SKALAR – the large scale immersive kinetic lighting and electronic music art installation created by light artist / designer Christopher Bauder and composer / music producer Kangding Ray – has been reimagined for Amsterdam’s The Gashouder, a stunning circular space where the work is being presented by Audio Obscura.
Christopher utilised Robe Pointes as lightsources – 93 in total – in this invigorating new space. The installation which he calls SKALAR 360, also features 61 double-sided mirrors with perimeter rings of 180 addressable pixels which are suspended on 183 custom KINETIC LIGHTS motorised winches.
Five circular trusses were installed in the roof with diameters of 5.6,10.6, 15.6, 21.2 and 33.7 metres respectively, radiating out from the centre all trimmed at approximately 10 metres and these were fitted with varying quantities of mirrors – between 1 and 24 per trussing ring.
Beyond these was an outside circle of 24 individually flown ladders, approximately 5 metres from the perimeter wall of the Gashouder, each rigged with three Pointes which appear to be floating in air in the dark. These provide excellent positions for hitting the mirrors and deflecting and bending the light around the room in the numerous elegant asymmetric patterns characteristic of SKALAR’s kinetic visuals.
The three lighting totems on the floor also featured in the Berlin and Mexico versions. In Amsterdam, each is rigged with seven Pointes and positioned around the room just underneath the circle 2 overhead position. Kangding Ray also made some adaptations and additions to the soundscape to reflect the space and some of the new moves as well as they the fact that they have a sumptuous 12-channel surround sound system at the Gashouder which lends itself perfectly to SKALAR’s immersive nature and juxtaposition of technology and imagination in an invigorating headspace.
The Pointe’s frost and the strobing function with their adjustable frame rates are present in SKALAR 360, and several different Pointe functions are utilized for the looped show and live concerts.
