Image
An installation of black horns suspended from wires blowing bubbles in a white room.

Thom Kubli

Black Hole Horizon
August 20—September 1, 2012
Studio 2

A sound installation by German artist Thom Kubli, Black Hole Horizon was designed and constructed at Rensselaer in collaboration with the School of Architecture and consultants Zackery Belanger (acoustic design) and David Jaschik (mechatronics). Using the university’s laser-cutting and 3D-milling equipment for the material creation, the production team designed a complex system of air compressors, fluid pumps, and Arduino-controlled mechanisms to create horns that produce tone-generated bubbles. Each bubble is deformed by the energy of the sound produced through the horn, and then bursts onto the room’s white floor. The shapes of the horns, some stretching eight feet long, were based on a model of a black hole geometrodynamic physics. In the installation, spectators could explore the space by walking through the room and witnessing the transformation of sound into ephemeral sculptures.

Main Image: Installation view: Black Hole Horizon (2012). Photo: Kris Qua/EMPAC.

Media

Dates + Tickets

Music/Sound
Installation
Commission
Thom Kubli
Black Hole Horizon
Monday 20
August 2012
------------ thru ------------
Saturday 1
September 2012
Presented By

EMPAC Fall 2012

Discipline
Visual Art
Artist

Season

Curator
Production Credits

Commissioned by EMPAC

Production support provided by the Department of Architecture at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Zackery Belanger, Acoustic Design and Consultant David Jaschik, Mekatronik Special thanks to Peter Zhang, Jim Van Duyne, Eric Ameres and Eric Lin.