It appears to be an attempt at creating an audio-visual environment that accompanies the Philips Pavilion. Rhizome linked to Media Art Net who described it as "the first, electronic-spatial environment to combine architecture, film, light and music to a total experience made to functions in time and space."
Dated 1958 - before the similar audio-visual-environmental light-shows of late 60s Gustav Metzger and Cream - it's an interesting embrace of new technologies and collaboration between different art forms; a spirit we can perhaps see in the new media art that Rhizome produces, initiates and exhibits. It's possible that the early, faltering steps of electronic visual manipulation seen in the Poème électronique are replicated in the collaborations between web designers, artists, musicians and architects seen on Rhizome's website, Turbulence, BLDGBLOG and others.
A study could be done of the "childhood" periods of art movements and techniques, charting the early, more carefree stages. I've often thought - most likely others have too - that the best time to be a rock music fan would've been between, say, 1958 and 1968. Likewise hip-hop, which I still think is sufficiently teenage to be interesting, was probably most exciting in the 80s. I find it difficult to make a comparison for the 2000s.
