5 Lichttropfen

1979

Material / Technique: electronic wall piece, controlled by a random generator ; acrylic glass, circuits, speaker, light bulbs

Description: Like water, five drops of light slowly run down behind a white acrylic glass surface. Individual drops seem to fall down from the top edge of the surface until they hit the bottom edge of the surface with a soft sound and then extinguish.
The artist, engineer, and jazz musician Walter Giers transformed optical and acoustic effects of simple electronic components into light-sound works of art that are situated in the border area between music, visual art, and technology. Giers thus stands in the tradition of kinetic sculpture – from Naum Gabo and Heinz Mack to Jean Tinguely.
Giers, who built purpose-free objects at the end of the 1960s with which viewers could interact playfully by means of switches, also used random generators from 1973 onwards. By absorbing the stimuli of light, sound or movement from their environment and translating them aleatorically into optical or acoustic formations, the works create the impression that they are autonomous objects with an unpredictable life of their own.

Images

Walter Giers, »5 Lichttropfen« [5 Light Drops], 1979, electronic wall piece, controlled by a random generator ; acrylic glass, circuits, speaker, light bulbs, 160 x 75 x 6 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

© Walter Giers ; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Franz J. Wamhof