The Spectre and the Sphere [Jesse Jones]

11AM-8PM, 16 MAY – 21 JUNE 2008

[from Project Arts Centre website]

“Jesse Jones’ commissioned 16mm film The Spectre and the Sphere evokes the spectres of ideology and amplifies residual voices that haunt the cultural vessels of history. It examines how the spaces of our popular imagining such as the theatre and the cinema are also containers of historical and political impulses. The Spectre and the Sphere conjures up a particular moment in the early twentieth century through the use of cultural artefacts, imagining the various historical potentialities of the time, and how these residues may be present in our construction of the future.”

For this installation Brian and i had to design a system that scheduled and ran the two separate parts of the installation (film, Theremin/lighting piece) automatically. this was done using Max/Jitter. we also used Max/MSP to analyse the Theremin piece and to conform and output the resulting information as DMX (lighting control) messages. these DMX messages controlled a dimmer pack (via the Enttec DMX/USB pro interface and the dmxusbpro max external by nullmedium). the result was the variation in intensity of lighting on either side of the gallery in response to the change in pitch of the audio.