February 10, 1923.

My dear Mr. Wilfred,

About two years ago, John Storrs, the well-known
American artist, had the pleasure of meeting you through
Mr. Claude Bragden.

Mr. Storrs is back in this country once more, and
is very anxious to get in touch with Mr. Bragden.

When I received the announcement through my Club,
that you were to speak there on the 20th, I thought I
would write and ask you if you would be so kind as to
let me have Mr. Bragden's address, so that I might for-
ward it to Mr. Storrs. Maybe at the same time, you would
kindly let me know when Mr. Bragden is in town, as I
understand his home is in Rochester.

Looking forward with pleasure to seeing your in-
vention on Tuesday, the 20th, believe me

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Thomas Wilfred,
c.o. Colony Club,
Park Avenue,
New York City.

June 1930

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

465

light on the suspended ceiling. The true ceiling is not seen, as it is painted black and no light is projected on it, which would differentiate it from the false or suspended ceiling. The effect is that of a vast cyclorama, but the true surface is entirely obliterated by means of the three-dimensional projecting system used. The illusion of three dimensions is achieved by utilizing a new principle of optics. One of the effects which can be obtained, for example, is a tropical forest. Through the spaces between huge tree trunks can be seen vistas of tropical undergrowth, flowers, sky, and water, constantly moving and changing in form and color. A cathedral with sunlight streaming in through a number of stained glass windows is another possibility. Using pure decoration, the entire hall may be covered with abstract forms apparently in three dimensions, rhythmically advancing and receding. Or there may be a modern city with a semi-abstract treatment of towers, cranes, girders, and bridges, swinging and moving. Or, at the operator's fancy, there can be an oriental fantasy suggesting the "thousand and one nights" with movements of festoons of large jewels among minarets and crystal towers.

MUCH poetry has been inspired by the fire-place of yore, which has now been largely replaced by the uninspiring steam radiator or the unconvincing gas-log. The charms of story telling around the fire is as extinct as the dodo and the electric bulb has inspired no poetic muse. However, we may now take the very bulb and make it speak eloquently of the "stuff that dreams are made of" by a new instrument for home use. All one does is to open the doors

which mask a curved screen, select a record from the drawer, take the tiny keyboard in his lap and the world of make-believe is his. Colored glass records rotating at different

speeds are used to allow the lights to be projected onto a screen background lighted from above with the three primary colors from miniature floodlights controlled by the player. Eleven buttons enable the player to modify the forms and colors projected through the slowly moving record to increase or decrease the tempo at will, or "freeze" any transitory form which appeals to the fancy, as long as desired.

These cabinets can be designed to fit the architectural or decorative scheme of the room. They take up no more space than the modern phonograph or radio set. They are self-contained and all you need is to connect to an outlet, as with any other electrical device. The effect when seen for the first time is remarkable. You can give a home "color recital" with it.

With our noise-racked nerves, it would seem logical to seek recreation through silent beauty. We might even visualize, with Mr. Wilfred, large temples of light where people can find a place of silence with light as the only language of beauty.

## PROJECTORS

Twenty-three projectors in the suspended chamber cover the walls with unbroken images which are changeable at will

## THE LIGHT KEYBOARD

All projected images, colors, and movements are controlled by means of tiny keys sliding in grooves. This enables a recital to be given by a color artist

## "BEFORE AND AFTER"

At the left is seen the ballroom with light decoration omitted and all control keys at zero. Only a blank wall is seen. At the

right the projectors are functioning and we have a Grecian court with three-dimensional fluted columns with night sky between

June 1930

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

465

## PROJECTORS

## THE LIGHT KEYBOARD

## "BEFORE AND AFTER"

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

TWENTY WEST TWENTY SECOND STREET

NEW YORK CITY, N. Y. U. S. A.

March 21st 1932.

Dear Miss Dreier:

As one interested in the silent Clavilux Recitals, through
which my pioneer work for Lumia (The Art of Light) was first
brought before the Public, you will be glad to learn of the
Founding of the ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT with the following aims:

1: To provide Studio and Laboratory Facilities for Artists
Experimenters where they may solve their individual problems
and co-operate, assisted by the Institute Staff.

2: To perfect and standardize Lumia Instruments and Notation
Systems for the use of Artists desirous of creating in
Light.

3: To arrange frequent Lectures and silent Recitals of Lumia.

4: To send Players and Lecturers to all parts of the World.

5: To issue Information on all phases of Lumia.

The enclosed Article: "Lumia, the Eighth Fine Art" constitutes
our first Bulletin. It states the problem briefly and clearly.

We have never needed Pioneers in the Arts more than now, when
the whole world is suffering the consequences of Materialism
and selfish exploitation. Lumia is as yet not formally classified
among the Arts - hence can not expect endowment through the usual
old channels.

The endowment for the ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT will come from
the few with Vision - possibly only one.

THIS ONE IT MAY BE YOUR PART TO DISCOVER - ONE, WHO WILL SOME
DAY BE GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY YOUR WORD HAS AF-
FORDED HIM TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR HELPING PEOPLE TO FIND
THEMSELVES SPIRITUALLY THROUGH THE SILENT GLORY OF LIGHT.

It is an ill custom to crucify with indifference the pioneers
of New Beauty, in the belief that we do not need more Beauty.
Through Beauty we advance to Truth. There are those who know
this and who will delight to further this advance.

HELP US FIND THEM - SEND US NAMES AND SUGGESTIONS.

Most sincerely yours,

ENCLOSURE.

TW:AG

President.

Page 10

WESTCHESTER
County Fair

# Lumia: the Eighth Fine Art

By THOMAS WILFRED

President of the Art Institute of Light

A CIRCLE of trees, spasmodically revealed in the flickering light from a dying fire.

Beyond the circle impenetrable darkness but for the luminous eyes of hunting animals.

Beyond the circle deep silence broken only when distant roars from the strong blend with piercing screams from the weak—then again deep silence.

Within the circle safety, comfort, warmth.

A piece of wood breaks into flame, a hand reaches for it and holds it aloft, swinging it slowly back and forth. Two wondering eyes follow every movement across the fire as the swinging becomes faster and he slowly straightens a sinewy body to full height—now the firebrand traces a full circle, the increasing tempo of the hairy arm sending echoing ripples through every muscle in his splendid body.

