Novi_sad

On the evening of 11th March 2020, the night before the Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Novi_sad presented an AudioVisual project with sound + laser lights in Ancient Olympia, Greece, entitled ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ (thunder).

• Idea by Novi_sad

• Music by Novi_sad

• Laser Projections by Novi_sad + Laser Design

Composed, recorded, assembled and produced at home studio, Ancient Olympia

Total Duration: 56:27’’

Produced by The Municipality of Ancient Olympia

Supported by The Regional Authorities of Western Greece

* Please watch this at 720p

** The original resolution of the work is DCI 4K (4096×2160)

ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ is an OpticoAcoustic Oracle which utilises intense coloured laser lights as a sculptural material to project the 5 Olympic rings, athletes, mathematical symbols and maps with digital drawings on the sacred hills of Ancient Olympia. The project is situated at the nexus of historical worldly Olympic principles and the use of contemporary technological achievements and encompasses nature as its fundamental interface and conjunction.

The laser displays form the 5 Olympic rings in green, yellow, blue, black/white and red and they are accompanied by Soundscapes that were created by processing, assembling and composing environmental recordings from the 5 continents around the globe.

In Ancient Greek Mythology, Zeus was the king of the Olympian Gods and the supreme deity. Zeus was the God of the sky, lightning, thunder (Κεραυνός/ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ), law, order, and justice. The Cyclopes were three, orb-eyed, immortal giants who forged the thunderbolts of Zeus. The lawless Titans, encouraged by Gaia (Γαία/Γή/Εarth), tried to wrestle control of the world from the Olympian Gods in a ten-year battle known as the Titanomachy. The Titans were the brothers and sisters of Cronus and it was only through the help of the Cyclopes (who made Zeus his thunderbolts) and the hundred-handed giants or Hecatoncheires (Briareos, Cottus and Gyges) that Zeus was finally able to imprison the Titans in Tartarus, the deepest part of the Underworld. Making himself ruler of the skies, Zeus then gave dominion over the seas to Poseidon and of the Underworld to Hades.

KEΡΑΥΝΟΣ was one of the most powerful symbols in Ancient Greece – if not the most powerful. As contemporary science proved, the thunders that dominated the earth before the creation of life, gave birth to the primordial substances by enhancing the production of nitrogen and thus amino acids which are essential for the production of proteins and life. In numerous civilisations they believed that the overlord of thunder was a deity.

In Celtic mythology, Taranis was the God of thunder. In Slavic mythology it was Perun and in Scandinavian it was Thor. In India, the God of thunder was Indra and in Finland it was Ukko. In China, Lei Gong was worshipped as the deity of thunders and in Rome the people who died because of a thunder were considered as blessed. Inkas believed that thunder was the son of the sun and the moon and in Christianity thunder is the voice of God.

In this epic public art project of the Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony for the Olympic Games 2020 entitled ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ, the patterns of Music and the subtly transforming laser lights induce a meditative and synaesthetic effect for the spectators, who embrace with exuberant warmth the powerful spotlights and the ominous waves of subsonic sounds which correlate with the intensities of colours. The dazzling and soaring Laser Projections can be perceived as a mirage of the rays of the sun which are caught in a parabolic mirror in order to light the torch during the solemn opening ceremony executed by eleven women in the Ancient Olympic Games.

The quadraphonic sound-system operates simultaneously and synchronously with the Laser Projections which are shaping the Olympic rings, athletes etc. These Laser Projections change nuances and colours accordingly to the evolution of the Music which is a hyper-real sonic entity, created by using natural sounds from the 5 continents. These Soundscapes have been composed by using as source material field recordings from:

OCEANIA | Tarkine Rainforest

ASIA | Okinawa

EUROPE | Ancient Olympia and Iceland

AFRICA | Uganda, Botswana and Namibia

AMERICA | Amazon Rainforest and Niagara Falls

The Soundscapes from Oceania are accompanied with green laser lights, from Asia with yellow, from Europe with blue, from Africa with black/white and from America with red.

KEΡΑΥΝΟΣ is enveloping the audience in synchronous sound and visual information through a sense datum experience. Being caught in this AudioVisual maelstrom, the visitors are being sinked and their bodies are being transformed into colour and audio resonators.

The project is dramatic, geometric and shape-shifting. From a distance, it looks monumental, but when you are in it, it is entirely and absolutely immersive, leaving people staring up in wonder.

The nature and the depletion of natural resources demand our attention more than ever and ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ, through its environmental aspect by the use of field recordings for the Music compositions, aims to be another opportunity to shed light on and punctuate this subject.

This OpticoAcoustic Oracle pays off homage to planet Earth and it is a landmark for the 2020 Olympic Games.

With a cosmic subsistence showing the unity of the continents, ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ elevates World Peace as the kernel of the Olympic Spirit.

Κεραυνός (thunder) means ’’Το κέρας του πυρός/The horn of fire’’. ’’Kέρας (Horn) + Άυω/Ανάβω (Ι set on fire)’’. The thunder of Zeus (’’Αείζωον πυρ/Eternal fire’’) is life throughout the infinity of time.

[ All images © Novi_sad ]