribute pieces to this work and the visual results reveal some unexpected impressions of the sound artists perspectives on composition. Alva Noto’s ‘Sonolumi’ for instance is perhaps one of the most visually measured pieces – controlled and to a mild degree static. The shape of the sound revealing the innate frequency patterns and layered elements existing within much of Alva Noto’s work. Deupree and Chartier on the other hand create a far less ordered visual impression – their densely knitted piece bringing about a wave of Sonoluminescent activity that creates a washing and clouded visual impression of their sonic inputs. The interactions of light and sound contained on this edition are truly at home on the Line label – minimal artistic textures aligning sonic input with restrained monochromatic visual phenomena. The results are highly rewarding and will hopefully increase the awareness of these sonoluminous experimentalists.
(Signal to Noise Magazine, US)
C’est donc avec joie que l’on accuielle le premier DVD d’Evelina Domnitch et Dmitry Gelfand, une collaboration russo-americaine developee scientifiquement grace a plusieurs laboratoires a travers le monde. Car avant d’etre un DVD musical presentant des “clips” de Taylor Deupree et Richard Chartier, COH, Carter Tutti, Matmos, ou Asmus Tietchens, Camera Lucida est avant tout une premiere scientifique, qui utilise un procede connu le nom sonoluminescence qui transforme le son en lumiere: des ultrasons se propageant a travers un liquide, produisent des bulles microscopiques qui implosent sous des temperatures proches de celle du soleil, et emettent une lumiere en reaction aux ondes sonores. Autour des cette passionante experience de laboratoire, une poignee de musiciens experimentaux ont ainsi compose des pieces destinees a faire reagir la camera lucida, et ces moments stridents et minimaux prennent une dimension epique a mesure qu’eclosent sure l’ecran des formes, des courbes, souvent etrangement organiques, des lumieres posees sur un champ d’ombre opaque
(D-Side, France)
Apunten: la sonoluminescencia es “un proceso que consiste en transformar ondas de audio en haces de luz irradiados en interior de un liquido.” Puede sonar lioso, pero en realidad se trata de algo tan simple como conventir la sinestesia en arte, tranduciendo a un lenguaje visual lo que habitualmente escuchamos con las orejas, una idea desarrollada por los artistas visuales Evelina Domnitch y Dmitry Gelfand, cuyo primer fruto es Camera Lucida. Chicos listos, se han rodeado de un punado de artistas acostumbrados a malatratar recursos digitales, a manejar subgraves y frecuencias altas (Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier, Alva Noto, Matmos, COH, Asmus Tietchens), para aprovechar al maxino las posibilidades visuales del invento. Lastima entonces que la propuesta resulte dense cuando uno se zampa el DVD de una sola sentada (sobre todo porque se repiten gestos y esquemas: Domnitch y Gelfand aun deben trabajar mas la percepcion visual). porque consumida en pequenas dosis resulta de lo mas estimulante.
(Go Mag, Spain)
Camera Lucida ist eine ausergewšhnliche Release, angesiedelt an der Schnittstelle von Bild, Klang und Technik. Die visuelle Komponente dieser DVD stutzt sich auf das Phenomen der sonolumeniscence, bei dem – ganz grob gesprochen – es aufgrund von Ultraschall zu spontanen Hohlraumbildungen in FlŸssigkeiten und in weiterer Folge zu einer Kaskade von sehr heftigen und mikroskopisch kleinen Explosionen kommt. In einem geeignetem Medium – im speziellen Fall wurde eine mit Xenon angereicherte, hochkonzentrierte Schwefelssure verwendet – führen diese für das menschliche Ohr nicht wahrnehmbaren Klsnge dann, entsprechende Dunkelheit vorausgesetzt, zu sichtbaren Effekten und so zu einer Visualisierung. Fehlt noch der Sound; für diesen sorgen hier einschlsgig vorbelastete Artists wie Asmus Tietchens, COH, Matmos, Alva Noto oder Taylor Deupree (und einige andere), die ihre Beitrege aus dem verwendeten hochfrequentem Basismaterial gewannen. Die Tracks im Einzelnen zu besprechen halte ich für wenig sinnvoll, da die Beitrege erst als durchgehende Erzehlung Sinn machen. Dann namlich zeigt sich eine ganz eigenartige Atmosphere, eine abseitige, auch abstrakte Schenheit, die hier entsteht, wenn aus ursprünglichem Chaos Muster wachsen, sich bewegen und verschwinden. Ein hypnotisches Schweben in Schattierungen von Blau, faszinierend wie ein Blick in den Sternenhimmel.
