Various Artists

LoCusts / paper rain

George Van Dam & Various Artists

“I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials... something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.

— Exodus 10:3–6

The installation / filming

In a large empty space at a certain height (4 to 6 meter) a filament wire mesh is installed. On the wire we hook small firecrackers (the smallest possible) 2 cm from each other. When we run current (24 volt)  through the wires, the firecrackers ignite and drop down to explode at a certain hight. There are aproximately 2000 firecrackers used for one salvo. The installation will be filmed with a high speed camera and rendered in slow motion.

The screening

a/ In a darkened room a projector and a screen (16/9) are installed. The film paperRain is run through a computer program connected with the controllers (music boxes). When one of the controllers is activated the movie starts playing and ads multiple layers as there are more players. From a certain amount of players active the full movie unrolls and is played in its entirety. This is when the soundtrack (composed by George Van Dam) is introduced. At the end of the program the system goes in reset and lets the participants renew the experience.

b/ 16 transparent boxes with a prepared music roll are hanging from the ceiling. Of the music boxes all but 7-10 pins have been erased rendering the original tune unrecognisable and spacey. When playing the boxes that are connected with piezoelectric microphones the sounds are repeated on the sound system. Multiple players create a chaotic soundscape. The composition is aleatoric and can never be twice the same. 

c/ The movie paperRain is shot at high speed and projected at slow speed. It has multiple layers of density from 200 to 2000 firecracker salvos. They are superimposed to create a space like continuum. The projection depends on the input from the controllers. The more music boxes are active the denser the projection gets till a certain point of saturation.