Black Hole Horizon

Black Hole Horizon 2015 at the Kunstverein Ingolstadt

Black Hole Horizon is a work of art by the German-Swiss artist Thom Kubli , which was created from 2012 to 2015.

description

The installation consists of three sculptures of different sizes made of polyurethane , which run out like ship horns in the form of exponential funnels. The objects generate sounds using compressed air. With every note, huge soap bubbles appear on the objects' bell-horns . These increase with the duration of the sound, eventually detach and float through the room until they burst at a random point. The range of the sometimes man-sized soap bubbles is up to twenty meters , depending on the thermal situation. Visitors can move through the room on catwalks and encounter the floating objects.

The interlinking of the creation processes of sound and soap bubbles gives the viewer the impression that the sound is transformed into the physical objects or is "stored" in them. In fact, the waveform of the sound becomes visible in the process of forming the soap bubbles, which reinforces the imagination.

The three sculptures are controlled by digital processes that operate with coincidence and compression. The focus is on the effect of the sound in interaction with the spatial choreography of the soap bubbles. There is a constant renewal of the situation presented by the volatility of the soap bubbles and their unpredictable movements.

The title of the work refers to the astrophysical phenomenon of the event horizon , a boundary surface of space-time beyond which events are no longer perceptible to the human observer.

Ars Electronica, Linz, 2016

Ars Electronica, Linz, 2016

Ars Electronica, Linz, 2016

Art Association Ingolstadt, 2015

Art Association Ingolstadt, 2015

background

“It was important to me that the sound had a material equivalent, not a virtual one. This kind of transformation touches in an idiosyncratic way. ”- Thom Kubli

Kubli designed the first version of Black Hole Horizon in 2011 . He followed the idea of mobile volumes in the form of giant soap bubbles that take up and change space, combined with the performative moment of a fleeting, sonic process. The audience's confrontation with the floating objects in the room indicated a constant process of social renewal and its physical and psychological dynamics.

With the development of the horn sculptures, Kubli reflected on current trends in contemporary art such as Anish Kapoor's monumental sculpture of Marsyias and Terry Adkin's work Last Trumpet . He also found inspiration in the historical sound generator Intonarumori by the futuristic painter and composer Luigi Russolo and in the natural trumpet Dungchen , which is played on ceremonial occasions in Tibetan music.

As part of a collaboration with the Architecture Department of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and EMPAC, Troy, New York, a first version of the work was realized in summer 2012. Kubli worked closely with astrophysicist Zackery Balanger and mechatronics engineer David Jaschik to address the significant engineering, thermal, and physical challenges.

effect

From August 20 to September 1, 2012, a first version of Black Hole Horizon was presented at EMPAC's Studio2 in Troy, New York. A hanging horn sculpture was seen in a functional state. After a further phase of technical development, all three sculptures were shown as an active installation for the first time from February 20 to April 5, 2015 at the Kunstverein Ingolstadt .

In 2016, the Ars Electronica Festival Black Hole Horizon presented in its annual thematic exhibition. The organizers described the installation as an “absolute crowd puller”. This presentation in the Post-City air raid shelter made Black Hole Horizon known to a broad international audience for the first time. During the exhibition, Thom Kubli and Hiroshi Ishii, who led the symposium there, met. The brief encounter later led to a long-term cooperation with the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab , Boston .

From July 17th to December 3rd 2017, Black Hole Horizon was shown in São Paulo as part of the FILE Festival. The theme of the major event was Bubbling Universes , based on the quantum physical multiverse theory. Black Hole Horizon was installed as a central work of the festival in the foyer of the FIESP building on Avenida Paulista. As the largest festival for media art in Latin America, the exhibition attracted over 72,000 visitors.

The work was mainly received positively by art critics and curators. One reason was the universal experience and the easy accessibility for the public regardless of age and cultural background.

The art critic Dominique Moulon remarked: “The spectacle of these free-floating soap bubbles represents a spectrum of frequencies of varying duration and relative strangeness, which transports us to our childhood. Dwindling away, these audiovisual units increase the performativity of their programmatic resolution. "

The art and media scientist Marcel René Marburger wrote: “Starting with the randomly controlled electronic impulses, we are dealing with a chain of randomnesses in which we are all the last link. With every random factor, the work becomes even more improbable and therefore even more innovative. "

Play media file

Video - Ars Electronica, Linz, 2016

construction

Each of the horn objects is constructed like a wind instrument . A membrane chamber is excited by means of compressed air , which generates the sound. As a result, the air flow hits a soap bubble membrane, which forms the soap bubbles through the pressure . A liquid circuit supplies the digitally controlled mechanics with the required amount of soap bubble lye. The three horn objects are tuned differently, their frequency is static and defined by the length of the sound-amplifying tube. The shape of the horn objects was developed using a series of digital simulations .

literature

Inventario # 13: Everything is a Project. Cover. Milan 2018, ISBN 978-88-7570-718-7 .
21st Japan Media Arts Festival. Exhibition catalog. Tokyo 2018, p. 50.
"Bubbling Universes". FILE São Paulo 2017 FIESP. SESI, São Paulo 2017, ISBN 978-85-89 730-23-5 , pp. 54, 55.
Radical Atoms and the Alchemists of our Time. Ars Electronica 2016. Hatje Cantz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7757-4193-4 , pp. 110, 390.
Thom Kubli: "Black Hole Horizon". Catalog. Kunstverein Ingolstadt, 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-049670-7 .
Marler Media Art Awards 2013/2014. Wienand Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86832-265-1 , pp. 160, 161.