Residencies Illumine (Loop.ph, Edwin van der Heide, Karmen Franinovic, Isabel Rocamora, Camila Valenzuela)

Exercises in Colloquial Luminescence was a series of residencies exploring the relationship between light, luminescence and communication. Subtle ambient changes of illumination that can extend gestures, make invisible visible and respond to weather patterns. How can we play light as a musical instrument? Can we use light to make our bodies lighter, even weightless? Can we extend our gestures and paint with light while dancing? What can we learn from bioluminescent organisms so that we can design our environments in a more lifelike way?

FoAM invited four groups of artists to explore tangible, sensual answers to these questions. Isabel Rocamora and Camila Valenzuela designed a series of short, illuminated anti-gravity performances – Ebb and Flow of Stubborn Matter. Karmen Franinovic and Yon Visell experimented with a responsive environment called syncop tic structure. Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl of loop.ph exhibited an electroluminescent prototype for Electroluminescent Interiors. Edwin van der Heide produced a beautiful installation, Sound Modulated Light.

“The first corporeal form which some call corporeity is in my opinion light.”
– Robert Grosseteste