Light speaks, light makes music
With these words Emerich Spielmann presented the Superpiano on a program broadcast on the Vienna radio station RAVAG in 1929. In 1931 Leon Theremin developed the first optical sound rhythm machine (Rhythmicon) and in the early 30s the Russian composer Arseny Avraamov as well as the German filmmaker Oskar Fischinger began drawing sound waves on film.In the late 50s Daphne Oram created Oramics, meanwhile in N.Y. at the same time the Austrian composer Max Brand developed an optical synthesizer, which was based on the same principle as Daphne Oram’s Oramic system.
Based on the historical principals and the developement of these technologies with a focus on sound generation, the participants are invited to develop their own sound generating machines as well as new ideas or approaches.
A starting point will be the optosonic synthesizer „Sonic Luz“ developed by Klaus Filip and Arnold Haberl aka noid and other historical and up-to-date optical sound applications.
@ noid
Wednesday 11h of October 6 pm | ELAB FH St. Pölten
Lecture | Peter Donhauser (60min)
Electro-Optical Musical Instruments
Using optical methods for building electronic musical instruments was the most flexible way to implement new sounds up to the 1960ties. The talk will give a summary of the most relevant ideas and a demonstration of Max Brand’s construction of an optical synthesizer.
Lecture | Klaus Filip and Arnold Haberl aka noid (30min)
Up-to-date Artistic Approaches and Applications of Optical Sound Technologies
Wednesday 11th of October 7:45 pm – 9 pm (open end) | ELAB FH St. Pölten
Thursday 12th of October 1 pm – 5 pm (open end) | ELAB FH St. Pölten
Workshop with the following key aspects
1. Building light sensors as receivers for optical sound
2. Simple alternative with a solar cell
3. Building an optical sound transmitter
4. Controlling the motors for disk rotation, optionally with a light sensor
5. Designing sound disks
6. Exploring the sound of different light sources
7. Experimenting with the available devices
Fryday 13th of October 5 pm (open end) | Freiraum St. Pölten
Presentation of the workshop results