A Scintillation of particles and Waves

Full description

Research Background
A Scintillation of Particles and Waves was a collaborative exhibition between Michael Graeve whose work predominantly explores sound composition and painting and Leslie Eastman whose work explores light perception and spatial installation. The exhibition responded to critiques of the introspective encounter of painting and installation by theorists of Relational Aesthetics (Bourriaud, 2002) and the social encounter which has been criticised for neglecting the affective and aesthetic (Birnbaum, 2007 and Bishop, 2008). The work navigates a path between the introspective and the social modes of installation practice through the use of the physicality of sound and the relativity of colour and light.

Research Contribution

The work’s contribution to the field is the emphasis on the creative role played by audiences in perceiving their surroundings. The experience of sound was made tactile, visceral, and felt, through the innovative use of directional speakers. Coloured surfaces were made indeterminate by projecting additive coloured light upon them, foregrounding painting and the experience of space itself as a durational and relative experience.

Significance
By distilling the mediums of light and sound the artists emphasised a physical and poetic dimension of the elemental aspects of experience- looking and hearing- to generate an engagement with space that is reciprocal, embodied and relational. Its value is attested by the following indicators

• Inclusion of the work into the West Space exhibition program through competitive selection by a committee of curators, artists and academics from Melbourne’s major art schools
• The exhibition received funding from the Pat Corrigan artists exhibition grant