Light Waltz

Light Waltz, single-channel video with sound, 2'23"", 2560x1440, 2.76:1 aspect ratio with letterboxing. Created by Nico Arbogast, 2025.

Light is our screen, shaping all we see. It enlightens as much as it blinds us. Beyond sight, we perceive the permanent field and its eternal flow of impermanence. With eyes closed, within the screen we choose, we dance, twirling and laughing. We remember, and we return. Matter fades. Nothing happens, yet everything is, thus was and will be.

Light Waltz explores how our understanding and experience of reality shift with each layer we accept as our limit. Centered on a real-world 3D scan transformed into Gaussian splats (blurred points of light rendered in space), the piece dances between the tangible and its abstract essence, with shimmering, oscillating RGB particles that echo the cosmic vibrations of string theory. A genuine melody, nostalgic on piano, evolves into a playful electronic waltz. It invites you to laugh, to move, to step back from the weight of matter and time, and to join the joyful, unserious dance of energy we all belong to.

Technical Process:
• - 3D Scan: Captured using an iPhone and Scaniverse.
• - Video: Rendered and recorded in a web browser. Procedural animations created with custom JavaScript and GLSL shaders, and using Three.js and Mark Kellogg’s GaussianSplats3D.
• - Music: Composed, recorded, and produced in Ableton Live.