United Visual Artists manipulates passage of time in new light installation chamber

United Visual Artists has produced a new audiovisual chamber installation, with swinging pendulums of light as a study of harmony and discord in the passage of time.

21 motion-controlled LED pendulums undulate through the room arrhythmically as patterns in the light and movement emerge and dissipate gradually. Variation and asynchronisity alter the flow of light and perception of time within the room, which UVA calls: “a series of compositions which slowly change over time from natural order to disorder.”

Each of these pendulums contains a speaker, augmenting the sound of the main sub-bass speaker at floor level, while a subtle haze is emitted so that the beams of light are clearly defined and visible. UVA co-founder Matt Clark explains: “With light tracing the path and sound its echo, the passing of time becomes almost palpable.”

The technology behind the project is intentionally kept in the dark, with the speakers and spotlights attached to counterweighted two-axis robot arms.

UVA describes the piece as a “multi-sensory, multi-dimensional canvas the visitor can enter.”

Created as part of Dark Mofo in Hobart Australia, Our Time is the latest sculptural work produced by UVA concerned with the kinetic. It follows 2013’s Momentum at the Barbican in London and 2010’s Chorus.