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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Potential Difference
Ted Apel
Original: FE_2001_pote_001_o.jpg | 1772 * 1426px | 1.2 MB
Piezoelectricity was discovered at the same time that Thomas Edison made his major breakthrough in his work on the incandescent light bulb. The present installation consists of several incandescent light bulbs and corresponding piezoelectric “sound bulbs”. The sound levels of the electroacoustic sound bulbs modulate the luminosity of corresponding light bulbs.
The cultural and economic impact of the light bulb has been incomparably greater than that of the piezoelectric element. Yet in both, a small amount of material is activated by electricity, producing two phenomena, the one resulting in sound, the other in light. These sound bulbs allow us to consider the piezoelectric element in the context of the light bulb. By drawing attention to the filament and piezoelectric element, the installation highlights both the technological similarities between them as well as the disparity in their cultural significance.
The light bulb is not meant to be looked at, but to illuminate objects and spaces. The loudspeaker is similarly not designed as a focus of visual or sonic attention. It is designed to invisibly reproduce a sonic environment independent of the loudspeaker. In this installation the filament is the focus of visual attention and the piezoelectric element is the focus of sonic attention. In this way, the meaning of the sounds cannot be separated from how they are transduced. The installation attempts to use the cultural significance of the light bulb and the specific technologies of the filament and the piezoelectric element to expand the context in which we understand and experience sound.
The cultural and economic impact of the light bulb has been incomparably greater than that of the piezoelectric element. Yet in both, a small amount of material is activated by electricity, producing two phenomena, the one resulting in sound, the other in light. These sound bulbs allow us to consider the piezoelectric element in the context of the light bulb. By drawing attention to the filament and piezoelectric element, the installation highlights both the technological similarities between them as well as the disparity in their cultural significance.
The light bulb is not meant to be looked at, but to illuminate objects and spaces. The loudspeaker is similarly not designed as a focus of visual or sonic attention. It is designed to invisibly reproduce a sonic environment independent of the loudspeaker. In this installation the filament is the focus of visual attention and the piezoelectric element is the focus of sonic attention. In this way, the meaning of the sounds cannot be separated from how they are transduced. The installation attempts to use the cultural significance of the light bulb and the specific technologies of the filament and the piezoelectric element to expand the context in which we understand and experience sound.
Ted Apel (US) is a sound artist whose sculptures and installations focus on the audio transducing element as the source of visual and sonic material. His sound installations have been shown at The Audio Art Festival in Cracow, The Sound Symposium in St. John's Newfoundland, and The SoundCulture Festival in San Francisco. He studied electroacoustic music at Dartmouth College with John Appleton, Larry Polansky and Christian Wolf. He is currently the Technical Director of the Center for Research in computing in the Arts (CRCA) at the University of California, San Diego.