LO – 10

“Aura” by the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, who also go by SLOrk, is a wonderful work or art that is very harmonic and calming. Using ChucK, a programing language specifically for music creation, and SLOrk music lanterns about nine artists move the lanterns – “auras” – from side to side to communicate with ChucK via WiFi to create the music, lights, and colors. This piece starts with one voice, and gradually the rest join in to create harmony. The initial voice “calls” the other voices to join in and their auras all have the same light, thus creating “harmony”. However, as they all join the auras become unique in color though still in harmony. As the piece ends, the artist move apart leaving their auras behind. What makes this work so special is that it embodies the “why” qualities of humans. The idea was that as human relationships grow, their auras blend and harmonize, and remain as memories. It’s the positive light radiating off others that forms as we grow close with one another and share memories. Something that we see with our “third eye” as we interact and reminisce. A lot of SLOrk’s work explores and embodies humans through music and technology. This piece was such a wonderful embodiment and a light in some stressful times we are all going through right now. Even during these crazy times we all have relationships with people that are helping us through these times.

If you want to see more of their work check out their website:

http://slork.stanford.edu

To see this specific piece:

http://slork.stanford.edu/works/aura/

And here’s the video: