Dark Side of the Moon:
A Spectral Explosion in Imipolex G
Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA ‘Forget leather, forget satin,” shivered Drohne.
'This is Imipolex, the material of the future.’Project Overview Satellite Objects -Thomas Pynchon Click Play on right window to watch and listen to performance documentation.
Vintage Vinyl Records, Turntables, Slide Projectors with custom metal slides, Crystal Clusters, NASA Space Blanket, Viagra, LSD, Zoloft, Marijuana, V-2 Model Rocket with ignition system and launch pad, PA system, lighting control system and computer.
Dark Side of the Moon: A Spectral Explosion in Imipolex G is a rock'n roll light show performed at the Atlantic Center for the Arts on the east coast of Florida near the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral.
The performance begins with the sound of the first satellite: the Russian's Sputnik. As the aggressive sonic pings recede into the distance, the crackling sound of JFK's voice played from a vintage 45rpm record emerges from the darkness, proclaiming America's intention to enter the Space Race and put a Man on the Moon. As JFK's voice booms out over the audience, a spot light skims horizontally across the stage highlighting a rocket poised for lift off. However, instead of the Saturn-V rocket that one would expect--and which was the rocket that delivered Apollo 11 to the moon--the light illuminates a V-2 prototype rocket. While originally a Nazi weapon, the V-2 rocket was the first ballistic missile and artifact to enter suborbital space flight, forging the ground for all future space expeditions. As JFK finishes his declaration, Walter Cronkite's enters the scene with his voice providing the lead vocals of the launch count down backed up instrumentally by another vinyl track that begins playing on the stage: Pink Floyd’s "Time" from album Dark Side of the Moon. The countdown is synched to the crescendo of the "Time" lead in, and at the precise moment of the final drum fill, the V-2 rocket's engine is ignited and the vehicle strives for lift off. The rocket however is tethered to the earth, creating a fountain of fire on the stage with a billowing cloud of smoke. The launch ends with a final explosion and the ejection of the warhead. The result of the launch fills the theatre with smoke and the smell of sulfur. The aftermath of the launch settles into the sounds of the original Saturn-V rocket thrust and the white noise of cosmic background radiation. Darkness descends as thunder claps roll across the space from lighting storms recorded around Cape Canaveral.
Slowly out of the settled chaos, ethereal sounds much like a thermin fill the space. As the glowing sounds increase, luminescent elliptical rings that rotate in place become visible through the lingering rocket smoke. The light projections are a result of a thin ray of white light skipping across the surface of the vinyl records used in the performance. The reflections of the light bouncing off of the surfaces of the records translate the grooves of the vinyl into swirling light patterns and subtle chromatic shifts on a screen positioned at the back of the theatre. Above one of the Saturn like revolving rings a rainbow shimmers. Fittingly, the eerie sounds that accompany the light projections are actual recordings of the Voyager satellite moving through the rings of Saturn. Both light and sound fade into the darkness as the show ends.
Thank yous: Will Cotton for being the guest rocket launch engineer, Nick Conroy for the Pink of Possibility, David Dunn for the sounds of Saturn and Alvin Lucier for his timely questions. Project made possible by the Atlantic Center for the Arts with funding from the KIAC School of Visual Arts.
