Sirens

Until febuary 8th there will be the 5th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Today we went to see Siren. I was totally unprepared, just new it would be some kind of art installation. What it really was is hard to describe but I will try:
Siren is an audiovisual experience. On the performance site there are large metal tripods from one up to three metres tall. They have rotating arms powered by motors, electronic tone generators (sirens) and a speaker at each end. It starts slowly. The performers consecutively switch the "instruments" and tune the sound. When they are all running they create a chorus of analog sounds. They also start spinning, some slow some faster. The audience can wander around the tripods freely while the performers tune the oscillators to change the musical composition and try not to get hit by one of the rotating arms. The small red LEDs at the end of each arms trace circles of light as the arms rapidly rotate, which is expereinced best when there is no other light (see images below). I enjoyed this unusual experience with sound and light very much. If you have the chance, go see it!


photo: Ray Lee; You can watch videos on the website but its not nearly the same experience then when you see it real