(quietnoise.org)
Le DVD, Camera Lucida est un projet élaboré par les vidiéstes Russo/Americain Evelina Domnitch et Dmitry Gelfand et développé en collaboration avec des laboratoires scientifiques japonais, allemand, russe et belge. Afin de mener bien cette commande de LINE, nos deux vidéastes se sont entourés de divers artistes sonores afin d’élaborer neuf créations musicales ayant pour matériel sonore principal des sons émanants du principe de sonoluminescence. Captée grAce A des hydrophones (microphone pouvant ‘tre immergé afin d’enregistrer les différentes fréquences), la sonoluminescence se produit lorsqu’une onde sonore d’intensité suffisante fait se contracter rapidement une cavité gazeuse présente dans un liquide. Cette cavité peut prendre la forme d’une bulle, mais peut ‘tre générée au cours d’un processus nommé cavitation. Les fréquences de résonance dépendent de la taille et de la forme du récipient dans lequel la bulle est contenue. Tout ceci est bien scientifique, mais néscessaire afin de percevoir l’environnement tr’s spécifique dans lequel ces artistes ont travaillé afin de produire un DVD d’une homogénéité étonnante. Du son vers la lumi’re : une aurore sonique en DVD!
(Sonhors, France)
Sonoluminescence. A phenomenon in which “a gas-infused liquid is irradiated by high-frequency sound waves that are directly transformed into emissions of light”, and that Domnitch and Gelfand – interested in the creation of “sensory immersion environments that merge physics, chemistry and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices” – studied, filmed and edited into nine short movies whose soundtrack was obtained via the manipulation of “ordinarily inaudible acoustic phenomena” relative to this sonochemical process, captured by a hydrophone, “a microphone submerged in a liquid that is sensitive to high frequencies”. Sorry for all these literal quotes from the liners, but this DVD is of such an outstanding quality – both in its visual and aural components – that I would never want to risk writing something unclear about its contents. Translating theory into concrete descriptions in similar cases is almost ridiculous, but I’ll give it a try. The video materials show a mostly black-and-blueish liquid swarmed by perennially fluctuating lines and shapes, whose movement is obviously highlighted by the sounds. If one concentrates hard enough, our retinae influenced by the uncatchable sequences of spirals, fumes and bubbles appearing in front of us, strange things are generated by the brain, just like when hearing imaginary notes while entranced by minimalist music. An underwater pearl necklace, a medusa, the night traffic, synchronized swimming, spermatozoa, groups of alien dancers. Whatever your fantasy elicits is there, born from reactions that cause temperatures equalling the sun’s. The music is for its large part very rewarding, in a way divided into two different kinds; “gaseous” or “interfering” is how I’d define them. The most beautiful, for what my taste is worth, comes with the tracks composed by Alva Noto, Asmus Tietchens, Matmos and Carter Tutti; other researchers were Taylor Deupree & Richard Chartier, Alexander Kaline, Kenneth Kirschner, Coh and the videomakers themselves. Establishing a scale of values or underlining something as opposed to something else is not recommended in any case. Camera Lucida is one of those items that can change your most radical convictions in the space of a few minutes, an experience that must be enjoyed in its totality without caring about what happens outside your room in that moment. Domnitch and Gelfand’s advice of watching it in a darkened space with high monitor brightness is a clear indication of what to expect. Pain-killing immateriality at elite level.
(touchingextremes.org)
