Trinagulation blog
industrial design and art blog

28.12.2010

featuring:
Tessel, kinetic sound art installation
by: David Letellier and LAb[au]

(Esp) Tessel es una instalación cinética que investiga la percepción del sonido y el espacio, está compuesta por una estructura articulada de 4 x 2 m, dividida en cuarenta triángulos y a la vez suspendida del techo. Doce de ellos están equipados con motores y de los cuales ocho incorporan transductores de audio, transformando la superficie en un espacio sonoro dinámico. Un diálogo entre el espacio y el sonido se crea a través de esta escultura "coreografía ". Nuestra percepción está alterada, como la superficie poco a poco modifica su forma.

Tessel combina influencias que cuestionan la relación entre la geometría, el movimiento y el caos, continuando así la búsqueda de la belleza en la percepción sinestésica de los fenómenos sonoros y espaciales.

Tessel ha sido creada entre el compositor y artista francés David Letellier y LAb[au], un estudio belga de artes electrónicas. Este proyecto es una co-producción de las galerías MediaRuimte (Bruselas) y Roger Tato (Lyon), realizado con el apoyo financiero de Arcadi, Dicream y la Commission des Arts Numériques de la Communauté Française de Belgique.

Tessel is a kinetic sound installation investigating the perception of sound and space, it's constituted of a suspended and articulated topography of 4 x 2 m, subdivided into forty triangles. Twelve of them are fitted with motors and eight are equipped with audio transducers, which transform the surface into a dynamic sonic space. A dialogue between space and sound is created through this sculptural "choreography". Our perception is altered, as the surface slowly modifies its shape. From Tinguely's poetic machines to Alexander Calder's mobiles or Buckminster Fuller's synergetics, Tessel combines influences that question the link between geometry, movement and chaos, thus continuing the quest for beauty in the synesthetic perception of sound and spatial phenomenons. The name "Tessel" is derived from "tessellation", a term applied to the geometric subdivision of a surface into plane figures, also known as "tiling". It also describes a software technique that allows calculation of renderings through the subdivision of surfaces into polygons. The term has its origin in the Latin word 'tessella', describing the square tiles used to make mosaics. Tessellation has been applied throughout history from ancient to modern times, from two to n-dimensional configurations and merges science and art through mathematics. Here Tessel is based on the 'pinwheel pattern', a non-periodic tiling coined by mathematicians Charles Radin and John Conway, which allows the creation of an infinitely complex geometry constructed with a simple single "seed": a right triangle. Here, the pinwheel pattern is transformed, folded and transposed to the third dimension.