Light is a language

Guia Amsterdam Light Festival - Págs. 2 e 3

Those who discover French scientist Louis Bertrand Castel's 18th century light organ whilst searching for the earliest forms of light art should be content. Imagine not only hearing, but also seeing a rendition of one of Bach's masterpieces. Castel connected the instrument's keys to a variety of colors, and candles were placed against colored glass that lit up when the keys were pressed.

Although the invention never got further than a prototype, the idea of a light organ has always appealed to our imaginations. When Castle first presented the instrument on paper, people started referring to the romantic idea of synesthesia, a condition of the brain that results in those affected being able to taste colors and see sounds. But without a doubt, the most important legacy of Castel's Clavecin por lex yeux is the idea that light is a medium that conjures ideas and feelings. That light is a language.

This is something that the artist participating in the third edition of Amsterdam Light Festival know all to well.

They work in the tradition of Louis Bertrand Castel and express themselves in light, that elusive, changeable phenomenom that can simultaneously be so concrete. For some artists, light is an instrument with which to bring an installation to life whilst for others, the light source itself is the artwork. An object you can see but can't pick yp or a wall that you can pass through - these are some of the things that light can do.

It took a while before people understood that the possibilities of light were endless. In the 17th century, dar Parisian streets were equipped with royal streetlamps in an attempt to reduce crime rates. In the centuries that followed, more and more places were fit with gaslights and carbon arc lamps but not everyone was happy about it. After seeing the first electric arc lamps, Scottish writter Robert Louis Stevenson exclaimed, "A new sort of urban star now shines ou nightly, horrible, unearthly, obnoxious to the human eye; a lamp for a nightmare! Such a light as this should shine only on murders and public crime, or along the corridors of lunatic assylums, a horror to heighten horror."

What would Stevenson have thought about today brightly cities? About the many light festivals that contribute to our already well-lit urban environments? In the 1960s, California-based Robert Irwin, James Turrel and Dough Wheeler turned their backs on abstract painted and focused on creating art that could be experienced with the senses. For them, light was an important element. They used it in a variety of ways, from fire to floodlights, from projections to neon lights. But the work never left the confines of the museum walls.

That's all about to change. The festival's participating artists consider the city to be their main territory; they find inspiration in an environment where billboards, traffic signs and flashing neon tubes scream for our attention and have accepted the challenge to create new artworks. Armed with continuosly advancing technology, LED lights and complex projections, they can say whatever they want. They speak an international language.

Experience it yourself.