Cubing

The Canadian collective Artificiel has taken an icon from the 1980s, the Rubik cube, and given it a new form with an application as an interface in de audiovisual performance Cubing. The performers play with the cube watched by a small camera and a variety of algorithmic processes set in motion a range of sounds, from loops to noise. The different colour arrangements of the cube are projected directly so that the relationship between colour, movement and sound can clearly be observed. Layered sound composition is built up with the changing colour surfaces.
Cubing can be regarded as a contemporary version of the old-fashioned colour organ: an artistic invention in which light was used to create colour scores and compositions. But with the Rubik cube as starting point, exactly the opposite happens in Cubing.