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<div style="border:1px solid; background-color:#ffdead;"> <div style="background-color:#000000; font color:#ffffff; margin-right:40px; margin-left:40px; line-height:1.5;"> <font color="#ffffff"> <big> For anyone wondering when I'll turn this page into something deserving the title "Wikipedia User Page", the answer is when I get the time. </big> </font> </div>
'''Thomas Wilfred''' (1889-1968) was born Richard LØvstrom in Denmark. He was a musician, but is best known for his [[visual music]] he named ''Lumia'' and his designs for [[colour organ|colour organs]] called ''Clavilux''. Wilfred was not fond of the term Colour Organ, and coined the word Clavilux from Latin meaning "Light played by Key."
==Biography==
Wilfred's father ran a photography studio, and young Wilfred was exposed to the arts at a young age. He studied painting and poetry in Paris, and found early success as "Wilfred The Lute player" traveling Europe and America performing minstrel songs on the Archaic Lute.
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Around [[1905]] Wilfred began to experiment with bits of coloured glass and light sources. After moving to New York he, along with [[Claude FayetteBargdon]] and 'Kirk' Kirkpatrick Brice co-founded a group of [[Theosophists]] called the Promethans. The Prometheans were dedicated to exploring spiritual matters through modern artistic expression. Brice served also as [[Patron]] to the group.
Current Projects I am involved with:
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While many people had experimented with light as an artistic medium (most notably the Colour Organs) Wilfred was the first to speak of light as a formal artform. He coined the term "Lumia" to describe "an eighth art" where light would stand on its own as an expressive artform. Wilfred was passionate that Lumia should be a silent art.
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Wilfred's mechanisms were often complex designs that have been described as from the "[[Rube Goldberg]]" school. He was a trained Artist, but had little mechanical schooling, thus he was an "Outsider Engineer." That said, his devices were very sturdy, and many still function with most of the original parts.
<div style="margin-right:5px;"> {{wstress3d|1|235|<big> <center> My current stress level </center> </big>}} </div>
In [[1920]], Wilfred constructed the [[Clavilux]] Model A in his Long Island Studio (located on the Brice Estate). The first public recital came in [[1922] and featured performances on the Clavilux Model B for audiences at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. The press was highly receptive. In the audience that first night was [[Leopold Stokowski]].
<Hello. I am user [[wikibooks:User:E=MC^2|E=MC^2]] on [[wikibooks:Main Page|Wikibooks]] , and [[m:User:E=MC^2|E=MC^2]] on [[m:Main Page|meta]]. <s> I have decided to quit before I get into any major conflicts and end my involvement with Wikipedia. </s> I can't bring myself to leave forever, I'm too addicted!
==Wiki-Philosophies==
The Clavilux was a complex instrument which allowed a person to create and perform Lumia compositions. Later models B-H were touring and lecture models, the last one being built prior to WWII.
*I am an [[inclusionist]]. Every book by an important author and all books considered important deserve their own [[Wikipedia]] article. Would you like it if someone grouped you up with others, not giving you individual attention or ignored you like [[m:mergist|mergists]] or [[m:deletionists|deletionists]] want to do?
*I believe that [[WP:RFA|admin status]] is fine just the way it is. We do not need stricter or more lenient criteria at this time. (However, with more and more users becoming long term contributors, we may need more stringent rules.)
==Existence is…==
Wilfred founded ''The Art Institute of Light'', which had a recital hall in Chelsea, and then later at the Grand Central Palace.
*[[The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything]]:
*"6 by 9."
*"42."
*"That's it. That's all there is."
==Things to do==
World War II found the Grand Central Palace theatre turned into an Army induction center, and Wilfred did his part for the Allies by serving as a translator.
*Expand:
**[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]
After the war, Wilfred no longer performed Clavilux recitals, concentrating his work on recorded Lumia and theatrical projection.
*Create:
**[[My name is Asher Lev]]
Wilfred was also an early pioneer in working with projected scenery for the theatre. his initial success in this was a 1930 Broadway production of Ibsen's "The Vikings." Wildred did seminal work in the 1950's with The University of Washington's John Ashby Conway in this field.
**[[In the Beginning (book)|In the Beginning]]
**[[The Promise]]
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==Clavilux works==
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Starting in the late 20's Wilfred began to create smaller, less complex Lumia devices, some were meant for home exhibition, while others were designed for installation in museums and art galleries:
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* Tabeltop Clavilux, or "Luminar"
* Home Clavilux, or "Clavilux Jr."
* Home Clavilux (these differed from the Clavilux Jr.)
* Recorded Lumia Compositions
Starting in [[1931]], he began to shift his emphasis with ''lumia'' from concert recitals to museum and gallery exhibitions.
===Exhibitions===
In 1951, he was included in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition ''15 Americans'' along side [[Abstract Expressionist]]s such as [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Willem de Kooning]], and [[Mark Rothko]].
The [[Museum of Modern Art]] (MoMA) owns three Wilfred Lumia compositions, and many artists of the Psychedelic era were inspired to work with light after seeing the MoMA compositions. Because of his influence on this generation of artists, Wilfred's final work "Lucatta, Opus 162" was included in the "Summer of Love" exhibition, which will be hosted next by the [[Whitney Museum]] in the spring of 2007.
There are only about 30 extant Clavilux Jr and Lumia compositions. Wilfred has explicitly stated his objections to recording Lumia works on film (in his writings collected in ''Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux''), making the survival of his works dependent on the existence of his machines. Most of the still extant works are in the Epstein Collection, and the Epstein family has been very generous, loaning Lumia compositions to museums world wide. In [[2003]], two of the original Clavilux (Models E & G) were rescued from an East Village eviction dumpster, and are now stored in Seattle, WA awaiting restoration by the Epsteins.
==External links==
* [http://www.lumia-wilfred.org/index.html Website maintained by the Epstein family]
* [http://www.gis.net/~scatt/clavilux/clavilux.html Artists on line]
==References==
* ''Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux''. [[Borgo Press, 2006]]
* Donna M. Stein, ''Thomas Wilfred: Lumia, A Retrospective Exhibition.'' [Catalog, The Corocoran Gallery of Art, 1971]
[[Category:Visual music artists|Wilfred, Thomas]]
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