Visual Music Archive

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Versum: Go 

(2010) 

is created in a realtime three-dimensional audiovisual composition tool programmed by Tarik Barri. It forces both the audience and the composer to look at the music and listen to the visuals.

"Within Versum one can undertake three dimensional journeys in virtual space, comparable to the way one can move through space in a first person shooter game. These journeys take place in both visual and sonic space. Hence these journeys result in musical compositions, as the sound depends on the direction and the speed with which one travels. Basically Versum offers the possibility of travelling past threedimensional sound-emitting objects, called Entities, which produce all types of sounds which are either continuous or rythmical and pulsating. As you approach objects you hear them become louder, and if you travel further you will slowly hear it fade away, while the other objects that you travel towards become louder. Entities which are to the right of the camera will be heard from the right and those that are above or behind the camera will be heard from above or behind, if enough speakers are used and placed in the right positions. All the aspects of this journey can be created and modified in realtime: both the path of the journey and the entities which the virtual camera meets during its travels can be changed according to the whishes of the composer. Go is my second composition made in Versum."

 

Source: Tarik Barri's website

 

 

Versum: Go, stripes, real time, software, Video Clip, Interactive, Code

Reading

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)

Audiovisuology: See this sound (2010) - An Interdisciplinary Compendium of Audiovisual Culture. This all-embracing compendium brings together texts on various art forms in which the relationship between sound and image plays a significant role and the techniques used in linking the two. The entire spectrum of audiovisual art and phenomena is presented in 35 dictionary entries. (Cornerhouse)

Computer Music Journal: Visual Music (2005) - The articles in this issue are all devoted to the topic of Visual Music: audiovisual creations in which the artist strives to endow the video component with formal and abstract qualities that mimic those of musical composition. (Computer Music Journal)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Visual Sound Design (2010) by Reza Ali is a little app he made to help him understand microsounds, oscillators, timing, frequency, low frequency oscillators, polymorphism, sequencing, filtering, time domain effects, such as reverb, chorusing, etc, and distortion effects, such as clipping and more... in real-time in a visual manner, which is how he learns best. (Reza Ali on Vimeo)

Digital Harmony (1980): On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art – John Whitney, Sr. wanted to create a dialog between "the voices of light and tone." All of his early experiments in film and the development of sound techniques lead toward this end. He felt that music was an integral part of the visual experience; the combination had a long history in man's primitive development and was part of the essence of life. His theories On the complementarity of Music and Visual Art were explained in his book, Digital Harmony, published by McGraw-Hill in 1980. (Paradise 2012)

Lamp Shade (2007) by David Muth visually explores rhythmic patterns and their underlying harmonic shifts through abstract minimalism. Specially written software generated the imagery. Music by Alvin Lucier. (David Muth)

Aphex Swarm (2008) is a Visual Muisc clip by Reza Ali. The base video material was a flocking simulation in Maya. The audio track is Girl/ Boy Song (18£ Snare Rush Remix) by Aphex Twin. (Reza Ali)

Sebastian Oschatz is a German media artist with a background in Computer Science. At one point he was a third of the experimental music ensemble Oval, famous for their uncompromising systems-based approach to the creation of sound. In 1995 Oschatz created a series of generative music videos for Oval, using custom software running on a SGI Onyx supercomputer. (Generator.x)