Eyes across the fire grow large with admiration and awe, she shakes a mane of heavy hair back the better to see and begins to wave her arms in rhythm with his—now his feet come to life stamping the same beat, his body turns, spins, inarticulate shouts of ecstacy rise from his throat—the whirling ring of fire is now close to the ground, now high over his upturned face—then with a clear note of joy and abandon he flings the burning wood up into the darkness, waiting with arms outstretched till it hits a branch and sends a shower of sparks downward even as he settles again by the fire with a deep laughter of satisfaction while the circle of trees glows in the flickering firelight.

What has happened?

His crude brain can neither formulate question nor seek answer—but he knows it was good.

Eons pass.

Ice covers the lands and recedes. Ever the rainbow swings from dark clouds to kiss the earth, ever bright day is reborn of dark night and in the growing consciousness of man darkness becomes danger and death, the evil, while Light comes to mean joy and life, the good.

And by Light man builds. Houses grow to temples and towers. By Light he fashions. Images of clay grow to statues of marble. By Light he plays: strings over hollow tree trunks grow to pipe organs, inarticulate sounds to poetry, recorded events to drama and body rhythm to dance.

By Light he paints: drawings on cavern walls grow to great canvasses of day, night, sun, fire, rainbow and grow beyond that which he sees to that which he dreams—unearthly spirals of color fading into strange nebulae—as he wrought music from sound so he longs to conquer Light, the great good force by which he fashioned all else; it must be harnessed with its rainbow

to obey his dreams.

But Light evades him—the million changing glories of a sunset from day to night become a dull static changeless fragment on his canvas, the mighty rhythm of surging waves freezes under his brush and it interests him but little that the chemist who makes his colors also can mix them with powder and cover the night sky with unfolding flowers of fire.

It is sun and rainbow he wants to harness.

Years pass and small sleepy electric glowlamps grow into large bulbs of blinding whiteness and constancy. Darkness at last conquered, the new light is made to shine from ceilings and walls, street corners and housetops but its dead glare reveals no beauty and has neither the gentle rhythm of drifting clouds

THOMAS WILFRED

Winter, 1932

Page 11

over sun and moon nor the subtle fascination and poetry of fireplace and flickering candle. Shades and colors are applied but through shades and colors its barren changeless indifference still mocks and challenges.

Man's imagination is stirred afresh—he begins to look at the new light with the eyes of a sculptor gazing upon a block of marble.

Years pass.

A circle of columns glow faintly in the light reflected from a metal box placed on a platform in front of a large white screen.

Beyond the circle darkness but for the red exit lights.

Beyond the circle silence broken only by the faint rustle of many people.

Within the circle, on top of the metal box, a strange keyboard with many rows of sliding knobs and little white buttons.

An enormous white light burns up in the box, a hand reaches for the keys and begins to move them slowly through their grooves—

The large screen comes to life. Faint waves of ultramarine pulsating through blue to turquoise and back through blue, then again through blue to turquoise, this time stronger as it undulates back through blue to a singing depth of ultramarine—the screen has become a huge window opening out on boundless space—lighter masses of blue drift up from below and float slowly away until they disappear in the distance. Turquoise blends with still lighter blue and fibres of green weave lazily in and out, grow pale and fade away.

Now a dazzling cone of green pierces the blue. From its center comes white and out of the white pale rose, crimson and scarlet with increasing intensity.

Involuntary exclamations break the silence as the vision disappears.

Again boundless starless space with diaphanous coils of blue and green drifting up and away through gently weaving fibres of green—another luminous cone, sharper, more powerful, floating up in faster tempo as the movements of the keys grow more rapid under the fingers of the player—a third cone of still greater strength, rising, swinging and disappearing into the all enveloping space.

A simple compelling rhythm governs this visual composition through the returning but changing theme of moving form and color over an accompaniment of drifting and interlacing masses.

The cones grow fainter—now the last of them disappears in the barely visible field of ultramarine.

The hands of the artist come to rest on the keyboard as the last wave of color fades away. The space

window has again become a large white screen in a frame of black velvet and the circle of columns in the nail glow faintly in the reflected light from the strange keyboard on the metal box.

What has happened?

Spectators have gathered to see a display of color on a screen but there has been no display—no screen. Quietly the artist at the silent keyboard has taken their hands, led their souls out into space to play and out there eternity has spoken to them in a new language of an old truth: Beauty.

But it is all over, they are sitting in an auditorium, the lights are coming up, other people are watching and quickly the mask of indifference slides back into place.

A young man turns to his companion:

“Beautiful—I have never experienced anything quite like it but what does it mean?”

The older man answers:

“What does a symphony mean but abstract beauty through sound—I wonder how many in this hall realize that here is the beginning of a new esthetic language, an eighth fine art, the Art of Light.”

Through the ages we have come to classify our fine art forms into seven distinct branches which seemed to cover every possible outlet for esthetic expression.

Now, comparatively suddenly, an eighth basic art form of Light springs into existence—basic because it differs sharply from the seven older forms in that while these have needed Light for their development and exposition, the new art form has for the first time used Light itself as a direct and fundamental medium.

The main reason for its late arrival is obvious. Works in Architecture, Sculpture and Painting could be executed with the simplest materials and tools; Music, Poetry, Drama and Dancing sprang directly from the human body while Light can only be mastered for esthetic expression from an artificial source of strong white light through lenses, color filters and delicate mechanical and electrical controls.

The title of this article, LUMIA, is a word I have coined for the new Art of Light, that is: the use of Light from an artificial source as the direct and sole medium for esthetic expression. Lumia thus parallels the word Music for the Art of Sound and does away with the unfortunate terms “Mobile Color” and “Color Music,” both of which speak eloquently of the mis-conception under which the early pioneers in this field have worked, namely, that a place could be found for the disturbing newcomer under the wings of one of the older arts and that Music should be the sufferer.

All this began in the year 1666 when Isaac Newton bought a prism—then only an amusement device—

at Stourbridge fair in England and started his famous spectral experiments, first naming five principal colors but later adding two more in the hope that a definite physical relationship might be established between seven colors and the seven diatonic steps in the musical scale.

Fortunately, science has proved that none exists but the idea of assigning a permanent color to each musical note has so fascinated a certain class of experimenters from Newton till this day that many imposing but misleading works have been and, sad to say, are being written setting forth this or that “Color scale” or “Color octave” as the divine truth, no two of them alike.

To assume that music can thus be turned into color is as preposterous as to assume that a photoelectric cell connected with a loud-speaker will bring forth music while scanning a beautiful painting.

