light

A reflection of light itself, in all the forms that humans have learned to harness. at its most elemental, light is a coherent wave, and laser light is humanity’s purest attempt to replicate that. This music video combines the natural with the manmade, and the human passion for creation with the material itself.

light by zeds dead is a song that explores light as a messenger of knowledge. the mysteries of the dark, once shone on by this invisible force of nature, are then revealed to anyone who can detect it. i took this concept a step further, understanding that humans are not only observers and learners, but creators and teachers as well. we naturally want to take the things we learn, and make something with it all on our own. from the invention of the lightbulb to me making this video, manmade light and creativity has only ever evolved, just like us.

humans have seen and worshipped light for our entire existence as a species. once we harnessed it with the first lightbulbs, humans turned that starting point into some of the most amazing art. I took video footage of some of my favorite lamps and art pieces at an antique store, which turned into the sequence of lamps in my project when combined with editing in Davinci resolve and touchdesigner.

I wanted to use the contrasting musical genres in the song to pronounce the different kinds of light shown. The project moves through several visual worlds: generative particle galaxies created with TouchDesigner, edited footage of antique lamps, and a laser show programmed in Pangolin Beyond. The visuals shown on the televisions during the laser sequence are edited oscilloscope drawings, which turn the waveform of the music directly into visual shapes.

my goal with this project is to deepen our understanding of the universe through a very small lens. there is so much more that we cannot see with the naked eye. I want to make it all visible, coherent, easy to understand, and accessible.