Announcement:
The 19th of June there will be a presentation of the project “Lighthouse of Babel”.
This is a project from a group of young lighting designers from around the world.
Together we are making a universal beacon of light for the Tower of Babel.
The content of the project is about cultural differences in the perceptian of light and the influence of Fine Art Masterpainters from different countries.
STILL SEARCHING FOR PARTICIPANTS!!!
To all light designers present at the Scenofest,
Tuesday the 19th we are presenting a lighting design for the tower of babel and we are still searching for more participants!!!
Are you a lighting designer and interested in joining a group of lighting designers from different countries and cultures?
Than please call us: 0031630661998. We are starting today, the 16th, and you can still join up the conversations and brainstorming proces now.
The project is called: “Lighthouse of Babel” and located in the Tower on the ground flour.
We are going to work with a model of the tower and the LightBox (1:24 scale theatre) and will present the design the 19th in te centre of the tower.
But we are also going to light the Big Tower itself, on the 18th in the evening.
So if you would like to participate, feel free to call: 0031630661998 !!
Greetings Yvon Muller.
(Scenographer and Light Designer from the Netherlands)
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel (confusion); because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)
The latest images from the Industrial Palace’s Central Hall depict the erection of the Babel Tower and the Scenofest Stage. Taken only two days ago by the Babel Tower’s co-designer Ian Evans I can’t help feeling some of the construction images resemble Meyehold’s “Bathhouse”
Some while back I said that God was going to make my Babel Bell. What I meant was that I had determined a set of parameters to come up with as random a sound as possible. I selected events and reduced them to a series of mathematical possibilities which would yield either a yes or a no response. For example, I suggested watching people at a set of traffic lights, and seeing if either a male or a female crossed the road first. This would give a result of either one or the other. In other words, every decision I had to make could have been determined by the flip of a coin.
So that’s how I made my Babel Bell, with a coin, instead of doing all those other things. I just didn’t have the time, or the enthusiasm. So my bell wasn’t really made by God. Or was it? Random acts are often attributed to higher intervention, and in this cynical world where religion is being slowly snuffed out, I chose to believe that God paid special attention to my needs, and designed my Babel Bell for me. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet God:
As you can see it’s nothing more than a coin, a British one pound coin, with a head and a tail. But from now on we shall refer to the coin as God, and we shall treat it with the same respect.
So I tossed God several times into the air, and he told me that I should make my sound by using someone else’s recording, it should be a natural sound, and it should be a tonal sound. With those instructions I came up with the idea of using the opening piano chord from Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terrible.
I then asked the Holy Trinity what the attack, sustain and decay times should be, and he gave me a list, totalling about 20 seconds. As you may well be aware, the piano chord was less than half a second long, so I had to timestretch it. I stretched the sound by about fifty times, making it unrecognisable as a Philip Glass piano chord.
I then proceeded to apply various effects to the stretched out chord, obviously consulting our Lord and Saviour at every step of the way. Now I have to say that I was not altogether convinced by God’s abilities to make a good sound. He seemed to make decisions that, quite frankly, I found irrational and unnecessary. Nevertheless, I followed his advice to the letter, and came up with a rather bizarre sound. Never before have I had the need to apply reverb, chorus, phaser, flanger, autopan, tremelo and ring modulation all on the same piece of audio. But that’s what He told me to do, so I did it. Clearly God doesn’t believe in moderation. The sound will be played sometime in Prague, and I hope you enjoy it.
No, this is not my award acceptance speech, but a rather evangelical description of how I’m making my Babel Bell. I’m attempting to create a sound entirely at random, and I’ll describe what I’m doing below.
First of all, I had to break down a sound into its component parts. A sound is made up of three main characteristics: attack, the length of time from the beginning of the sound to its loudest point; sustain, the duration at which it stays at its loudest point; and release, the length of time it takes to go from its loudest point to silence. I also had to work out whether I was going to record the sound myself, or use samples from someone else, whether it would be a natural sound or an electronic one, and whether it would be tonal or atonal, i.e. would it have a musical quality or not?
I really want to apply this to a lighting design, and generate one entirely at random for a show, but all the directors I know would have a heart attack if I did that!
There are many other qualities to a sound, which can all be decided randomly, but I just don’t have the time to work them all out, so if you like this idea, feel free to contribute your own ideas. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
1. Pick up a newspaper. What is the eighth letter in the first paragraph on the front page? If it’s A to M, then you’re making your own sound, if it’s N to Z then you’re using samples.
2. Open the phone book. Call the first business you see. When someone answers, ask them what their favourite number is. If it’s an even number then you will make a natural sound, if it’s an odd number then you will make an electronic one.
3. Watch a group of people waiting at a traffic light. When they cross, see who makes it first. If it’s a woman then you’re making a tonal sound, if it’s a man then it’s an atonal sound.
4. Go outside. If there is no wind then your attack is less than one second. If there is a light wind then it’s between one second and five seconds. If there is a strong wind then it is between five seconds and ten seconds.
5. Look at the second hand of a clock and notice the number. Divide it by two. That is the duration of your sustain, in seconds.
6. Stand at a bus station. When the next bus stops, count the number of people who get off. That is the duration of your decay, in seconds.
This sort of random generation is also a form of divination. Many people use things like this to determine the events of their future. For example, how many of us have ever tossed a coin to decide what we should do? I read recently that there is a culture of trying to read the future in websites, where people find significance in words and images they find at random. This is probably a silly thing to do, as ridiculous as the significance of tarot cards. But I found out recently that even silly tarot cards can be frighteningly accurate.
My call to design a lighting performance in the Babel Tower, together with a group of other young lighting designers form different countries and cultures, at the scenofest in Praque, is still open!
So far I have found 2 designers interested…
I’m very much hoping for a group of at least 6 designers.
So read my call on the scenofest homepage, and when you are interested and would like to work together with other lighting designers from around the world on this project, please write me an email!
I hope to hear from you,
Greetings
Yvon Muller.
My email-adres is: yvonmuller@gmail.com
(P.S. I will report my own research on the ‘dutch culture of lighting design’ and my personal study at the work of the Dutch Fine Art Master ‘Jacob van Ruysdael’ here on these blogs, from now on every week. I will ask the designers who join my ‘Lighthouse of Babel’ project to report something of their own researches once in a while, as well. So let’s see if this is a good way to start the creative conversation!)
I hope Rodrigo doesn’t mind… but i recently saw his “Poet of Babel” video recently… and it’s fantastic!
I’m not the only one who has been impressed this is one piece of work that’s quickly turning into a hot-topic before Scenofest has even begun!
Ladies and Gentlemen - “Poet of Babel” by Rodrigo Cortes