Page 18 - Studio International - November 1967

Moholy Nagy and entitled An academy for the study of light. 'It is Nagy's approach to the use of light in art was
astonishing'—he wrote—'that after a hundred that it should be used in conjunction with
light art as an years of photography and forty years of film, other activities. In 1940 at the Chicago Insti-
after the building up of great industries in tute he devised a series of motion studies
art of the future which billions have been invested, there does whereby lights were fastened on the body of a
not yet exist a Light Academy which might person performing some function, and then
teach, by means of a definite pedagogical photographed or filmed; thereby a new aspect
programme, an artistically and economically of portraiture in movement was introduced.
productive comprehension of the new values He was also concerned with special effects for
—light and colour.' The academy was to be a films and described in detail the slide pro-
training centre which would serve to adjust jections made in 1936 for H. G. Wells' film
an individual's creative thinking to present- 'Things to come', which consisted of oil drops
day aesthetic needs. Moholy Nagy himself squeezed between glass plates. He also de-
believed that neither painting nor sculpture vised, in 1930, a light machine which he
Jasia Reichardt had a place in the modern architectural space. called a 'light prop' since he considered that
He saw a solution in the invention of new art it would be suitable as a stage property. It was
materials—photography, film, and, above all, constructed from the following components :
controllable artificial light. Light was to him motor, cog wheel transmission, flash appara-
The most effective light displays appear in a 'spatial' medium of increasing importance. tus, stencils, light bulbs, perforated metal
dreams. Recent light and colour environ- 'Unfortunately'—he wrote—'we do not know sheets and wire grills. A lengthy scenario was
ments have a tendency to approximate more much about this medium.' The artist's lack prepared for a film in which the 'light prop'
and more to effects induced by hallucinogens, of understanding of technology and scientific was to appear.
although, one is told, they are not as imagina- advances prevents him from making use of the Many artists who are concerned today with
tive. It is rather interesting that the pre- 'new space' and new possibilities that have the possibilities of light displays also see them
occupation with light as an artistic medium been won. 'The new artist'—Moholy Nagy in conjunction with other displays or as
coincides with the preoccupation of psycho- continued—'working with plastics inevitably analogues to musical and dance performances.
logists with our inherent need to dream as has to take up scientific studies or else wait Mark Boyle's light shows, for instance, which
opposed to just sleep. Many reasons for our decades until knowledge about plastics be- are among the most imaginative I have seen,
need to dream have been suggested, including comes commonplace.' The new 'space' he are a part of a music and dance performance.
a recent theory of Dr Christopher Evans that often referred to was not the mental/physical With Graciella Martinez and the 'Soft
dreaming is a period when information is space which surrounds our life, but the in- Machine' the entire performance lasts for just
sorted and filed to allow intake of new infor- creasingly uncluttered and flexible space over an hour and presents an experience
mation. The psychedelic experience could be created by architects. which assails all the senses and which consists
seen as the result of a desire to increase the The first attempts to put light to artistic of a string of fragments with either the music
dreaming time, and psychedelic art (which usage assumed popular forms (Moholy Nagy or lights bridging the transitions, between one
often includes light art and often looks in- actually called them inferior forms) —adver- dance and the next.
substantial when approached soberly) as an tising, dance hall illuminations, the cinema Also involved with audiovisual improvisa-
attempt to extend it beyond the experience of and searchlight tattoo. The transition, how- tions is Otto Piene, a one-time member of the
a single individual. ever, from the more commercial attempts at group Zero, who has really continued from
Anthony Hill has put forward the idea that harnessing light to the creative idioms was far the point where Moholy Nagy left off. In 1961
in years to come one's dreams will be filmed; from slow, in intention at least. Nevertheless he constructed a salon de lumière, which con-
in the morning one will be able to examine Moholy Nagy was complaining thirty years sisted of a constellation of programmed light-
the rushes and project the whole film on a ago that the artists' use of light was at best not machines projecting on to walls and ceiling
screen. Inevitably by that time the entire further advanced than the effects explored in with light passing through rotating filters and
role of art will have changed; I can imagine the magic lantern. Strangely enough it is the bouncing off reflective surfaces. The crucial
one of the creative pursuits consisting then of scale and complexity of light displays that step in Piene's development of light displays
trying to create a perfect dream by collaging have altered but not necessarily their effective- was a demonstration he made a year earlier
the available material from various sources. ness. Beyond the use of time switches, ultra which he called his first mechanical light
Meanwhile light displays are rather limited violet, neon, stroboscopic and other devices, ballet and which he directed from a manually-
despite the claims, made for them. The an- the advances today involve refinement rather operated electric switchboard. Since then his
cestry of light art is documented in every than radical change. displays have become more mysterious and
catalogue, which suggests that a ferment of Instead of using light in an illusionistic way ephemeral. With technical elaborations it is no
ideas has preceded technical possibilities. in paintings Moholy Nagy had an alternative longer possible to guess how the various effects
Categories are established (e.g. environmen- idea. Instead of depicting light with the aid of are arrived at. The main difference between
tal, natural, projected, screened, direct, and pigments and varnishes, real light sources early and late attempts is that in the latter the
spectacle), and ownership of terminology is could be employed to activate the painted sur- spectator actually enters the territory of the
bravely fought for. Recently, for instance, the face in relief. This could be achieved if every work instead of confronting it. Piene's ap-
young American critic Willoughby Sharp work had a light console attached to it. proach to the problem of light art is summar-
declared that he is naming the movement of 'It would be a great help for the painter ized in one of his statements:
light art 'Luminism' to follow the term `Kine- to know more about scientific optics so that 'A rubber skin, helium and the wind, light,
ticism' which he coined in 1964. Luckily those he would be able to make controlled light electricity and fireworks seem to me excellent
who have made a real contribution to the paintings without the use of pigment, with media. The revolving beam of a lighthouse
exploration of light as an art medium have only polarized stresses of material; or by and a balloon in the air are more convincing
been, and are, more modest in their pro- gratings (almost invisible lines engraved into a sculptures than the big chunks that are so hard
nouncements. transparent surface) and lit from behind so to move. Calder's mobiles can be taken apart.
One of the people whose importance can that prismatic light effects could be produced Our objects ought to be inflated or ignited or pro-
never be underestimated in this context is at will for coloured light compositions.' jected. And environments? As far as a laser beam
Moholy Nagy. In 1937 he wrote an article One of the most interesting aspects of Moholy reaches. Are the jet pilots who write vapour
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