“Light Prop for an Electric Stage” as a Search for the New Form of Cinema

The kinetic sculpture “Light Prop for an Electric Stage” was conceived by László Moholy-Nagy in 1922. It was completed in the workshops of the theater department of A.E.G. (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Geselschaft) in Berlin by the engineer Otto Ball according to the blueprint, accomplished by Stefan Sebök with László Moholy-Nagy in the Walter Gropius Office. This period is marked by the experimental search for the fundamentally new form of cinematographic expression, incipient at a junction of light and movement, which in its turn formed a reproducible light play in space. The new concept of cinematographic form required neither film nor traditional projection equipment. The reproducibility of the cinematographic image was achieved via the use of motorized kinetic construction, which could direct light, passing through refracting and diffusing materials, and create a complex play of moving lights and shadows in its surroundings. This paper traces the Moholy-Nagy’s journey from the conception of the sculpture to its implementation.