"White Noise/White Light" at MIT May 2-8
Interactive light+sound field from Athens '04 Olympics
to enchant nighttime visitors during Hockfield Inauguration week
"White Noise/White Light" at base of Acropolis
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For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2005
Contact:
Mary Haller
Director of Arts Communication
MIT Office of the Arts
20 Ames St., Rm E15-205
Cambridge, MA 02139
e-mail haller@media.mit.edu
617-253-4006
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Cambridge, MA... "White Noise/White Light," an interactive
sound and light installation created by MIT Professor J. Meejin Yoon for the Athens 2004 Olympics,
will be presented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from May 2-8 as part of the weeklong
celebration of the inauguration of Susan Hockfield as MIT's 16th president.
Downloadable video
Downloadable video
Still images
Originally commissioned by the city of Athens and sited at the base of the Acropolis during the 2004
Summer Olympics, the 50' x 50' fiber optic field will create a luminous sound-scape on MITs
Kresge Oval (opposite 77 Mass Ave) that responds to the touch and movement of pedestrians who pass through it.
The opening of "White Noise/White Light" on Monday, May 2 at 7 p.m. will kick off
a series of events leading up to the Inauguration ceremony on Friday, May 6. The public is invited to view and walk through the installation beginning at dusk each night. Admission is free.
Information: 617/253-4796.
From May 2-8, free evening parking will be available in MIT's West Garage Annex, 125 Vassar Street,
one block from the installation.
A full project description of "White Noise/White Light" can be found at
http://whitenoisewhitelight.com/. For
more information on the MIT inauguration of Susan Hockfield, and related arts activities, symposia and other
community events,
see http://web.mit.edu/inauguration/.
The installation of "White Noise/White Light" at MIT was funded in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT.
About "White Noise/White Light"
Comprised of a 50' x 50' grid of fiber optics and speakers, "White Noise/White Light" is an interactive sound and
light field that responds to the movement of people as they walk through it. What appears at first to be a static,
neutral and transparent grid of vertical markers dissolves into a luminous sound-scape by night. As pedestrians enter
into the fiber optic field their presence and movement are traced by each stalk unit, transmitting white light from
LEDs and white noise from speakers below. If motion is detected, the white LED illumination grows brighter while the
white noise increases in volume. Once motion is no longer detected, the light and sound fade into dimness and silence.
Just as white light is made of the full spectrum of color, white noise contains every frequency within the range of
hearing in equal amounts.
The volume of white noise and the intensity of white light are controlled by a custom microprocessor designed by
electronics engineer Matthew Reynolds (MIT SB '98, M.Eng '99, PhD '03). Each stalk unit contains its own passive
infrared sensor and microprocessor which uses a software differentiation algorithm to determine whether a person
is passing by the stalk. The white noise made for the project is based on a physical phenomenon called Johnson
noise, where noise arises from the thermal motions of electrons in a resistor carrying current in an electronic
circuit. This field of white noise creates a unique sound-scape masking out the noises from the immediate context.
"White noise, like white light, is an aggregation, composed of all possible sounds, just as white light encompasses
all possible colors," says Yoon. "The gentle murmur of 'White Noise/White Light' forms a place of sonic refuge within
the city."
J. Meejin Yoon
J. Meejin Yoon is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at MIT and founder of
MY Studio. Her other recent projects include "3 Degrees of Felt (The Aztec Empire)," an exhibition
design in collaboration with Ten-Arquitectos for the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and "Absence,"
an artist book co-published by Printed Matter and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Yoon's work received three Design Distinction awards from I.D. Magazine in the 2004, and has been published in
"Material Process: Young Architects 4" (Princeton Architectural Press 2003) and reviewed in the New York Times, Financial
Times, New York Arts Magazine, Architectural Lighting, and Domus. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Seoul,
Korea in 1997, the Young Architects Award by the Architectural League of New York in 2002 and the Rome Prize Fellowship
in Design by the American Academy in Rome for 2005-2006. She holds degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
(MAUD 1997) and Cornell University (B. Arch 1995). On April 14, it was announced that Yoon was a recipient of the 2005-06 Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize Fellowship for Design, awarded by the American Academy in Rome.
Yoon exhibition also on view
In addition to the outdoor installation of "White Noise/White Light," an exhibition of Yoon's works, titled
"Rock, Paper, Scissors: Projects by MY Studio," will be on view at MIT's Wolk Gallery (Rm 7-338, enter at 77
Massachusetts Ave.) from April 21-September 16, opening with a reception on Thursday, April 21 at 5:30 p.m.
From concept clothing and artist books to installations and architecture, Yoon's interdisciplinary works examine
design in relationship to the human body.
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