Glyphlux
From Sherwiki
Glyphlux is an interactive projected video which visualizes the sound ambiance of the gallery (or any other sound input) using the different shades and sizes of Arabic script. Its debut presentation was in Khat-keshi exhibition of experimental typography in Tehran, Iran.
Contents |
Concept and Idea
After somehow failing to connect to the audience in the performance, The Blue Box, for the next project which was going to be presented in an experimental typography group exhibition ("Khat-keshi"), I thought about making the effect of audience presence very seamless and unavoidable. During the time, I was mostly focused on use of digital technology and time-based media in art. Also, during the workshop in Berlin, I was introduced to some inter-disciplinary approaches to art, science, and technology. So the interactive and generative characteristics of this work are inherited from the approach to the media and I emphasized them during the definition and realization of the work.
Realization
"Glyphlux" uses a piece of Processing.org code to receive the sound input from a microphone and accordingly generates the changes in letter-forms. Font size of the letters is increased based on the volume level of the sound input. Also, sound pitch is used to change the shades of the letters (from white to gray, and to black).
Typography?
Question: What is the significance and relationship of language and typography in this works? and how do you define typography? (from Q&A with Roshanak Keyghobadi)
Before talking about typography, it's good to first give my definition of it; I think typography can use the visual potentials of the letters in any written language to turn the script into something aesthetically beautiful and more important than that, visually meaningful. This means, one can use typography to dramatize the script and bring a dimensions to that other than the normal facade of letters as a mapping standard between sounds in the spoken language and written forms of them. A good piece of typography should be able to tell a tale as well as transfer a mood or visual message. And when it goes beyond borders of standardized and ornamental aesthetic, it diverges from calligraphy.
In this sense, typography was not a characteristic of "The Blue Box" and even in "Glyphlux" it was used in very abstract forms of changing the font size and shades according to the ambient sound. But the cumulative image of many letters with different shades and sizes was a direct representation of things going on in the gallery. Although, use of letters and not other shapes was not totally arbitrary, considering the meanings letter-forms (or glyphs) can visually imply.
Media
Videos
Photos
- Khat-keshi, TYPO Berlin, Berlin, Germany
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
- Digital Ritual, Grand Rapids, MI, US
Images courtesy of Digital Ritual.
 |
 |
- Khat-keshi, Tehran
Images courtesy of Maryam Niazadeh.
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Events
- 1-7 April, 2009; On show in Digital Ritual, Open Concept Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, United States.
- 21-23 May, 2009: On show in TYPO Berlin 2009 along with other works from Khat-keshi experimental typography exhibition, Berlin, Germany.
- 28 May - 7 June, 2009: On show in Designtransfer, Berlin, Germany.