It is an age old controversy: scientist vs. artist. The scientist ever frowns at the apparent ease with which an artist creates and clings to the hope that some day art will be brought about through serious mathematical calculation instead of frivolous dreaming but while art and science may serve each other, the one will never bring about the other. Whistler states the case thus: “Art happens—no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend on it; the vastest intelligence can not bring it about and puny efforts to make it universal end in quaint comedy and coarse farce.”

The history of Lumia is long and interesting. A “Color organ” was patented in America by Bishop in 1877. I can not attempt to even outline more than my own experiments here but to those interested I recommend A. B. Klein’s splendid book, “Colour Music” (London, 1926).

In seeking to establish a clearly defined status for Lumia as an independent Art of Light, I set forth, during my early experiments, the theory that Form, Motion and Color constitute its three basic factors or dimensions and that of these Form and Motion are the most important (I have played successfully compositions in black and white at my recitals), but Form and Color alone may be used in static Light images. Motion and Color (changing formless flood-lighting) however, are not sufficient for artistic creation without Form.

This theory has held and is now generally accepted as a definition of the art form.

A simple instrument for the performance of Lumia will thus consist of a strong electric lamp, arranged to project its light on a white screen. Between lamp and screen are interposed optical devices for shaping the formless white light into changeable forms, for moving the forms or masses in relation to

one another and for introducing color into or around the forms. These optical devices are controlled from sliding keys arranged in three groups for Form, Motion and Color. It is important that the optical system be capable of giving a depth illusion as the Lumia composer must conceive and create in Space—not on a surface.

Now—anyone can light the lamp and move the keys but the glorious privilege of creating through the instrument will forever belong to the artist—the dreamer of dreams—just as in any other art form, but the created compositions may be recorded in a special notation and played by others.

My early experiments in Lumia were those of an artist seeking a new medium. I had only elementary knowledge of optics, electricity and mechanics but my very first cigar box instrument in 1905 yielded a strange primitive beauty on the ceiling of my room which set me dreaming of great abstract compositions on huge screens in silent temples of Light and from that May evening to this day it has left me no peace even though necessity forced me to work in more conventional art forms for many years. Instruments were necessary, no one seemed to be able to build them for me, painfully I learned to file, hammer and chisel and, after many shocks, to wire an electric circuit. Countless “boxes” were built and torn apart while constant ridicule taught me to work in secrecy. Winters of song recitals were followed by summers of filing and hammering with occasional glimpses of promise from the white screen which hung like an altar, pure and stern over the confusion of materials and tools.

Finally, in 1922, I played my first public recital of silent visual compositions on the Clavilux, as I had named the instrument. I shall never forget the tension of that evening but Lumia was well received by the public and the critics wrote glowing comments, hailing the beginning of a new art. The ice had been broken and during the following years I played hundreds of recitals both here and in Europe on improved instruments but the day soon came when even these instruments ceased to respond to the ever growing glories before my imagination. Finer instruments were needed and many of them, so that other artists might create through them, but my funds were exhausted. I began planning.

An endowed Art Institute of Light must be brought about. A performance hall surrounded by studios and laboratories to which all artists and experimenters can come and work out their ideas, assisted by a small permanent staff, and the results shown to the public in daily recitals and lectures. This Art Institute of Light will give the new art form a much needed home and provide a nucleus out

WESTCHESTER
County Fair

Page 12

Winter, 1932

Page 13

of which will grow silent Temples of Light everywhere with doors open day and night that noise-worn humans may rest while their souls wander into Space for a moment through the Gate of Light.

Filled with enthusiasm I set out to secure the endowment. Surely for work in such a fascinating new field which had already yielded glorious results and been accepted by the world—it would be easy.

Here came the big disappointment. I did not know that getting an endowment involves the employment of extremely specialized high pressure organizations available only to Universities, Colleges, Churches and Charities. With the various Foundations established to support research work in Art and Science I fared no better as they are limited by written and unwritten laws to support only University and College efforts. Not being a graduate of an American University I was outside the pale. I then wrote an article which set forth the tremendous importance of a new fine art form and the ridiculous obstacles its pioneers are struggling against—but the magazines informed me that "editorial policies excluded private propaganda".

It is very clear that our age is becoming more and more opposed to individual achievement but while this attitude may further science it is fatal to art as all true creation in art is strictly individual.

"What became of the Clavilux? Those silent recitals showed such promise and now you never hear of it."

My answer is simple: More than twenty years of work and all my savings made these recitals possible. I have now evolved new instruments, through which glorious compositions can be created, but I can not build them. Other artists constantly come to me with fine ideas and yearning for instruments—but it must all wait until some wealthy person has vision enough to endow a small Art Institute of Light. History will be made in it which will bring undying glory to the donor.

We are headed for self-destruction unless we find ourselves spiritually. A Universal language is the only path but it must be wordless and creedless, abstract, yet understood by all—and beautiful above all, for Beauty is Truth.

My life is pledged to the Art of Light and I am constantly forging ahead with the firm conviction that I shall not always be left to work alone.

My personal contribution to the Art Institute of Light is ready in the complete results of my research work, the use of my patents, my collection of books, manuscripts and instruments and the rest of my life spent in research and teaching.

Sketch of the Temple of Light made by Mr. Wilfred in 1922

A HUGE white dome merging into a circular opening behind which is a hundred foot screen. One single tier of seats, each mounted with a tiny lamp. To the person entering only the tier of seats will be visible, dome and screen being veiled in blackness. Under the tier in the space usually occupied by the orchestra seats—is a number of Clavilux instruments for individual players as well as a pipe organ and space for a symphony orchestra.

Both the screen and the entire dome can be played upon and music can rise unhindered from the unseen players.

"It was not difficult to see with him a Temple of Light in the principal cities, wherein an orchestra of Clavilux instruments projected glorious Light symphonies." — Union, Springfield, Mass.

## THOMAS WILFRED
### IN A
### Clavilux Recital

"A recital—an artist at a keyboard—yet not a sound is heard, but as he touches the keys of the strange instrument in the darkened hall the huge white screen comes to life and opens up vistas of fantastic forms in such graceful movements and gorgeous colors as no pen can describe."

### AMERICAN OPINIONS:

The concert moves an audience so powerfully that exquisite verse seems the only perfect medium of expression. Words become limp and poor instruments when confronted by such radiance.—Times, Denver, Colo., Feb. 10, 1926.

The club not only brought before a Springfield audience the art world's newest accomplishment, but it raised a considerable fund to assist worthy girls in obtaining an education.—Leader, Springfield, Mo., Feb. 20, 1926.

—a man whom succeeding generations may revere with Beethoven, Edison and other masters of art and science—an achievement that will rank among men's greatest.—Union Record, Seattle, Wash.

