Reflective plays of color
The reflective plays of color were light projections developed by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and Kurt Schwerdtfeger in 1922 at the Bauhaus . Moving, geometric shapes in colored light were projected onto a transparent screen from a so-called light play box. The performances were accompanied by music on the piano. One performed piece was the three-part color sonatina by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack.
description
The reflective color light games were performed using a mechanically operated light box. Inside were six headlights with replaceable color filters. The light intensity could be regulated with switches and resistors . In front of the cinematic box, stencils in geometric patterns were set in motion so that abstract shapes in bright colors were shown on the projection surface. Three helpers were required to operate, one of whom coordinated the music, another was responsible for the light projection and the third moved the stencils.
Emergence
The history of the development of reflective color light games has not yet been clearly clarified. Kurt Schwerdtfeger and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, who were involved in the development, gave contradicting information.
According to Kurt Schwerdtfeger, who worked in the Bauhaus sculptor's workshop, he designed a shadow play for the Bauhaus Lantern Festival in 1922 that showed not only shadow but also light. According to some sources, he designed the shadow play with his master Josef Hartwig . According to other sources, Schwerdtfeger received help from Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack during the rehearsals of the shadow play and the idea came up to use several lamps and colored glass panes so that colored light games were created.
According to Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, who belonged to the Bauhaus printing company , he experimented with Kurt Schwerdtfeger with colored light on a transparent canvas for a contribution to the 1922 Lantern Festival. Hirschfeld-Mack had the idea of moving stencils, through which a moving play of geometric patterns was created with red, blue and green light.
practice
The initially created color light games were premiered in Wassily Kandinsky's apartment in 1922 and also shown at the Bauhaus Lantern Festival in 1922. They were also shown at the Bauhaus in 1923 and during the Bauhaus week at the beginning of the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition .
Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack developed the plays of color light on the basis of the optical phenomenon of warm and cold shadows into reflective plays of color . They were shown at the Berlin Volksbühne in 1925 ; further performances followed in Celle , Greiz , Hamburg , Leipzig and Vienna . In 1925, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack's three-part color sonatina was shown at the film matinee Der absolute Film . He tried in vain to use the reflective color light games commercially.
Kurt Schwerdtfeger worked from 1946 at the Alfeld University of Education at the University of Hildesheim . There he and his students reconstructed the reflective color light plays from 1964 to 1966 .
literature
- Andi Schoon : The color light plays as a transitional form in: The order of sounds , Bielefeld, 2006, pp. 69–74 ( online , pdf)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reflective play of light. 1922-1923 - Kurt Schwerdtfeger at bauhaus100.de
- ↑ Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. Playing and fighting with reflective light (pdf)
- ↑ Kurt Schwerdtfeger. 1920–1924 Bauhaus student at bauhaus100.de