The installation, inspired by the 4D shape of the same name, happens inside a 10.5 x 11m or 14 x 14m scaffold cube. Audiences are invited into the sculpture where a six-minute light show takes place using solely Clay Paky Sharpys.
"In order to create the Tesseract we used 65 x Clay Paky Sharpys, chosen for their dense beam and rapid pan and tilt movements," explains Pier Schneider one of the managing directors of 1024 who along with business partner François Wunschel and in house musician Fernando Favier created and developed the Tesseract project.
"The Sharpys are programmed to swing extremely quickly in any direction," continues Schneider, "This creates the 3D light source that transforms the giant 3D cube into a 4D experience to music. The installation is designed to offer us new ways of seeing the urban environment and literally invests that everyday reality with an extra dimension."
The Sharpy's maximum PAN and TILT speeds, at 2.45 and 1.30 seconds respectively, made such a fast-paced, dynamic light show possible. The fixtures lightning movement and 189W laser like beams gave participating audiences the impression of solid scaffold beams appearing and disappearing at various heights and spaces above their heads.
As well as the utilizing the Sharpys inbuilt features Schneider and Wunschel have found that the fixtures ever increasing popularity has meant that when touring the pop-up Tesseract, they are able to travel light - taking only a laptop on the road.
"We source all our equipment locally - everything from the scaffold to the lighting" explains Schneider. "We can find the Sharpy almost everywhere now due to its popularity."
Tesseract aka HYPER-Cube has been seen at various arts festivals worldwide from Vancouver New Forms Festival to Prague's Signal festival and will continue its global journey in 2014.
(Jim Evans)
