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February 2023 in Leeuwarden was not cold and dark as usual, but full of light, sound and the warmth of people – the makers of LUNA festival, artists, technicians, producers, and a very broad audience of people from the region and art lovers and art professionals from all over the place. For the first time ever LUNA took place in February, the culturally most quiet time of the year and one of the darkest seasons, in which the works of art shine at their best.

With respect to the city, its architecture, nature and inhabitants the team of LUNA carefully chose 18 locations for mind-blowing, challenging, and also low-threshold projects of light-, sound- and media art.

Visitors strolled through town, through alleys, over the big squares, to more unknown locations, and for the first time since COVID-19 also to exciting indoor locations, from church to shopping center. The works ranged from small, experimental, and highly analogue to large-scale animations, video mappings and interactive projects.

One of the inner courts of Blokhuispoort former prison building was taken over by the strong sounds and visuals of Japanese artist Tatsuru Arai. Arai challenges human perception with sounds that are hard to hear for most people, even unnoticeable for some, but together with captivating visuals become accessible, bearable and even pleasant.

With a history of more than 500 years, Blokhuispoort was the oldest prison of the Netherlands, until it underwent a total change of function and character about fifteen years ago. The historic building was transformed into a creative hub that is base to tens of creative businesses, shops, a library, and two restaurants. All throughout its history, Blokhuispoort has been full of soul and souls, and it still is these days. The character of the inhabitants may have changed – creative makers, tourists and office people took the place over from those who were kept in Blokhuispoort against their will. Some say that one can still sense the many souls of Blokhuispoort, some feel or see them, some hear them. And how can we doubt the latter, learning with and from Tatsuru Arai about the edges of perception?

With its high-tech appearance, Tatsuru Arai’s work seemed to have landed in the court of the old building by accident. But as soon as sound and picture were on, it made much sense at exactly the chosen spot. With his art, Arai touched the souls of the audience and created a state of mind that made people forget the surroundings and be absorbed by sound, light and architecture. ‘Quantum’ merged with the environment and the character of the former prison and took the souls of now and then onto a mesmerizing journey.

Quantum is part of the series ‘Hyper Serial Music’. As the title suggests, it is based on serialism, an important 20th-century composition technique. The sounds in Arai’s eclectic installation play with the limits of human hearing. Starting point for Arai’s work is the notion that the sound that humans can perceive is only a very small part of what the universe produces. In his installations, the artist seeks the limits of the audio input a human being can endure to still experience it as interesting or even enjoyable.

The sound humans can perceive is only part of the enormous Quantum energy and Vibration of the Universe. Music is extracted and recognized by humans from enormous energy and vibrations. Hyper Serial Music is a series of moments in various states. In the history of music technology, Hyper Serial Music is innovating the principle of Serialism three-point: ‘structural’, ‘complex’ and ‘noisy’. Spanning from 1728 different noise patterns, these sounds are at the limits of human auditory perception. The supporting visuals of Quantum are a translation of the sounds and expression of earlier Hyper Serial Music works, made with the use of algorithms and A.I. Music.

Of the thousands of visitors who saw Quantum at Blokhuispoort, many were probably not aware that they were part of an audio experiment. The appealing and colorful pictures that ran at high speed on a 10 x 2 meters LED wall, stole all the attention. Making the point even stronger that everything becomes bearable when experienced in the right setting, good company, outgoing mood. People were amazed by the beauty and intensity of Quantum.

This is what we strive for at LUNA: strong works with many layers for a broad audience, from art lovers to the woman in the street, just passing by, yet getting caught by the power of light and sound.

We are very grateful that Tatsuru Arai was our guest at LUNA 2023. He is very pleasant to work with: highly creative, very professional, easy-going in the production process, taking good care of his artwork during showtime, accessible for the audience, and also very social when it comes to integrating in the scene of makers around the festival. We absolutely recommend working with him and are already thinking of what to invite him for next.