The video below is a proof of concept of an audiovisual installation I have been developing. It is basically a sophisticated immersive music visualiser that uses photographs as visual content(as opposed to shaders or other computer generated graphics).
I got the idea from a long discussion with good friend and artistic mentor Miguel Oliveros PhD about the limits of photography as an art form. I thus began wracking my brain searching for ways to elevate it beyond its current form.
Then after 6(?) months, The Transformation of a Photograph was born. As of now, the focus is on how processes affect other processes, transformations transform media and/or other transformations, sonification and visualization(the link leads to an explanation of music visualization of data, although sound can be substituted with any kind of data, for example, fluctuations in the stock market), and various combinations and permutations of the aforementioned.
What we have in this series so far are only two processes or transformations.
Transformation 1: A short but complex composition is created, then I apply one or more FFT or granular synthesis methods to elongate the piece beyond recognition, creating an ambient and hopefully, cinematic soundscape.
Transformation 2: The sonic data(amplitude, pitch, etc) is then used to transform the photograph, again, beyond recognition. Again, this could be likened to a sophisticated version of the music visualizers which come with media players such as the VLC , Windows and WinAmp variations, again differing in that it uses a photo as the base from which to create the visuals.
Sonification will occur in the live version of the installation. Movements (demonstration here) of attendees will be recorded at motion detection hotspots, thereby causing an algorithm(in simple English, a list of steps required to achieve an objective, nowadays used by machines) to create a composition by transforming of one or more compositions based on the data collected(and thus transforming the photograph)
This is not a music video, videoclip, or short film. There has been no editing or post production. It is simply a recording of the process you would see live.
It was the first experiment of the series, modified many times over the course of a year. The photo used was of Las Flautas, a sculpture by Spanish architect Salvador Pérez Arroyo.
Photo by me, taken on a SONY XPERIA LT10
Transformation of a Photograph, Ascension Vs Resistance in F#Minor
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