Wilfred opens a new field of sensation, begins the germination of a new art.—Transcript, Boston, Mass.

The Clavilux will enable us to do with light what Dante does with words in his description of the Paradiso.—Examiner, San Francisco, Calif.

It had a distinct effect on the audience, more subtle than music, more evasive than sound, of a rarified character and calling on senses not yet fully active.—Times, New York.

These colors, these forms, utterly unconnected with anything we have known heretofore, have an emotional effect startlingly like that of music; they set the imagination free and they are by turn amusing, exciting and menacing, with flashes of quite unearthly beauty.—Deems Taylor in World, New York.

A medium that leads to emotions and inner joys as enchanting when aroused by sight as those more talked of ones that come by sound.—Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn.

Thomas Wilfred took his hushed watchers closer to creation than they were ever swept before.—Bulletin, Bloomington, Ill.

You have seen wonderful sunsets; you have seen perhaps the Aurora Borealis: you may have seen lovely combinations of color in a setting by Urban or Robert Edmond Jones. But Wilfred shows you a hundred sunsets, he takes the Aurora and makes it do tricks for him, he shows you the loveliness of a hundred skies that win a quick salvo of applause, a murmur of wonder all over the house.—Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio.

It is all so new and strange, so endlessly beautiful, so detached, mystical and suggestive that you want a language equally new to do it justice.—Evening Telegram, Toronto, Canada.

Thomas Wilfred received a splendid reception last night and he provides entertainment that is head and shoulders above the ordinary series of concerts.—Globe, Toronto, Canada.

The colors from the Clavilux are among the most gorgeous things the eye has ever seen.—Mail, Toronto, Canada.

All theories end at the point that art becomes perfect when it has reached perfect abstraction. If this be true, Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux, as the father of an eighth art of light, towers in its amazing possibilities above the accepted seven.—Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor, Mich.

The line of ticket seekers was so long that many turned away discouraged and the Teacher's Club must feel more than gratified at the result of its attempt to bring some worthwhile educational project before the community.—State Journal, Lansing, Mich.

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

You are out in the ether. Cosmographic revolutions throw stars and planets against one another. Worlds come into being with majestic slowness, dissolve and reform in clouds of luminous gas and liquid. A great calm, a deep silence surrounds this fairy world. You are face to face with the Clavilux, the culminating point in esthetics.—Le Matin, Paris, France.

In the audience were many painters and more than one voiced his regret at not being able to seize one of the fleeting images of the light-drama. I know several who would lay down their brush for this new magical instrument.—Le Quotidien, Paris, France.

We were transported into a gorgeous fairy world that continued to live before the inner eye long after the recital.—Psyche, Brussels, Belgium.

We have here a new art, based on legitimate attraction and capable of logical exposition and extension, which is bound to make its way with those susceptible to artistic influences.—Times, London, England.

More brilliant, novel and strange than anything that has been seen in a concert hall or theatre for many years.—Daily News, London, England.

Beautiful in the extreme, it stirs the imagination to quite an extraordinary degree.—Yorkshire Observer, England.

You feel the joy of something new, something unknown, all quivering with fresh revelation.—Times, Bristol, England.

Thomas Wilfred, who produces color melodies from a keyed instrument as a pianist would produce sound, held a Queens Hall audience spellbound on Saturday. There were many well-known musicians, painters and sculptors in the audience and from the reception it was evident that a new art form was receiving recognition.—Daily Chronicle, London, England.

If Goethe could have been in the Royal Opera House yesterday to see Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux recital he would have seen one of his life's most beautiful dreams come true. It was the first manifestation of a new, glorious art form that will lead our imaginations along hitherto untrodden and wonderful roads.—Politiken, Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is a tremendous task Thomas Wilfred has completed in successfully playing a silent recital with Light as the artist's only medium and he should be accorded the greatest honor for this gigantic pioneer work.—Vore Damer, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Thomas Wilfred's work has been enthusiastically received, not only in America but also in London and Paris and a short while ago the Danish government placed the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen at his disposal for a recital. But it is as impossible to describe the strange power of this visual music to one who has not seen it as it would be to explain light and color to a person born blind.—Reclams Universum, Leipzig, Germany.

Thomas Wilfred began his research work with the use of Light as a fine Art in 1905. In 1908 he gave the independent Art of Light its first comprehensible form in his theory that Form, Color and Motion are the three basic and necessary factors, corresponding to melody, harmony and rhythm in the use of Sound as a fine Art (Music).

In 1922, Wilfred played his first public recital of silent visual compositions. For the first time in history an artist gave a message of beauty to his audience solely through the medium of Light—Form, Color and Motion played from a keyboard on a large white screen, thus broadly establishing a new independent Art form.

Since then Thomas Wilfred has devoted every summer to creative work in his laboratory and every winter to recital tours through America and Europe. The tremendous success he has achieved is a matter of common knowledge.

As these lines are being written, new wonders are growing under his hands in the Clavilux Laboratory.

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

For further information about the art of light and the Clavilux see:
Vanity Fair, Dec. 20, 1920—May, 1925.

Theatre Arts Magazine, Jan. 1922.
Shadowland, March, 1922.

"A Primer of Modern Art," Sheldon Cheeney, Pages 177-188.

"The Theatre of Tomorrow," Kenneth MacGowan, Page 122.

International Studio, March, 1922.

New Republic, Jan. 18, 1922.

The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.

The Literary Digest, Feb. 4, 1922.

Popular Mechanics, April, 1924.

The New Art of Light, by George Vail in Franco-American Musical Society Bulletin, March, 1924.

# THOMAS WILFRED
## IN A
### Clavilux Recital

## AMERICAN OPINIONS:

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

For further information about the art of light and the Clavilux see: *Vanity Fair, Dec. 20, 1920*—May, 1925.

*Theatre Arts Magazine, Jan. 1922. Shadowland, March, 1922.*

*"A Primer of Modern Art,"* Sheldon Cheeney, Pages 177-188.

*"The Theatre of Tomorrow,"* Kenneth MacGowan, Page 122.

*International Studio, March, 1922.*

*New Republic, Jan. 18, 1922.*

*The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.*

*The Literary Digest, Feb. 4, 1922.*

*Popular Mechanics, April, 1924.*

*The New Art of Light, by George Vail in Franco-American Musical Society Bulletin, March, 1924.*

# THOMAS WILFRED IN A Clavilux Recital

## AMERICAN OPINIONS:

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

* For further information about the art of light and the Clavilux see: *Vanity Fair, Dec. 20, 1920*—May, 1925.

