Visual Music Archive

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Magnetosphere, revisited 

(2007) 

directed by Boston-based Robert Hodgin reacts to sound volume and speed. Built with Processing. Trentemøller's audio is pretty much the perfect medium to send into this effect, with the slow melody and build up.

Full size and high quality

 

The Flight404 blog gives you a little insight into the process behind each work, with generous linkage and occasional bits of source code that can help you start thinking like a Processing pro. Robert’s work is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of visualists are using Processing for everything from performance art to mapping the human genome. But I think Robert's sensitivity to music and ambiance create a nice entry point into the world of a programmatic visualization for the uninitiated.

 

Source: Motionographer

 

 

Magnetosphere, revisited, scifi, mittig, Video Clip, Interactive

Reading

Notations 21 (2009) by Theresa Sauer features illustrated musical scores from more than 100 international composers, all of whom are making amazing breakthroughs in the art of notation. Notations 21 is a celebration of innovations in musical notation, employing an appreciative aesthetic for both the aural and visual beauty of these creations. The musical scores in this edition were created by composers whose creativity could not be confined by the staff and clef of traditional western notation, but whose musical language can communicate with the contemporary audience in a uniquely powerful way. (Notations 21 Project)

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward (2010) – The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video by Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future. (transcript Verlag)

Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound (2000) by Matt Woolman presents exemplary work from studios around the world in three sections: Notation analyses the use of sign and symbol systems in creating identity and branding for music artists, recording projects and performances; Material considers how products can package the intrinsic nature of the music they contain; and Atmosphere looks at how space and multidimensional environmeaants can be used to visualize sound. A reference section includes studio websites and a glossary. (Thames & Hudson)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Permutations (1966) by John Whitney, Sr. was an early artistic film constructed entirely off the black-and-white monitor of a large computer system (IBM 360, IBM 2250 Display, written in GRAF and FORTRAN). Color was added by editing with an optical printer. It is an elegant abstract work composed of architectures of color dots that develop pattern while displaying a kinetic rhythm. This early work has had an immense influence on the later generations of computer animators. (Paradise 2012)

Grid Index (2009) by Carsten Nicolai is the first comprehensive visual lexicon of patterns and grid systems. Based upon years of research, artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has discovered and unlocked the visual code for visual systems into a systematic equation of grids and patterns. The accompanying CD contains all of the grids and patterns featured in the publication from the simplest grids made up entirely of squares to the most complex irregular ones with infinitely unpredictable patterns of growth, as editable vector graphic data files. (Gestalten)

No. 5: Circular Tensions (1950) - Homage to Oskar Fischinger by Harry Smith begins with a static red triangle, then a green square, and then a red circle. It is as though we are being introduced to the protagonists of the film: simple, static shapes out of which complexity and rhythmic interaction will be produced. The film also bombards the viewer with a number of alternating colour transitions used in conjunction with shapes that emerge from deep screen space. (Senses of Cinema)

Riow Arai: Death Breaks (2006) directed by Shane Lester, a designer at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and one third of the W+K TokyoLab visual team. (Shane Lester on Vimeo)

audioreactive (2009) by Jorinna Scherle is based on the principles of minimal music and visualizes microtonal events such as frequency, duration, tone pitch and sound volume in 3-dimensional environments. (Kino Šiška)