Parallels is an audiovisual installation by NONOTAK (Takami Nakamoto and Noemi Schipfer), originally commissioned by the STRP Biennial in Eindhoven. Following the success of their work in the Glow Next light art festival in November 2014, NONOTAK returned to Eindhoven with a new work. As with all of NONOTAK’s installations, Parallels explores light as a substantive material, but on this occasion, space as a whole becomes their panoramic screen. Referring to their installation series, Daydream, the boundaries and notion of space become entirely abstracted by the interrelated presence of an audience, who upon entering into the work, interrupt the seamless blades of lights, creating a biomorphic shapes of their own. In situ this installation responses entirely to the space in which it takes place, as it lives within it. As soon as the light hits the walls that define the space, it reaches its limit and is unable to reproduce itself any further.

Parallels is inspired by British artist Anthony McCall’s exploration of light and space. The space is entirely submerged into a layer of fog that is produced by two haze machines controlled via DMX, in order to maintain a specific density and quality of atmosphere. What proves incredibly engaging in this work is the installation’s ability to create 3-dimensional forms using 2-dimensional visuals. This effect leads to a series of vertical lines becoming curtains of light that the audience are able to move into and through. Generated by seven light projectors that allow the artists the ability to work on gradients of black and white. Crucially when the series of blades of illumination are in motion, they allude to the theatrical space beyond. The name Parallels derives from using only lines as visual matter, allowing for a varieties of geometric light enhanced forms born of interrelated lines. NONOTAK have created Parallels as a digital edition of the audiovisual installation for Sedition.