Janek Schaefer

This year's Intermedia festival broadened its base by spreading its programme of interdisciplinary art events throughout the year.

It was a good move, as Intermedia Off-Shoots has generally increased the visibility of what are usually exciting and unconventional exhibitions.

The current project is New Soundscapes, with the installation of Janek Schaefer, the sound artist and musician, running in Gallery One.

As is common with most new-media practices, the visual content of the installation is relatively sparse. Skate is essentially three light bulbs suspended from the ceiling, with sound equipment running along the perimeter of the space. A vinyl record is fixed to a wall and spotlit like a religious icon, a video projection of a rotating record flickering in and out of view beneath.

The installation is much more than the sum of its parts: the manipulated soundtrack of a needle skating over a record alters the luminosity of the light bulbs, for example.

At times, the sound registers as only a faint flicker, in stark contrast to the bright glow that ensues when the soundtrack gets louder.

What is interesting about this relationship is that the viewer is in effect seeing sound itself, with the resulting waves and crescendos creating a visual and aural pattern.

Initially, the combination of light and sound is reminiscent of a fireworks display, but dig deeper and you might imagine the interior of a microprocessor, or even seeing first-hand the crackling of synapses in the brain as it responds to stimuli or emotions.

Runs until September 20th