While I was away at the Lightwave show in Dublin I took a brief side trip to Paris. While there I went to a really great exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo called Gakona where I saw this piece by Roman Signer called Paraphuie I. (paraphuie is french for umbrella)
As far as high voltage art goes this is not very ingenious, however, I really enjoyed the design of the two Tesla coils, and found great humor in the use of the umbrellas (which I might have displayed open rather then closed).
One element of this piece that I really liked was the audience reaction, which is lost in this video. Now most people have no idea what a Tesla coil is, so when they see this piece they have no idea what will happen, and they were kept roped off so they could not get too close or see that much. It also did not go off that often, and when it did, it was really, really loud.
So there were always a few people, who had seen it go off last time, gathered around it waiting for it to go off again. When new people walked in they were draw to the the small crowd that was already there. This would draw more new people in. And the crowd got bigger. Everyone would be really quiet, wondering why everyone was fascinated by this instillation that you could not see very well. Then, suddenly, the arc would strike and everyone would jump and laugh nervously. That release of the tension, coupled with the realization that only then were you experience the piece, compounded by the shock and of the sudden noise and light, created a really powerful reaction by the group and the individuals.
