DISCOTROPE: THE SECRET NIGHTLIFE OF SOLAR CELLS” LA DEBUT AT HOLLYWOOD FRINGE OPENING
June 03, 2012
Solar-Powered Audiovisual Performance Uses Disco Ball to Project Dance Movie History
http://discotrope.org
Do solar cells have a nightlife? According to artist-professors Amy Alexander and Annina Rüst, solar cells aren’t just for making green energy anymore. Solar-powered nightlife comes to Los Angeles, when “Discotrope: The secret nightlife of solar cells” makes its road premiere at The Hollywood Fringe Festival’s opening on June 13th.
“Discotrope: The secret nightlife of solar cells” is an audiovisual performance that resembles a cinematic nightclub light show. At the heart of the show is the Discotrope, a disco ball where mirrors have been replaced with solar cells. (Discotrope’s low-tech gadgetry is reminiscent of early motion picture technologies like the zoetrope, after which it is named.) When Alexander and Rüst project videos of dancers onto the Discotrope, the cells produce electricity, causing the ball to rotate at varying speeds. But the cells do more t...
