روشنايى - 

ROSHANAI

2016 BURNING MAN

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

-Rumi

ROSHANAI is a path of enlightenment, shifting colors in static form. Along this corridor, perspective changes and opposites unite. Islamic mathematical art is married to the great Western landscape, serenaded with the voice of your heart and the whisper of the Playa.

ROSHANAI comprises two double-walled panels that create a 108-ft long tunnel of light and sound with a 3-ft corridor. The sides of the hallway rise from 8-ft tall at the ends to 12-ft tall at the apex in the middle. Simultaneously, the panels sink into the ground to form a shallow valley. Fractal arrangements of Islamic geometric patterns are cut into the outside panels, lit from within to illuminate the patterns and cast fantastic night shadows.

The entrances are 16-ft tall gates inspired by the Great Mosque of Isfahan in Iran, pointed arches filled with sacred geometry. The inside walls are smooth and lit in solid colors by superbright LED spotlights embedded in the edges of the floor. ROSHANAI is lit in monochromatic hues that change every hour, with the color of the inside wall being complementary to the outside wall color.

Another feature of ROSHANAI is sound - 40 hand-made percussion instruments are placed between the walls and played via rotary solenoid valves. The instruments include Tabla drums, Sufi drums, wooden blocks, and bells. The original rhythms were created by an amazing Persian hand drummer, Pezhham Akhavass  https://www.pezhham.com/

The rhythms come from all over middle east with a focus on Iran.  We created a collection of these rhythms with dozens of variations on each theme. We also add a number of 3d soundscapes that make use the of the 40 musical instruments spread across the sculpture. The sound is very programmable. we have created over 40 hrs of music that the art can play.

The 40 piece robotic orchestra was lead by Oren Berkowitz "The sounds made by the sculpture fall into two categories. The first category is music that has been programmatically-generated based on short, canonical patterns that form the building blocks of traditional Persian percussion music. The second category is comprised of sequences of movements that trigger drums based on the location of the instruments in the structure, utilizing the unique structure of the sculpture. With all the possible combinations of these simple building blocks, 13 hours of unique music and sounds are generated."  

In the future we will incorporate proximity sensors in the gates and inside walls to create an interactive sound effect.

ROSHANAI is Farsi for “illuminate,” which describes the physical and philosophical aspects of this piece. As a member of an Iranian family, I was driven by recent racist and anti-Muslim sentiments to create appreciation for the beauty of the ancient and diverse culture of Islam. As an artist, I designed elements that symbolize unity and a form that would practically force a change in perspective. It is my great delight that ROSHANAI became known as the "hug tunnel" while it was at Burning Man, as the narrow corridor space forced people to be physically close and interact. ROSHANAI is a path of enlightenment and love, literally and conceptually.