#TeslaCoil
#TeslaCoil emits magnetic fields, rendering them visible and driving them to a high voltage peak (up to 45,000 volts). The coil resonates today in all our consciousnesses — in literal as well as the figurative sense — it acts like a blazing antenna, sending data into the air, which attracts a certain technophile interest (by sculpting lightning in a hacking exercise defying the laws of nature) as well as technophobic dread: it makes these electromagnetic fields tangible (WiFi,3G …), the ones surrounding us on a daily basis.
The fluorescent tubes surrounding the coil are powered only by the electromagnetic energy it emits. They react in complete synesthesia with the sound produced by the coil. The sound is generated by an electrical arc (a spark gap or output) which is modulated in the moment.
The Tesla coil
The Tesla transformer is a high frequency electrical machine running on alternating current, which allows it to reach very high voltages. It carries the name of its inventor, Nikola Tesla, who developed it in 1891. The equipment consists of two, perhaps three circuits of coupled coils, tuned by resonance. It doesn’t have a metal core like a classical electrical transformer: instead it has an air core.
The Tesla coil, as a unit producing high voltages, is used in one form or another in all radio and television receivers. It is also used in every university research lab and in various medical applications.
The Tesla coil is run with a MIDI controller by a computer which generates sequences which replicate recordings of electromagnetic pulses in the immediate vicinity. It reacts to the presence of the audience. The sound is run via the spark outputs. A MIDI sequence of 30 seconds is triggered by the approach of a spectator, every 5 minutes. 8 to 10 fluorescent tubes hung on stands are placed around the space, and the fluorescents are powered by the electromagnetic fields coming from the coil.
Photographies: Arno Poirier, Paul Allain, Marie Poussy.
Vimeo: Installation at festival COURT-CIRCUIT in April 2014.
