Glass key

Referring to her 1967 art piece Glass Keys to Open the Skies, Yoko Ono describes how she used to lie down on the tatami, watching the sky. She sees the sky as timelessness, constancy and unlimited space in her work with the key acting as a metaphor for knowledge, as well as desire.

In our world, we see the sky as an already open, unlimited space, but because it seems out of reach we seek out the keys to its kingdom. Her boxed four keys in the 1967 piece remind us that there is no single answer to the assignment, but multiple approaches and potential and that we must experiment with alternative scenarios in order to find the true Key to the Universe as her sister piece from 1992 implies. The fragility of the glass reminds us that while transparent and open to interpretation our key concepts need to be nurtured so that they can withstand the intensity of the competitive arena or the unexpected.

Experimentation involves what musician David Coulter, a long-time performance companion of Yoko Ono, as listening for the missing colors or what DJ Spooky refers to as the knowledge space between the rhythms. AT FXL, it is an ongoing process that has its roots as much in art movements like Fluxus as it does in emerging design approaches and technologies. Taking our cues from people like Fluxus-shaper, George Maciunas, who explored influences as diverse as the Roman circus, Baroque mimicry, futurist sound poetry or abstract calligraphy, we investigate SciFi, comedy, unfinished artifacts, happenings, film and gaming, automata, info tech, etc. while developing own signature spheres of influence. Our collaboration with our network and multiple university development labs helps us open-up fresh experimental pathways that become blueprints for “living the future” today. Our experimentation work is well documented by way of our world premieres such as the XCHOX Project at Plutopia 2011 in which we launched their first-ever 3D interactive music system or curating DJ Spooky together with a four-piece woodwind orchestra to perform the World Premier of “Elegant Universe” based upon the book by Brian Greene and with strings at the 2012 Plutopia FutureMusic Summit.