Artist : Laurits Jongejan
World premiere
[ exhibition ]
Time : Free entry
14. May • 16:00 - 19:00
15. - 16. May • 12:00 - 21:00
17. - 18. May • 10:00 - 16:00
Location : Godsbanen - Foyer, Karen Wegeners Gade 8, 8000 Aarhus
Supported by : Koda Kultur, Sounds of the Future og Regions Midtjylland Kulturpulje
Commissioned by : SPOR festival
Info
An electromechanical audio artwork that explores humanity’s eternal eagerness to describe the world around us through the construction of complex machinery. The piece draws inspiration from – and creates a technological encounter between – the cryostatic cooling systems of quantum computers and the Danish national treasure, the Sun Chariot. Large, circular discs hang horizontally at the center of the work, like the core of an industrial quantum computer, and on each of these, mythological scenes of the sun’s journey across the sky unfold, inspired by the Danish Bronze Age.
At the heart of the piece is a mechanical instrument consisting of four large gongs, activated by electronic mallets and electronically vibrating devices. These gongs form the sides of the work and are illuminated as large, pulsating sun discs. Quantum computers are associated with a technological hope – a hope of being able to harness an unfathomable physical phenomenon and analyze the formation of weather systems, extreme cosmic events, and the navigation of ships across the world’s oceans. All of which, to varying degrees, are also explored in the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. The work is newly produced and has its premiere at this festival.
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Laurits Jongejan (b. 1992) is a Danish-Dutch composer and sound artist based in Copenhagen. His works explore the human relationship with omnipresent technology, and how intimacy and meaning can be created through our use of and connection to it. His pieces present a surreal, isolated form of technology in scenes marked by human absence. Machines without any desire for human touch or interaction. His works have been on exhibit both in Denmark and internationally, including at the National Gallery of Denmark, Kapelica Gallery, and most recently at the National Museum of Denmark.