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You Are the Sony of My Life 

(2007) 

by David Muth is an amalgam of concise visual language tightly fused with the whimsical, flickering soundtrack by GCTTCATT.

You Are The Sony Of My Life (2007) by David Muth is an amalgam of concise visual language tightly fused with the whimsical, flickering soundtrack by GCTTCATT.

The piece starts with an image of a white plane, which subsequently becomes perforated with bursts of oblique linear elements. As the soundtrack moves on, these acoustically driven perforations merge into larger geometric shapes. A fine grid of interwoven horizontal and vertical stripes becomes revealed progressively over time. In David Muth's piece it seems to be the soundtrack that sculpts the image - by adding and removing visual material, filling certain image regions or dissecting the visual plane. In return, the film acts as a visual amplifier for the audio. You Are the Sony of My Life is an 'Absolute Film' in more than one sense: it is not only entirely abstract, but also rejects the illusionist principles of animation. There is no hint of a visual space populated by animated shapes. Constrained by the regime of the scanline, the visual organization of the piece remains entirely rhythmic.

(Dietmar Offenhuber)

 

Source: David Muth's website

 

 

You Are the Sony of My Life, stripes, Video Clip

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)

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)

‘vE-”jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video (2006) by Xarene Eskander is a global snapshot of an exploding genre of tech-art performance: VJing and live audio-video. The book covers 40 international artists with 400+ colour images and 50+ movies and clips on an accompanying DVD and web downloads. (VJ Book)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Synchromie (1971) by Norman McLaren features synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word. To make this film, Norman McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track, which he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear. (National Filmboard of Canada)

Michael Fakesch: Don't stop (2007) by Tina Frank was created as part of Michael Fakesch's (ex Funkstörung) project Vidos, a video anthology inspired by his latest album Dos. Don't stop shows non-stop rotations and movements, a simple translation of the title. While the music's speed changes from slow to fast like chewing gum so does the image. (Tina Frank)

Spectral Strands/ Saariaho: Vent nocturne (2010) by Garth Knox performing viola (at times with electronic treatments) and Brian O'Reilly manipulating real time visualizations. The moving images use source materials based on extreme close up footage Brian O'Reilly shot of Garth performing on the viola, then processed using Tom Demeyer's ImX software, with further editing and transformations using FCP to create the fixed form presented here. The music Vent nocturne for viola and electronics was composed by Kaija Saariaho for the project and is dedicated to Garth. (Brian O'Reilly on Vimeo)

Chronomops (2005) by Tina Frank opens up a shimmering, colorful space that is simultaneously an excess of color, frenzy of perception, and pop carousel. An abstract architecture of vertical color bars is set in endless rotation, whereby the modules and building blocks fly around themselves—and the entire system likewise rotates. The forced movement forms a digital maelstrom whose suction pulls the observer deep into it. (Tina Frank)

Steve Reich: Second Movement (2006) - D-Fuse, in collaboration with director and designer César Pesquera performed with the London Symphony Orchestra for Steve Reich's 70th Birthday concert at the Barbican Hall featuring live video mixed to Reich's The Desert Music. (D-Fuse, PDF)