Dirty Light - Marko Ciciliani

Abstract
This thesis describes a number of compositions in which the objective was to investigate whether,
and how far, the organisation of light can function as an extension of musical expression in the
non-figurative visual realm. I explore the extent to which sound and light are compatible as
media, in the sense of both being able to communicate a common set of ideas.
The thesis begins by placing the discussion in a historical context, with an overview of the history
of analogies between sound and light from Antiquity to the 19 th century, as well as the history of
Light Art. The second part of the thesis describes synaesthesia as a historically developed
aesthetic concept and as a field of research that reveals interesting facts about the neuronal
processing of stimulations from the senses. The third part forms the core of the research. It leads
from a general historic discussion to more specific problems that emerged in my own work with
sound and light. Light is a medium strongly characterised by purity; at first, light therefore
seemed an inappropriate medium in which to offer plausible translations of different degrees of
sonic noise. However, because of the importance that the inclusion of noise has taken in music
since the 20 th century, this would have meant a severe handicap in looking for a homological
relationship between sound and light in artistic contexts. From a discussion of the broad
implications the idea of dirt has in social and cultural contexts, the focus is eventually reduced to
the aesthetic problem at hand. By means of a classification of three different sorts of noise, a
more differentiated understanding becomes possible of the various functions that noise can have.
Corresponding forms of ‘dirty light’ eventually become conceivable and artistically applicable. In
the fourth part, six compositions and one audiovisual installation are discussed. Each of these
works explores different relationships between the visual and sonic component. When
appropriate, the various concepts of ‘dirty light’ that have been derived in the third part are
reflected in the form of concrete examples. After discussing each work individually, certain
practical problems are addressed that surfaced repeatedly under different performance
circumstances. In the fifth part I pose the question of how far events that are conceived to be
musical have to be based on sonic events. Common definitions of music that describe sonic
events as its exclusive concern are questioned and a number of examples of music are discussed
where the sonic outcome is hardly audible or even completely silent. I propose a notion that
conceives music as a larger field of activity in which visual manifestations form an integral part.
The seven audiovisual works form the practical component of this dissertation. As a result of this
research a more differentiated understanding of the nature of the coupling of sound and light has
emerged, alongside a comprehension of the at times strongly differing views on the general nature
of cross-disciplinary works.
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