In the Line of Sight

This picture shows Francis Picabia’s landmark stage set-design for Relâche (1924), an avant-garde ballet created by the painter and his composer friend, Erik Satie. The idea of putting lights on the stage challenged traditional theatre lighting in which performers on stage are lit and the audience disappears in the dark. In a Dada gesture Picabia lit the audience from the stage, temporarily blinding them and thus reversing the role of audience and performer. In the Line of Sight can create a similar situation when audience members walk through the flashlights’ light beam and see themselves in the spotlight.

Otto Piene’s Electric Rose (see: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/electric-rose/) is yet another example for a possible alignment of the 100 flashlights

The above image shows an inexpensive yet flexible solution for mounting the 100 flashlights. Using security camera mounting hardware, the flashlight can be directed in almost all directions. The set screw on the side of the mount locks a chosen orientation. There are only two problems to be solved: we need to find an easy way to connect the flashlight to the head of the mounting hardware (possibly welding to the clip of the flashlight) and we need to find a black version the mounting hardware.

Photo of a Katyusha rocket launcher, built by the Red Army Fraction (RAF), the notorious German terrorist group from the 1970s. Here shown in the studio of the Karlsruhe artist Theo Sand - directed toward the the Office of the Federal Prosecutor  (Bundesanwaltschaft), August 1977. For more information see this article in the German newspaper “Die Welt”.

(photo courtesy of Harald F. Müller - Nice Fine Arts archive)

Flashlight to BNC connection: female BNC connector on the flashlight’s cap connects to 50ft. BNC cable