* Theatre Arts Magazine, Jan. 1922. *Shadowland, March, 1922.*

* "A Primer of Modern Art," *Sheldon Cheeney, Pages 177-188.*

* "The Theatre of Tomorrow," *Kenneth MacGowan, Page 122.*

* International Studio, March, 1922.

* New Republic, Jan. 18, 1922.

* The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.

* The Literary Digest, Feb. 4, 1922.

* Popular Mechanics, April, 1924.

* The New Art of Light, by George Vail in Franco-American Musical Society Bulletin, March, 1924.*

20 west 22 st. Room 808 Gramercy 0935

### AMERICAN OPINIONS:

A medium that leads to emotions and inner joys as enchanting when aroused by sight as those more talked of ones that come by sound.—Tennesseean, Nashville, Tenn.

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

Since then Thomas Wilfred has devoted every summer to creative work in his laboratory and every winter to recital tours through America and Europe. The tremendous success he has achieved is a matter of companion knowledge.

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

*Theatre Arts Magazine, Jan. 1922, Shadowland, March, 1922.*

*The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.*

# THOMAS WILFRED
## IN A
## Clavilux Recital

### AMERICAN OPINIONS:

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

"A Primer of Modern Art." Sheldon Cheeney, Pages 177-188.

"The Theatre of Tomorrow." Kenneth MacGowan, Page 122.

New Republic, Jan. 18, 1922.

The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.

"An achievement that will rank among men's greatest"
Union Record, Seattle Wash.

THE ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT Presents
THOMAS WILFRED
IN A
CLAVILUX RECITAL

At the Auditorium of the

ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK
115 East 40th Street, New York City

WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 6th at 8.30

Only Appearance this Season

Tickets $3 and $2

Only a Limited Number of Tickets Available,
Please Order by Mail from

Management: CLAVILUX RECITAL DEPT., 20 West 22nd Street [Room 808] New York City

## AMERICAN OPINIONS:

## EUROPEAN OPINIONS:

THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT

## PART BIBLIOGRAPHY

*The Nation, Aug. 2, 1922.*

*The New Art of Light, by George Vail in Franco-American Music Society Bulletin, March, 1924*

20 WEST 22 ST.,

NEW YORK CITY,

APRIL 12 1932.

Dear Miss Dreier:

Thank you for your good letter. I am
so glad you were able to come to the
recital because you have never seen a
full performance and somehow Lumia is
at its best when the spectator is slow-
ly carried into the mood which permits
the full enjoyment of the silent com-
positions.

I have such absolute faith in the plan
for the Art Institute of Light.Thru seve-
ral years I have altered and modified un-
til the basic structure has become true
and sound. Daily I walk thru its Studios
and its Laboratory,occasionally pushing
a wall a little back or moving a piece
of furniture. Daily I sit at the big key-
board and I see indescribable Beauty un-
fold on the screen before me as I make the
controls obey my wishes. When some day
soon the actual physical structure has
been accomplished,I shall merely continue
to do the same things - only to the world
will it be new.

Agda joins me in the very best wishes.

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

200 WEST 22ND STREET - NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.
Grand Central Palace, 480 Lexington Ave., 8th Floor

September 28th 1933.

My dear Miss Dreier:

Thank you for your letter. We are both so glad to learn that you have returned from Europe and we shall be delighted to be on your reception committee. You do not mention the date but I hope it does not fall between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6th, or on Oct. 16 to 18th at which times I shall be out of the City.

I have important News! I have finally moved to the first permanent home of the Art Institute of Light in Grand Central Palace, where we have begun to install a very large Clavilux in a special Hall seating 100. Surrounding the hall we have Studios and Laboratories - just as I have wanted it for years!

There is no endowment and it all rests on my shoulders but I felt distinctly the time had come for this move and that a membership of interested people can be built up to attend the recitals, Lecture courses and various experimental productions. There will also be a daily Meditation Hour from 11 to 12 - just silent glory of Light and Color - to which members will always be admitted free. All my financial resources have gone into this but I feel certain of the outcome!

I am going to ask you to become one of the first members of the higher group: Sustaining Member, $100 per year, Life Member, $500 once; Perpetual Member at $1,000 once. Now I can freely ask support from all those interested because out of the present Institute will some day grow the Temple of Light - many Temples - all over the world! Colleges and universities will be asked to send their students to lectures and Recitals which will become more frequent as time goes on. My first lecture course of six lectures begins on Nov. 15th Wednesday evenings at 8.15. The new instrument will be used in this course on a 12 by 15 foot screen!

You have always been an interested and active missionary for the new Art of Light and my efforts toward it and I appreciate it deeply. Please speak the word to all you know, that we may increase the circle and please come in to see the new quarters!

Most cordially,

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

GRAND CENTRAL PALACE, NEW YORK CITY, U. S. A.

October 30th 1933.

Miss Katherine S. Dreier,
The A.W.A.Clubhouse,
353 West 57th Street,
New York City, N.Y.

My dear Miss Dreier:

Thank you for your letter with the invit-
ation to your opening reception - we had not re-
ceived any before, and we shall both be delighted
to come. It so happened that the World's Fair has
been extended until Nov. 12th, otherwise I would ha-
ve been out there now to supervise the packing of
the Clavilux equipment, as stated in my first letter.

Thank you also for the two subscriptions to
my first lecture course! I feel certain you will
both enjoy it as I shall be able to speak and play
now as never before - in my own recital hall.

Since I made this decision and change eve-
rything has fallen in line to further the progress
of Lumia and I am glad I did not lose patience in
the many dark years just before the dawn.

The Institute has not been opened yet. I am
now planning a formal opening and will send you an
invitation to this in the hope that you can be
present. The lecture course is only one of the
activities - there will be regular recitals, single
lectures, experimental performances etc. and you
will receive notice of all this later.

I fully understand about the supporting
membership I mentioned and I do not in any way
expect this from you - of vastly greater import-
ance to me is your continued active interest in my
efforts! I feel you will "speak the word" for us
and thus help us grow.

Looking forward to the great pleasure of
seeing you again next Thursday, I remain, with my
most sincere wishes for success,

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

GRAND CENTRAL PALACE, NEW YORK CITY, U. S. A.
FOUNDED 1930 by Thomas Wilfred. INAUGURATED 1934

AIMS

To gather a Group of inspired Workers and
to provide a Recital Hall, surrounded by Studios
and Laboratories in which they may experiment,
teach and demonstrate the results of their work
toward the use of Light as an independent medium
for Esthetic Expression.

