Vakuumenergiekammer

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The VIVID festival, annually held in Sydney, is an internationally recognised event dedicated to the creative use of new lighting technologies. Richard Wagner is one of the world's greatest artists, creating the concept of 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (total work of art) that unites sound, image and narrative forms. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The VIVID festival provided funding for the creation of 'Vakuumenergiekammer', and the 'Wagnerlicht' exhibition tour. The work was specifically commissioned by the 'Wagnerlicht' director and curator Michael Day. The work was exhibited in Australia and Germany as part of the international 200th anniversary celebration of Richard Wagner's opera 'Der Ring Des Niebelungen'. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The research contribution of 'Vakuumenergiekammer' includes the use of new technologies and original data manipulation and audiovisualisation processes. The use of RGB lasers within a custom built polyhedral acrylic structure creates a unique near-spherical video display system. The content for this display system comprised of audio time compression to condense the elements of the entire 16 hour 'Der Ring Des Niebelungen', or Ring Cycle, into three minutes whist maintaining recognisable leifmotifs, which are visualised using custom algorithms to manifest the sounds as visual waves and particles is a unique method and interpretation of the work. The piece, 'Vakuumenergiekammer', which translates as 'Vacuum Energy Chamber', conceptually explores Wagner's 'Gesamtkunstwerk', and his notion of a hermetic universe, within a sculpturally hermetic form. It also relates Wagner's cosmology to scientific theories regarding vacuum energy and the origin of the universe.