Entangled Attraction
Immersive light installation, 300 LED's, motors, microcontrollers, flexible wire, 3D printed cases, original sound.
Designed by Resonance Studio. Soundscape by Jonathan Crawford.
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, permanent collection, 2024-ongoing
Black Box Gallery, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA 2023
Wattis Gallery, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA 2022
Visitors gaze up at an array of 300 spiraling lights. From underneath, each pinpoint of light seems to be in orbit around another, evocative of galaxies rotating and twisting as they sweep through space. The swirling lights fill our field of vision and leave traces of their paths in the air creating a sense of suspended time while slowly revealing more than a camera can catch. Entangled Attraction was inspired by the unpredictable patterns of chaos and their complex inter-connections and effect on the entire system. Our eyes see the dance of each LED as trails of light with glints of color in the air due to “persistence of vision”, our visual system's ability to remember light’s image for up to a tenth of a second.
“I don't even have words…it was just kind of, like wow, what is happening right now? I just felt this ultra calm wash over me but I was also extremely curious. I feel like I'm underwater but you see the stars reflected in the water. Why do they look like they're spinning around each other but then also how are they not bumping into each other and then I would catch some bumping into each other. I just had a lot of questions. I can just watch and relax and I can just be in wonder.”
—Dr. Desiré Whitmore, Senior Physicist Educator at The Exploratorium, San Francisco (from the video)
Watch the video to see the installation in motion, and hear this and more commentary:
Resonance Studio, Entangled Attraction, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, 2022 (video courtesy of The Exploratorium)
Viewers relax on couches or rugs on the floor to watch and wonder, captivated by the lights, and immersed in the non-repeating, 7-hour Soundscape by Jonathan Crawford. Some stayed for minutes and others for an hour, lost in the moment.
Composer Jonathan Crawford on his musical soundscape for Entangled Attraction:
“The music aims to induce a sense of both wonder and gravitas. It was largely inspired by the vibrational presence of large celestial bodies. Orchestrated primarily using low frequency oscillators (LFOs), each cyclical movement of the piece is grounded in the idea of chaotic, non-repetitive motion, while existing within certain compositional boundaries. It has been an honor to share in the creation of Entangled Attraction - an exhibit which creates a unique and much needed space to become lost within oneself, to detach momentarily from the ego, and to become realigned with the cosmos.”
Resonance Studio's Entangled Attraction was acquired as part of the permanent collection of art and technology at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio in 2025 and will be on display at various times.
The exhibit is described in the following video:
Resonance Studio, Entangled Attraction, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, permanent collection, 2025 (video courtesy of The Butler Institute of American Art)
Entangled Attracted traces abstract patterns of light, which multiplied within the space, create an immersive, galactic field.
“There is fundamental physics at play. How our eyes work, how our brain works is what is causing these images that you see. So, something like Entangled Attraction helps someone experience that. And it's a phenomenon that we're experiencing constantly, but the work encourages the audience to settle down and really spend time with that phenomenon, in this case, persistence of vision.”
— Kathleen Maquire, Former Senior Program Developer, The Exploratorium, San Francisco (from the video)
Resonance Studio, Entangled Attraction, The Butler Institute of American Art, 2024
PRESS:
‘Entangled Attraction’ opens at Butler, Tribune Chronicle, October 25, 2024. An immersive light and sound exhibition opens Sunday at the Butler Institute of American Art.
The Economic Power of Public Art, CODAworx, www.codaworx.com, pp. 128, 2024.