To establish a Library on the subjects in-
volved through the collection and preservation
of all pertinent Records, Books and other Data.

To establish a Museum through the collect-
ion of early instruments and plans, now in danger
of destruction.

To perfect and standardize Lumia Instru-
ments and recording systems for the use of Art-
ists desirous of composing in Light.

To provide Studio and Laboratory facili-
ties for Artists and Inventors, that they may
solve their individual problems and cooperate,
assisted by the Institute Staff.

To give frequent Lumia Recitals, Lectures
and special Performances in the Hall and to in-
vite Universities, Colleges and Art Institutions
to send their students to these events.

To send Lumia Players and Lecturers to
Educational and Art Institutions throughout the
World.

To build up a Membership, supporting and
enjoying the activities of the Institute.

To promote a better understanding of the
vast and almost untouched esthetic possibilities
now dormant in Light and to bring about a gener-
al recognition of Lumia, the Art of Light, which
is opening a Gate to a new World of Beauty and
calling on the finest qualities in Man.

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

January 22d 1934.

Miss Katherine S. Dreier,
The Colony Club,
564 Park Avenue,
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.

My dear Miss Dreier:

Thank you for your good letter. I am very
happy to greet you as a member of the Institute
and it is your active interest above all which
pleases me so much.

I will somehow finance the project, even if
at first I have to do so by accepting commercial
work, but I have absolute faith in the ultimate
success!

Beginning next Friday, January 26th, I will
give a weekly recital every Friday night at 8.30
open to the public. The admission will be $ 1.

Please speak about it to your friends! At
present it is somewhat of a problem how to ad-
vertise these recitals. The capacity of the hall
excludes regular newspaper advertising or the
employment of a "Publicity manager".

I have thought of selling entire recitals
to smaller clubs and organizations (I can seat 80
persons in the hall) and to try to find one or
several people who might do this work on a per
centage basis but so far it seems that with all
the talk about unemployment, every capable person
has some job - at least I have been unable to
find a single person qualified to do this type
of promotion who has not had something else to
do.

It may just be a matter of time and patience
- especially the latter! If you can think of any-
one, please let me know.

Most sincerely yours,

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED THE FIRST MANIFESTATION
OF THE NEW ART FORM SHOWN HERE, IF LUMIA HAS
OPENED VISTAS OF A HITHERTO UNEXPLORED PART
OF YOUR IMAGINATION, AIMING BEYOND MATERIAL
EXISTENCE, INTO A NEW WORLD OF VISUAL BEAUTY

THEN BECOME A MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE - AND
FOLLOW THE GROWTH OF THIS MOST SIGNIFICANT
AND RADIANT ESTHETIC MEDIUM AS IT DEVELOPS

COME TO THE INSTITUTE AS OFTEN AS YOU CARE
YOUR MEMBERSHIP GIVES YOU FREE ADMISSION TO
THE DAILY LUMIA PERIOD, DURING WHICH YOU MAY
SIT UNDISTURBED BEFORE THE "SPACE WINDOW" IN
SILENCE. YOU WILL LEARN THE VALUE OF SILENCE

THE ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP IS SIX DOLLARS PER
YEAR-WITHIN THE REACH OF ANYONE INTERESTED!

SIMPLY FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW AS YOU LEAVE

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT, GRAND CENTRAL PALACE
480 LEXINGTON AVENUE - NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.

I ENCLOSE HEREWITH THE SUM OF $____ IN PAYMENT OF THE FOLLOWING MEMBERSHIP FOR ONE YEAR:

ASSOCIATE - $ 6.00.

ACTIVE - $ 12.00.

PER YEAR

SUPPORTING - $ 100.00.

LIFE - $ 500.00. OR MORE, ONCE.

NAME - - - - - - - - -

ADDRESS - - - - - - - - -

CITY - - - - - - STATE - -

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

December 19th 1934

Miss Katherine Dreier
Colony Club
Park Avenue & 62nd Street
New York City

My dear Miss Dreier:

If you did not see last Friday's recital--the new compositions "TRIPTYCH" and the brilliant Opus 88--the renewal of your membership will also bring you a ticket for the next recital January 4th.

The new associate membership will also entitle you to bring two guests to any Saturday Lucia Period 12-12:30.

We enclose a renewal blank. Please return it with your remittance, that your new card and the ticket may reach you in time.

The Institute will be closed during Christmas week, December 24 to 29.

With all good wishes for Christmas and New Year, we remain,

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

Postage Due 1 Cent

Miss Katherine S. Dreier,
Hotel Great Marlborough,
118 US 52 St,
New York,
N.Y.

ART

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 1935.

ART

# IN THE REALM OF ART:
## DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLOR-ORGAN

### What Thomas Wilfred Has Accomplished With His Clavilux at Art Institute of Light—Abstractions in New Major Medium

By EDWARD ALDEN JEWELL.

ALL through the season just concluded Thomas Wilfred has been giving weekly recitals on his clavilux, or color-organ, at the Art Institute of Light in Grand Central Palace. The unique institute—half research laboratory, half demonstration theatre—was formally opened in January, 1934, and now has a membership of about 400. Mr. Wilfred continues, as he has long been, a pioneer in this important field and his cumulative achievement deserves a very much wider public recognition than it has thus far enjoyed.

For Lumia—the name he gives to his galvanizing new art form—represents, in my opinion, as in that of others, one of the most significant esthetic developments of our time. The principles upon which it builds its beautiful plastic utterance are those that, fundamentally, govern all art. It is the medium, light, that is new; a medium dependent, for practical purposes, upon the service performed by electricity. Thus Lumia could not have come into existence, at least on anything like the present scale, prior to our own age. It is a twentieth-century contribution, even though genesis of the idea must be sought in the mists of long ago.

What Thomas Wilfred has done, among other things of prime pioneering importance, is firmly and clearly to establish this art of light as an art altogether independent of music. A strong and insistent underlying analogy, it is true, exists and ever must exist between the two forms of expression. Both are essentially abstract; both, in the deeper meaning of the term, mathematical; and alike they make their profoundest appeal to the emotions. But Mr. Wilfred in his experimental and brilliantly creative work as an artist has wisely put to one side delimiting attempts to make his color scale parallel or conform to the diatonic scale of the composer.

Also—and this seems still more indispensable when we pause to envision the immense possibilities of the medium employed—he has focused his best creative effort upon the task of developing Lumia

as a form entirely self-reliant, the function of which is fully to express in its own terms rather than visually to interpret music or otherwise to act as a contributing agent (though collaboration in the theatre has proved of value and promises further genuine rewards).

