Black Sun, Black Rain
Black Sun, Black Rain
In the myth, Icarus flies too close to the sun, the wax holding his wings together melts, and he falls into the sea and drowns. Two forms of reverse-Icarus with equally dire results are examined: the sun is brought down to earth in the form of nuclear armaments and through the effects of global warming. Apocalypse informs the work of Swedish composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl, including his experimental television work Altisonans, which uses the sounds of natural radio and satellite telemetry and ends in the searing pitch of solar noise. Brilliant Noise and Black Rain, two works by the British artists Semiconductor, confront the raw energy of the sun, while the genesis of the media archaeological art of Paul DeMarinis is found in the gamma radiation realities of the Cold War in the United States.
Keywords: Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Paul DeMarinis, Semiconductor (artists), Icarus myth, solar astronomy, solar noise, sun and art, experimental television, media archaeology, space age culture, comets in art, satellites and art, radioactivity and art, Altisonans
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