Cloud harp
3 July — 20 October, 2009
Moscow, Laboratoria Art&Science Space

Organized by:
LABORATORIA Art&Science Foundation

Curator:
Daria PARKHOMENKO

Artist:
Nicolas REEVES (Canada)

Supported by:

Miracle and superhuman power are initially contained in clouds floating in the sky. Equipped with science and technology knowledge Nicolas Reeves, Master of «celestial ceremony», consistently transmutes a cloud into a scanned object, then into a digital abstraction, and finally, into music. The Cloud Harp is both a scientific instrument and an art-work — an instrument that generates musical images. 

Musical sequences by Cloud harp gives a new sensation of sky, now it can be experienced and understood not only visually but also aurally. The wonder of extending the sense perception of nature and new scientific perspectives here coincide and supplement each other. 

Cloud harp installation is the result of a research in electronics, acoustics, and programming. It is a physical sculpture containing a technological system that, by means of an infrared laser beam 8 kilometers high, reads the structure of clouds and then transforms this reading into musical sequences. The melodies or noise varies depending on factors such as altitude, cloud density, speed, temperature, and meteorological conditions. 

The poetics of clouds, astrophysics, acoustics and optics taken together within this project create a space provocative for dialogue between researchers, engineers, artists and musicians. Day and night Cloud harp keeps waiting for a cloud to appear above garden of Laboratoria Art&Science Space and to «communicate» with it. Specially designed cloud-viewing seats are located around it.

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