PRECURSORS in the realm of the color-organ appear to have been chiefly concerned with discovering, testing and applying the principles of an arbitrarily conceived relationship between color and sound. Upon such kinship Aristotle commented in "De Sensu." And in the sixteenth century Arcimboldo, a Milanese painter whom you are not likely often or ever to meet in your gallery tours, actually invented, we learn, a system of color harmony based on the musical scale.

It has been suggested that Kepler's "Harmonies of the Universe" prompted Sir Isaac Newton to more exhaustive research in this direction; and in the eighteenth century Louis Bertrand Castel described a "color clavessin" so constructed (to quote from Major Adrian B. Klein's article on color-music in the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica) "that the keys not only actuated the tongues for plucking the strings, but also revealed certain transparent colored tapes," behind which it was presumably his intention "to place sources of light." Castel, ridiculed by his contemporaries, yet contributed something by no means negligible. Major Klein, perhaps rather whimsically, calls him "the Giotto or Guido d'Arezzo of color-music."

All this seems crude indeed, and to a certain extent badly misguided, when juxtaposed with what Thomas Wilfred has accomplished in the way of carrying toward mechanical practicability an independent vehicle of expression. Lumia has been termed "the eighth fine art"—and the term may be considered very apt.

Wilfred's three basic factors are form, color and motion. Nor with them, using light for his brush, does this artist project upon the screen a picture that is merely two-dimensional. In the only sense that

matters, he creates his marvelous moving pattern in deep space. Its playful or exquisite or mighty rhythms can seem to claim Milton's illimitable empyrean as the stage upon which may be performed their weaving, folding, unfolding, passionate, impassionate, parabolic, wheeling, quiescent dance. Thus to a striking degree does the art of the clavilux merit being compared with music, even as, in the same breath, we pronounce it unholden.

THE technical side is far too complicated to be analyzed by one for whom the science of the electrical engineer is a locked chamber. Bewildering, if also fascinating, the spectacle behind scenes at the Art Institute of Light cannot but prove for the layman; those intricate paraphernalia of projection devices, with their rotating color disks, lenses, huge electric light bulbs, filters, wires, switches and the silyhouettes that serve as static participants in a composition—in, for instance, the haunting "Nocturne No. 3."

No less indecipherable seems the "organ" itself, installed in a cramped little black cavern at the rear of the auditorium; the control instrument with keys that are not pressed by the player but that slide in grooves graduated from 0 to 100; grooves ranged in tiers, each tier comparable to a pipe-organ manual. And no less strange the MS. from which the artist plays his composition—this startlingly terse chart with all the color, form, motion and intensity notations set down in hieroglyphics he alone is equipped to comprehend.

MR. WILFRED will tell you that the clavilux is as yet very far indeed from the perfected mechanism he knows to be possible. Some day all this elaborate and now diffuse equipment will be compressed into a single, easily manipulated instrument. Although so much has been accomplished since he definitely began his constructive work in 1905, everything is still, the artist insists, in an experimental stage. To develop the clavilux to such a point that an artist can con-

jure, just by operating the keyboard alone, every effect he desires to produce will require many years of effort and more resources than Mr. Wilfred, laboring against odds, lacking at present the necessary endowment for his Art Institute of Light, has at his command.

Lumia, as a new and striking art form, possesses challenging possibilities. Like music, it is supremely an art of equivalents, of abstraction; one that is equipped, for one thing, to extend and amplify manyfold the theories of the earlier chromists and futurists. Its function it is to summon a mood, convey the quintessential, evoke images that stir, elude and often that fill the spectator with a sense of profound visual and spiritual delight.

Sheldon Cheney suggested more than ten years ago, in his "Primer of Modern Art," that the more especially "orchestral" qualities of color-music remained to be developed; that the elements of "contrapuntal composition" were as yet but "vaguely conceived." Today one notes with satisfaction that this vital phase of the art of painting with light has profitably enlisted the lumist's thought. An opus such as "The Machine," which Mr. Wilfred played for me last week, reveals salient use of counterpoint, in a well-coordinated theme of mysterious, softly macabre "silent music." Frequently the rhythms projected are more lyric—if you will, more "melodic." The abstract, at any rate, is always sovereign.

Thomas Wilfred has now carried his laboratory work far enough to make feasible the recording of clavilux compositions. They are recorded on disks similar to those of the gramophone and designed for use in small color-organs made for the home. Naturally these devices are much more limited, as yet, than is the complicated clavilux at Grand Central Palace. But the future promises to witness an immense mechanical improvement, not unlike that that has accompanied, for instance, the growth of radio.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wilfred plans to resume his program of weekly recitals at the Art Institute of Light in the Autumn. He is doing valiant pioneer work; work that is truly creative, and arresting in its incalculable potentiality.

ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT

April 23d 1936.

Miss Katherine S. Dreier,
Colony Club,
564 Park Avenue,
New York City, N.Y.

My dear Miss Dreier:

Thank you so much for your kind letter and your check for Associate Membership in our Institute. Since most of the season has elapsed I have applied the check to next season during which I sincerely hope to see you here.

The smaller Lumia compositions did attract much favorable comment and I am looking forward to showing them to you.

In general things have progressed - more members, more interest, better results and after the many years of struggle it is most gratifying to look back over last season.

I appreciate very much your continued fine active interest in my efforts and send you my very best personal wishes, in which Mrs. Wilfred and the children join me.

TW:KFF

ART INSTITUTE of LIGHT, Inc.
GRAND CENTRAL PALACE, NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A.

A non-profit organization founded for the purpose of developing Lumia, the eighth major fine art, in which the artist uses Light as a direct medium for esthetic expression.

Founded May 1930. April 12th 1940.

Thomas Wilfred, President

Miss Katherine S. Dreier,
Hotel Great Northern,
West 57th Street,
New York City, N.Y.

Dear Miss Dreier:

I have just received a call to an emergency meeting of the Danish group for Saturday night and regret that it will thus be impossible for me to meet with you and Dr. Savadsky.

As you perhaps know, I am a Dane by birth and you will realize the importance of recent developments to me when I tell you that my mother and sisters are in Denmark. I have been unable to get in touch with them since Tuesday. Mother was in poor health. If starvation is added to her sufferings I dread to think any further. All this is a terrible blow to me.

