28 AUG 2023 | 11:30 AM — 1:00 PM
Palais Kheireiddine
— Input by Bettina Pelz
— INTERFERENCE has been developed as a public art project dedicated to light and light-based media in the arts. This input looks into the history of light and light-based media in the arts and tackles physical, technical, experiential, and conceptual aspects of contemporary artistic approaches to working with light.
The history of light and light-based media in the arts spans thousands of years, with artists continuously exploring the possibilities of physical light as a material, a medium, as imaged subject, or a metaphor. Playful exploration, thoughtful application, scientific research, and artistic use of light are intwined in the long history of physical light in the arts.
From the Beginning
All and all early cultures refer to sunlight as a reference for life, for cultivating, for building, and for artistic expression. Throughout history and across cultures, composing with the interplay of light and material led to a wide array of artistic practice from archaic shadow plays to working with diaphanid materials such as glass to digital screens and large-scale projections.
Exploring All Phenomena
Throughout history, scientists delved into the physical properties of light, not only as medium of visibilty but as well as its behavior particle or as electromagnetic waves. This knowledge influenced artists’ understanding of light’s interaction with materials and its reflection, refraction, and diffraction characteristics.
From Heliography to Photography
The birth of modern photography emerged from the understanding of light’s behavior as it interacts with lenses and sensitive materials. In 1826 or 1827, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce captured the world’s oldest surviving photograph, using the heliography process.
Light anywhere anytime
When 100 years ago, László Moholy-Nagy asked to shift from pigment to light in the arts, it was the time when electricity and electrical light found their way into society. The proliferation of electrical light brought about a paradigm shift in the arts, as artists harnessed technological advances, incorporating them into their artistic materials.
In Flux
Recognizing light as a physical medium in constant motion, artists abandoned the concept of eternal artwork and embraced performative artistic action. Motion and change became the core of the development of kinetic art, ephemeral artforms developed.
Digital Shift
The emergence of digital media displays, backlit screens, and projected imagery in the mid-20th century sparked a new momentum for light-based art forms.
Perceptual Experience
Another aspect of working with light is its relevance for visibility and seeing. Many artists refer to the interactive process of rendering visual or of the modification by seeing in their works. The perception of light and the experience of artistic settings became part of artistic concepts.
Challenging Arthistoric Conventions
This is a collection of traces that can feed a mind map to formulate questions of inquisitive perspectives to follow-up the developments of artistic approaches working with light. It is an open collection and resorted at times to explore various ways of how to cluster and to link artistic approaches reflection upon the properties of light and their use, the technologies of light and their applications, the design of light and its impact rendering visible the world.
TEXT
Bettina Pelz. Published on 23 JUL 2023.
FEATURED IMAGE
Lara Kamhi. INTERFERENCE Tunis 2018. Photo: Jennifer Braun.