hikari mandala : fell, steel, ishi - cliffords tower, york 2003

A site-specific light and sound installation byEnglish digital sound artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and Japanese installation artist Harou Ishii. A series of lights and speakers are placed around the walls of the tower coating it in a complex shifting tapestry of light and sound. The work can be seen at dusk and throughout the night.

This work consists of 32 units that have speakers and light bulbs attached to them. When a sound is played over a speaker, the attached light momentarily switches on. These units are placed around the tower in various openings (windows, defensive positions, utility ducts, etc). The total system of 32 elements are triggered to create complex and shifting patterns of light and sound, coating the tower in a mesh of kinetic activity.

These momentary events mark fleeting points of conversion between the inner and the outer, representing and plotting a flow of energies through and beyond the space.

The work draws upon the theme of the ‘Mandala’, which are drawings made up of geometrical patterns – circles, squares and so on - used in esoteric practices of Buddhism in countries like Japan and Tibet. In general, a Mandala is expressed as static, either two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally; however, it is said, in fact, that Tibetan monks and Jung see Mandalas as having movement. By way of sound and light, this installation expresses the psychological energy and dynamic movement that originally pertains to a Mandala.