Over the week-end I studied the synopsis you gave me very carefully. To design and build the projection instruments and a keyboard necessary for the visual accompaniment of the drama would take about three months as we have at present no units on hand outside of the permanent installation. To use most of the summer for this would prevent us from doing the necessary work of improvement for next season's performances and I regret to say that we are unable to undertake the problem.

I am telling you this in order that you may arrange for the lighting of the drama in good time with someone else, perhaps one of the large stage lighting concerns who have projectors and control equipment in stock.

With my sincere regrets that the Institute is not in a position to help you, I remain,

Most sincerely yours,

Thomas Wilfred.

TW:FM

THE ART INSTITUTE OF LIGHT
ANNOUNCEMENT OF 6 LECTURES

The first Season in the new and
permanent Home of the Institute
in Grand Central Palace begins
with a course of six Lectures
on LUMIA - by Thomas Wilfred...

A New and Major Art Form, LUMIA
has come to join the seven old
Esthetic Languages of the World
as an ART OF LIGHT! Its Artists
will play with moving Form and
Color - in unlimited Dark Space!

You will be attending the First
Lecture Course ever to be given
on the Subject - by the Pioneer
Artist who gave the new Art its
first clear, comprehensible Form

The attendance will be limited
to the seating capacity of the
Recital Hall. FILL IN THE BLANK
AND SEND YOUR REMITTANCE TODAY!

A large new Clavilux Instrument
now nearing completion is being
installed in the Hall and will
be used to illustrate in Visual
Composition, in addition to many
Luminous Images showing earlier
attempts and Lumia Instruments.

The last Lecture will conclude
with a Recital of Silent Visual
Compositions - Thomas Wilfred at
the Keyboard of a New Clavilux!

The six Lectures will be given
on Wednesday Evenings at 8.15,
Nov. 15, 22, 29; Dec. 6, 13, 20, in the
New Hall of the ART INSTITUTE
OF LIGHT, Grand Central Palace
480 Lexington Avenue, at 46th St
Another entrance: 247 Park Ave.

The Lecture Fee includes a six
Month special Membership in the
Institute, giving admission to a
daily Meditation Hour, 11-12 A.M.

See inside →

BRIEF PRESS COMMENTS ON LUMIA-

"These Colors, these Forms, utterly uncon-
nected with anything we have known here-
tofore, have an emotional effect start-
lingly like that of Music; they set the
Imagination free and they are by turn a-
musing, exciting and menacing, with flash-
es of quite unearthly Beauty. That it is
a New Art - and a lasting one - I can have
no possible Doubt"

Deems Taylor, in the WORLD, New York

The Colors from the Clavilux are among
the most gorgeous things ever seen.

MAIL, Toronto, Canada

We have here a New Art, based on legitim-
ate attraction and capable of logical ex-
position, which is bound to make its way.

TIMES, London, England

If Goethe could have been in the Royal
Opera yesterday to see Thomas Wilfred's
Clavilux Recital, he would have seen one
of his Life's most beautiful Dreams come
true. It was the first manifestation of a
New, glorious Art-Form that will lead our
Imaginations along hitherto untrodden
and wonderful Paths.

POLITIKEN, Copenhagen, Denmark

Wilfred opens a new Field of Sensation,
begins the germination of a New Art.

TRANSCRIPT, Boston

CUT OUT AND MAIL WITH YOUR REMITTANCE. PRINT NAME

REGISTRATION BLANK

I ENCLOSE HEREWITH THE SUM OF FIFTEEN DOLLARS
FOR THE COURSE OF SIX LECTURES ON LUMIA. BY
THOMAS WILFRED, TO BE HELD ON SIX CONSECUTIVE
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS AT 8.15 FROM NOVEMBER 15TH
TO DECEMBER 20TH 1933.

PLEASE SEND ADMISSION CARD TO:

NAME -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
ADDRESS -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

A SUMMARY OF THE SIX LECTURES-

FIRST LECTURE, Nov. 15th, 8.15, EVE

LIGHT AND MAN. The part of Light in our
Emotional and Esthetic Evolution. The
scope of our Receptor and Convertor -EYE
and Brain. SYMBOLISM. The vast unexplored
possibilities in the use of Light as a
direct and Independent Medium. The creat-
ion of New Beauty. The profound emotional
and spiritual appeal of controlled Light

SECOND LECTURE, Nov. 22d, 8.15, EVE

ART AND ART-FORMS - from a new Viewpoint!
The seven old Arts in a Machine Age. The
Painter striving beyond the limits of a
Static Medium. Painting & Dance reaching
an Impasse. In attempts toward Abstract-
ion in a direction which only Music can
follow in Sound. "Scientific Art" tendency

THIRD LECTURE, Nov. 29th, 8.15, EVE

LUMIA, THE SPACE-TIME ART. An Eighth Major
Medium for Esthetic Expression. Its basic
Dimensions: FORM, MOTION and COLOR, each in
turn having four Sub-dimensions. HISTORY:
A fascinating Review of Man's efforts to
fathom and control the esthetic possibil-
lities dormant in Light - from Pythagoras
and Aristotle to our Day. The Errors and
 Pitfalls and final Birth of a Silent Art

FOURTH LECTURE, Dec. 6th, 8.15, EVE

VISUAL COMPOSITION. Darkness and Infinite
Space as a Stage and Light the only Actor
-PROJECTOR and KEYBOARD, the two necessa-
ry Instruments for Expression. Experiment
in Composition on the big Screen. STATIC
and TRUE DYNAMIC SYMMETRY. Tentative ways
of recording Visual Space-Time Sequences

FIFTH LECTURE, Dec. 13th, 8.15, EVE

THE FUTURE. A Vista of Things to come. The
growing Need for Silent Recreation. LUMIA
applied to, and also applying, Architecture
Sculpture, Painting, Poetry, Drama, Music &
Dance - with Demonstrations. LUMIA TEMPLES
The new Creative and Performing Artists.

SIXTH LECTURE, Dec. 20th, 8.15, EVE

CONCLUSION. A Review of all points and a
LUMIA RECITAL ON THE NEW CLAVILUX - with
explanatory comments on each Composition

The Fee for the Course - Fifteen Dollars
is payable in advance by Money Order or
Check to the order of the ART INSTITUTE
OF LIGHT, 480 Lexington Ave. New York City

YOUR CHANCE TO BE THE FIRST INFORMED ON
A SUBJECT WHICH WILL BE MUCH DISCUSSED.

CUT OUT THE APPLICATION BLANK, FILL IT IN
ENCLOSE YOUR REMITTANCE AND MAIL IT. CARD
OF ADMISSION WILL BE SENT TO YOU RETURN.