Tuesday, April 7, 2009

mobile color machine





(luxorgan - mobile color machine)

image 1 - watercolor from the series mathematical abstractions - 1941
image 2 - watercolor for a mobile-color composition - 1934
image 3 - drawing showing wiring connections between keyboard and luxorgan lamps - ca. 1917
image 4 - lamping plan for a later version of the luxorgan - 1920

"from 1917 on, claude bradgon began to develop a systematic technique for using mathematical correlations to harmonize music, geometric form, and color in a new art of 'mobile color'"

image + text found in crystal and arabesque: claude bragdon, ornament, and modern architecture - univ. of pittsburgh press - 2009

also of interest:
the frozen fountain: being essays on architecture and the art of design in space - alfred a. knopf - 1932