CERN
The CERN installation is a system of interconnected objects – old and discarded reflectors, projection units, rotating mechanisms, lenses – that react and communicate with each other. Another important element is the person of the musician who, together with this system, forms a certain organism. Using light, sound and physics, CERN comes to life and creates a distinctive world that lives its own life.
The initial idea is based on lectures by Claude Lévi-Strauss Anthropology Confronts the Problems of the Modern World. Lévi-Strauss likens scientists to magicians, shamans who perform mysterious ceremonies and rituals, completely unintelligible to the uninitiated. This created a rather vague idea of creating a system of smaller laboratories in which various manifestations and relationships between natural forces could be studied. The idea of sorting more laboratories led us to be inspired by the LHC particle accelerator in the Swiss underground, at CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research).
The system of environmental relations we study is based on an alchemical engraving from the 16th century, which depicts various combinations of elemental transformations depending on physical elements, such as cold, heat, drought or humidity. The objects used are based on finds in the cellar of the Vinohrady theatre. Another part of the subjects comes from the abolished high school physics cabinet. The individual devices are sensed by sound sensors and are illuminated in various ways.
In the installation, we use two inscribed squares as a basis for roulette and we create various combinations on the principle of chance or fate. Subsequently, we connect the individual laboratory environments according to various formulas. In this way we create a relatively large range of partial random and variously combined installations.
A multifunctional object, light and sound console emerges from the installation, on which we can play through various combinations of images and sounds.
It is a creative process: the installation responds to the space, the environment and the viewer. CERN can function as a stand-alone multifunctional installation as well as a performative environment with input for the spectator.
Video: Kryštof Zika
Hudba: Slunce
Premiere at festival 4 + 4 days in motion 2018 in Desfour Palace
Foto: Mikoláš Zika, Kryštof Zika