Mira Calix -The Sun is the Queen of Torches
Award-winning composer and artist, Mira Calix unveils a new sonic-art experience for our earsthetic pleasure that is set to be an emotional and transformative journey.
This sculptural art performance brings together music, dance and science in an unexpected collaboration; a group of scientists at Imperial College - who are investigating how to cover buildings with a solar powered material (photovoltaics) that is virtually invisible to the naked eye - and Laban-trained dancer Ella Robson Guilfoyle.
Shrouded in darkness and faced with a huge black screen, the artist makes music by delicately ripping paper. Each tear slowly plunges fragments of light into the blackness to reveal a stunning image of a crystalline photovoltaic cell. As energy is released from this brilliant light, the dancer fills with highly charged physical movement. What started in quiet blackness now throws you into intense light and activity.
Mira Calix is signed to Warp Records, and had released five albums. Although her earlier music is almost exclusively electronic in nature, in more recent years, she has incorporated classical orchestration into her work for installation pieces, film soundtracks, theatre and opera.
Watch Mira Calix give a TED talk about sound and sentiment
The Sun Is The Queen Of Torches was initiated by TEDAlbertopolis
Mira is very grateful to Christoph Hellmann, Alberto Scaccabarozzi, Ester Buchaca-Domingo and Natalie Stingelin for highly fruitful and stimulating discussions, and support through the Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial College
