Summary of "TRANSPASS"

TRANSPASS: An Avant-Garde Light and Sound Installation

The video “TRANSPASS” documents a unique avant-garde art project centered around light and sound installations inspired by urban heritage and technological history. Set during a winter festival in Yekaterinburg, the project explores the intersection of architecture, technology, and contemporary art.

Origins and Concept

The idea for TRANSPASS originated spontaneously when Evgeny Nikitin invited collaborators to explore a circus area. There, they discovered architectural “portals” formed by bridge spans, which sparked the concept of using light to animate these spaces.

TRANSPASS is part of a grassroots festival called Letem, supported by cultural foundations and focused on the architectural avant-garde. The festival aims to reinterpret historical urban elements through contemporary artistic expression.

Artistic Collaboration and Approach

A key highlight of the project is the collaboration between artists with different approaches:

Andrey, a high-tech expert, gathered electromagnetic data from a narrow-gauge railway museum and children’s railway locomotives.
Sergey Laushkin works with more elemental, fundamental artistic ideas.

The collected data—such as track gauge width and railway opening dates—was transformed into a soundscape composed of pure sine waves. This created an “orchestra” of tones that complement the dynamic red and white light installations.

Red light symbolizes a pulsating beat.
White light represents honor and aesthetics.

Together, these colors evoke a transition from utopia to dystopia.

Installation and Experience

The installation plays with the concept of “transpass”—a transition or passage—using moving light portals under the children’s railway to symbolize constant movement and change. This effect is enhanced by spatial sound that moves with the light, creating an innovative immersive experience.

This spatial sound design impressed even sound engineering students who had never encountered such an effect before.

Challenges and Adaptations

The project faced several challenges:

Harsh winter conditions
Pandemic restrictions limiting indoor work

Despite these obstacles, the team adapted creatively, treating technological setbacks as part of the artistic process.

Impact and Reception

TRANSPASS aimed to provide viewers with a multi-sensory, immersive experience encouraging reflection on urban space, technology, and avant-garde philosophy.

Notable moments captured in the video include:

A young girl treating the soundscape like an album to be “listened to.”

A visitor expressing interest in collaborating on a film inspired by the installation.

The video highlights the artists’ passion, resilience, and the poetic merging of light, sound, and space to create an evocative contemporary avant-garde statement.