Visual Music Archive

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Sonar 

(2009) 

by Montreal-based designer Renaud Hallée is a musical loop generated by shapes with cyclic behaviors. A basic keyframe animation using flash, without scripting.

The idea :

 

  • Chain reaction (sort of evolving life form) that produces music
  • Primitive-sounding synthesizer (early electronic music) to match minimalistic style
  • Anticipation of events using (a) decreasing numbers and (b) eventually trajectories on a spinning wheel

 

"It was a personal auto-financed project, and my first film. On a creative level: The film and its graphical evolution were very clear in my mind before starting to animate. Creating it was a very intuitive and logical process. The concept was interesting since the audience would instinctively expect the events to occur in time by following rhythm, numbers decreasing and objects' trajectories. That way, the film would seem to flow naturally and to have a language of its own. On a technical level: Since I studied in filmmaking and music composition, I knew very little about computer animation. Because I thought the idea was great and because it was simple enough to do it without advanced skills, I decided to give it a try. I basically learned keyframe animation while doing the film." – Renaud Hallée

 

Source: Stash Magazine Issue #68 (May 2010)

 

 

Sonar, stripes, partitur, mittig, kugeln, Video Art

Reading

Notation. Calculation and Form in the Arts (2008) is a comprehensive catalogue (in German) edited by Dieter Appelt, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. (ZKM)

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)

Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses (2002) by Richard E. Cytowic disposes of earlier criticisms that the phenomenon cannot be real, demonstrating that it is indeed brain-based. Following a historical introduction, Cytowic lays out the phenomenology of synesthesia in detail and gives criteria for clinical diagnosis and an objective test of genuineness. (MIT Press)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

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)

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)

Sons et Lumières (2004) – A History of Sound in the Art of the 20th Century (in French) by Marcella Lista and Sophie Duplaix published by the Centre Pompidou for the excellent Paris exhibition in September 2004 until January 2005.


Curated by the Pompidou’s Sophie Duplaix with the Louvre’s Marcella Lista, the show required a good three or four hours to absorb, with its bombardment of sensory and intellectual input, including painting, sound sculpture, sound/light automata, film and video, and room-size installations. (Frieze Magazine)

Karl Kliem (*1969) studied at the well-known Hochschule für Gestaltung (University of Art and Design) in Offenbach. He developed real-time audio and visual systems and has designed the most diverse projects in the fields of multi-media, web design, and TV design, as well as music and audio production for films and interactive installations. Karl Kliem is a founding member of Involving-Systems (1994) and MESO (1997). (Dienststelle)

Up And Down (2008) by David Muth visualises an electroacoustic composition by British sound artist Kaffe Matthews – specially developed algorithms generated the imagery. (David Muth)