Wilfred Opus 161 1965 6

Wilfred gave his first performances on this new instrument in New York in 1922 and toured with the Clavilux in US and Europe often drawing audiences in the thousands during the 1920s. In the 1930s, he shifted his focus from performance to composition for his recently invented Lumia box, an automated device that looks similar to a television but functions like a player-piano. The Lumias slowly morphing light patterns unfolded for weeks without repeating. This shift from performance to exhibition, recontextualized Wilfreds work from the domain of music to the domain of art. Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media (Phaidon, 2009).

WIlfred purposely performed the Clavilux in silence.

"More and more artists of our generation have begun to contemplate light with the eyes of a sculptor gazing upon a block of marble - seeing in light a new and basic medium of expression with unlimited possibilities" - Thomas Wilfred

• Category

  Film & Animation

[dstewemail]

tree of life!

[Hal Emmerich]

Every time I see this, I think of dinosaurs and '50s suburbia.

[Anton Yvan]

sadly you're so right about the art museums. =/

[rr7firefly1]

It's amazing how art museums have become so much like shopping malls. No one in the background of this video seems to appreciate just how mystifying and beautiful this light sculpture is and what a technical accomplishment it was when it was first created. Some of Thomas Wilfred's "Lumia" boxes operate on a non-repeating cycle of 650 days (or longer).