VIDEOS: Temple of Tesla
Sparking Excitement for Ingenuity Festival
If you’ve never seen a Tesla coil, it is certainly a sight to behold. Though I can’t explain the Tesla coil in electrical engineering terms, I can describe the ones I’ve seen at science centers. They have all been tall (some taller than others) towers with a large metal dome on top, and most impressive of all, they have all shot lightning into the open air – over 10 feet into the air. The experience is, well, electrifying. When I heard about the Tesla Orchestra, I was a little bit confused. The first Tesla coil I’d ever seen at the Great Lakes Science Center did make a lot of noise, but it certainly didn’t sound like music. To find out more about the Tesla Orchestra and their upcoming performance Temple of Tesla, a fundraiser for Cleveland’s Ingenuity Festival, I stopped in at one of their rehearsals.
Watch the interview with Ian Charnas here.
Watch the lightning bolt demonstration here.
When I arrived, everyone was hard at work. First, I was greeted by a room full of scientists hard at work. The group ranged from advanced graduate degrees in electrical engineering to one aspiring engineer who started building Tesla coils in his home, and who is still in high school. They were all working on various tasks, one was gluing magnets on what looked like a chain metal suit and several others were working on a large plastic box, surrounded with thin metal wire. This I recognized from my days back at the science center, it was a Faraday cage. The team was building it to potentially house audience members during the show. If you’ve never seen a Faraday cage in action, a person stands inside the cage and lightning is shot at and around the cage. Though the spark touches the cage and surrounds it, the person inside remains unharmed, protected by the cage. I was lucky enough not only to see the team tune the massive twin Tesla coils, but also to see them test the Faraday cage.
Before the rehearsal I had the opportunity to meet up with Ian Charnas, a member of the Tesla Orchestra, to talk about their upcoming performance on Sat 6/11 at 8PM @ The Masonic Performing Arts Center at 3615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Tickets can be ordered online at www.ingenuitycleveland.com.
Music played by lightning is certainly something to see. And that’s not all in store for you at Temple of Tesla. The evening will feature original music selected from an international competition, The Open Spark Project, where composers from around the world submitted works online to hear their performances played in lightning live via online video feed. In addition, the 12 to 15 foot lightning bolts will be accompanied by The Blue Ribbon Glee Club, a Chicago-based a capella group performing covers of classic punk rock songs. “This performance will be an intense experience in terms of both sights and sounds,” says Ian Charnas. “This is a rare opportunity to hear music written specifically for Tesla coils and also to experience it in this amazing venue. In fact, this is one of the only venues that was large enough to accommodate the indoor lightning show we’ll be giving the crowd.”
If you’ve never seen Tesla coils or a Faraday cage in action, you simply must check out this video of their rehearsal (then, head over to buy your tickets). The orchestra played an arrangement of a Bach Fugue in C Minor (BWV 582) with Ian Charnas, a member of the Tesla team, inside the Faraday Cage.
Watch the interview with Ian Charnas here.
Watch the lightning bolt demonstration here.
The Tesla Orchestra performs Temple of Tesla Sat 6/11 at 8PM @ The Masonic Performing Arts Center at 3615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Get tickets @ www.ingenuitycleveland.com. For more information about the Tesla Orchestra, and to see some of their unique videos, visit www.opensparkproject.com, or www.teslaorchestra.com.
Julie Cajigas is a Cleveland girl who grew up on the East & West Side and now lives near Akron – she’s got the whole town covered. Cajigas holds degrees in Communication & Music from Cleveland State University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Communication at CSU.