While the concept of synesthesia — or one sense perceived as another, such as audio manifesting as color — has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, it can be difficult for the general public to get a sense of.

Sound Of Light — an installation by Marco Barotti and Plastique Fantastique created for last autumn’s Urban Lights Ruhr project in Hamm, Germany — was one way to experience something akin to that unique audiovisual state.

A camera filming the sky digitally broke the light down into the color spectrum, sending each signal to a corresponding hanging column fitted with a woofer. It was then transformed to a sound, essentially turning the columns into loudspeakers. Visitors also affected the space — a large pneumatic pavilion — making for individual concerts, particular to that time of day.

Sound Of Light incorporates sculpture, music and technology for a wholly innovative installation that playfully produces connected but discrete sensory awareness, amplified in the interior of the pavilion. The bright colors and plastic environment, redolent of toys, offer an accessibility that serves to make the science behind it even more intriguing — the kind of artwork that provides as much inspiration as it does entertainment.