Speed Index - Daniel Vlček and guests

curated by Karina Kottová

Jakub Krejčí, Jiří Rouš, Lucia Udvardyová, David Vrbík

13.4. – 4.5.

Excessive mass is the result of substantializing surplus as a notion.

The following artists working with experimental music and light installations have been brought together by their shared interest in the process of converting painting, object, and space surfaces into sound. The exhibition Speed Index illustrates different approaches to the perception of space and to the methods of surface sonification. Various material collages and objects created by Daniel Vlček, who invited the participating artists, provide the basis for different sound scores. Collages and objects were made from recycled material and pigments used in the production of tires obtained from the company Barum-Continental. In this way the present exhibition can be seen as a continuation of Vlček's recent exhibitions, Further and Higher in Cabinet T in Zlín and Hidden Settings in the House of Art in České Budějovice.

David Vrbík uses laser beams as a musical instrument, scanning the gallery as well as Vlček's various objects. The digitized recording scan is then used as a score, determining the sequence of notes played by a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. Jiří Rauš's mobile scanner scans a strip of wall embedded by Vlček with a repetitive drawing referencing Robert Ruaschenberg' and John Cage's Automobile Tire Print (1953), which was the result of a tire track rolled over white paper. The data acquired by Rauš's scanner is also converted into notes and sent to a synthesizer, a clone of the legendary Roland TB303. Jakub Krejčí uses rubber in his scan. He created his own object by setting the rubber on fire and allowing it to burn. He then obtained 3D scans from the burnt result. The data collected from these scans is translated into sound, further developing the multi-channel installation. Lucie Udvardyové's text first appeared in the internet portal techno.cz and was concerned with the history and influence of Detroit techno and its relationship with the automobile industry (Motor City). This text, transformed into an audiovisual installation, becomes part of the current exhibition through an individual projection.

Speed Index as a whole represents the participating artists’ attempt at communication between autonomous systems. The information obtained from reading various surfaces is shared and sent among the systems, determining the overall course and sound of the installation.

The first step toward embodying an idea is its articulation aloud – to utter something “weighs” more than just to think it. Only then the physical matter comes in. Something specific is produced, created. If it ensues from superfluous ideas, most likely nothing good will come out of it.