LAb[au] presents Binary Waves :: November 28 – 29, 2008; 2:00 – 10:00 pm :: Opening: November 27, 6:00 -9:00 pm :: Gesu Church, Rue Royale 165 Koningstraat, Brussels, Belgium.

Binary Waves is an urban and cybernetic installation based on the measuring of flows and their transposition into luminous, sonic and kinetic rules. The installation is constituted by a network of rotating and luminous panels of 3 meter-high and 60 centimetres wide, forming a kinetic wall. Their rotation is controlled by microprocessors, allowing to determine precisely the rotation speed and angle, while their networking allows to synchronise the movement of the panels. The microprocessors are connected to infrared sensors, capturing the movement of passer-by’s.

According to this set up, each impulse is transmitted from one panel to the other, describing visual waves running from one side of the installation to the other, and then bouncing back while progressively loosing oscillation.

Light reinforces the kinetic principle of the panels. The kinetic and illumination vocabulary is based on the parameter of time (duration = repercussion of a signal over the panels), speed (force of impulse) and the sense of rotation. These parametric settings of light in correspondence to the urban flows designate the intensity of light from flux to lux.

Furthermore, each captured signal is related to a sound reinforcing the perception of the circulation frequency and leading to a soundscape. All these principles relate the ‘micro-events’ happening in the area to a unified play of light, colours and sounds directly derived from the rhythm of the city flows.