Visual Music

Bret Battey - Sinus Aestum (2009) Bret Battey is a composer of audio-visual artworks. He uses "custom software and generative techniques to create hybrid sound and image evocations of distinctive ways of being in the world". This work "Sinus Aestum" needs to be seen in high quality visuals and audio. I was lucky to see this work presented in Bath Spa last year. Quite incredible. However, the vimeo excerpt gives you a good idea of the piece. Enjoy. Sinus Aestum (Luna Series #3) (2009) from Bret Battey on Vimeo . "Sinus Aestum (Bay of Billows) is a dark lunar plain articulated by threads of white dust, like tips of flowing and silent waves. Drawing from this image, the sound and image composition "Sinus Aestum" presents one sound-synthesis process and nearly 12,000 individual points, which are continually transformed and warped, restrained and released, without cuts, to form compound, multi-dimensional waves of activity moving through unst...

Diego Garro has just uploaded his piece Patah to vimeo. Do visit this work. This piece is also available in high quality and surround sound for public screenings. The power in this work is the alignment of electroacoustic music composition with a similar spectral approach in the image material - a truly other wordly result but so well matched. Diego teaches on the Music and Technology courses at Keele University, UK. (blog author opinion!!) You can see this video on Diego's vimeo page. http://vimeo.com/14112798 Diego Garro - Patah PATAH ver2 from Diego Garro on Vimeo . "Stylistically, this composition is rooted in the tradition of Electroacoustic Music; however, Patah is an investigation into (mainly abstract) spectro-morphologies articulated in both the audio and the visual domains. A possible viewing strategy, which is somewhat in line with the composer’s design, may consider the role of the sonic material in permeating the ‘fractures’ (‘patah’ in Indonesian) o...

A very interesting workshop on visual music took place July 19 - July 23 2010 at Eyebeam, New York. Summer School Masterclass: Visual Music Collaborative Visual Music Collaborative Workshop - July 2010, New York http://visualmusic.tumblr.com/workshop It was "led by Eyebeam Fellow Aaron Meyers , in collaboration with Re:Group artist, Aaron Koblin and in creative partnership with Ghostly International ...Up to 11 participants will be invited to explore the relationship between music, sound, and dynamically generated imagery and motion. Topics will include sound-analysis techniques, advanced OpenGL programming, and interfacing with mobile control devices. Guest speakers and musicians provide additional insight. The master class culminates in an event where participants perform using work created during the week." More information on the press release http://eyebeam.org/events/summer-school-masterclass-visual-music-collaborative More links http://www.creativeapplic...

THE PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF STRANGE PARTICLES by Jon Behrens experiments with "creating mats with liquid latex directly on the film emulsion then bleaching off all the excess image around the latex and using the clear bleached sections of film as a canvas to paint my film poem, I used special inks that were custom made just for me called Kenville Dyes I then to re-photographed it all on my beloved JK optical printer. I also created this films sound design. 2008, 16mm color sound 7 ½ min" Source: http://www.vimeo.com/7352980 The Production and Decay of Strange Particles. from Jon Behrens on Vimeo . THE PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF STRANGE PARTICLES In this film I began to experiment more with creating mats with liquid latex directly on the film emulsion then bleaching off all the excess image around the latex and using the clear bleached sections of film as a canvas to paint my film poem, I used special inks that were custom made just for me called Kenville Dyes I then to r...

The Center for Visual Music has set up a vimeo channel to show excerpts from Films from the Collection of Center for Visual Music archive. Many have been preserved by CVM and/or curated by CVM in programs seen worldwide. http://vimeo.com/channels/124018 This channel is an excellent resource for those wishing to see excerpts from the CVM collection archive and is worth keeping a regular check as more films are added to the channel. It is just wonderful to see William Moritz discuss Oskar Fischinger's work, to see the Lumigraph Film (c. 1969) by Elfriede Fischinger (excerpt). This is a very valuable vimeo channel for fans and scholars of visual music. Center for Visual Music - Vimeo Channel www.centerforvisualmusic.org

The Visual Music Archive has been set up by Heike Sperling . This is an excellent online resource for all that is happening in visual music and would be worth bookmarking and coming back to regularly. The layout is really easy to use and follow and this is an exciting resource, that I will definitely be keeping in touch with regularly. Visual Music Archive Heike makes the very interesting points about archiving practice via online means. "Since the Visual Music Archive is not a blog it accumulates slowly and steadily, and shall continue to far into the future. To seek completeness in the field of fine arts seems rather eerie. A wunderkammer, on the other hand, is far more interesting, challenging, and provides inspiring impulses. As a library's inner sanctum." Source: http://www.heikesperling.de/visualmusic.0.html There are really useful categories from which to browse the archive. Latest Editions Artists Works Reading Visit http://visualmusicarchiv...

Celebrating Elfriede Fischinger on her 100th Birthday An Exhibition and Benefit Reception for CVM’s Fischinger Preservation and Conservation Project Hosted by Center for Visual Music in collaboration with The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and The Fischinger Trust "Join us for a celebration of the life of Elfriede (1910-1999), widow of the avant-garde filmmaker and painter Oskar Fischinger . The evening features an Exhibition of selected photographs, artifacts and Paintings by Oskar Fischinger, a Wine Reception, and a Screening of Home Movies, Interviews and Videos of Elfriede. Highlights include Oskar’s first Stereo Painting (1949), The Lumigraph film (1970) by Elfriede, and unshot animation drawings by Oskar. Proceeds from the evening, which includes a silent auction, will benefit the work of Center for Visual Music, a nonprofit archive engaged in preserving and promoting the Fischinger films and legacy. Elfriede Fischinger (1910-1999) devoted nearly her entire life to...

First-Ever Vimeo® Festival & Awards Celebrates Creative Online Video and Opens for Awards Submission Vimeo®, an operating business of IAC , opened the submissions window today for the Vimeo Awards, which honors creative and original online videos and the people that create them. Starting today, people around the world can submit their videos for consideration across nine judged categories. The judges will choose the Best Online Video from the top videos in each category, and that winner will receive a $25,000 grant to produce new work. Videos must have debuted online within the past two years to be considered. Vimeo will announce the winners during an awards ceremony at the close of its two-day festival on October 8-9 in New York City. Additionally, Vimeo will preview some of the finalists' work at a screening event in Amsterdam in September. "The Vimeo Festival & Awards is an acknowledgement of--and showcase for-- the unprecedented level of creativity, skill and...

"Call for Entries 2010 The avant-garde-artists of the “Absolute Film” movement worked on visionary film experiments. They created visual symphonies from animated images which they composed on film according to their perception as artists. These were called “paintings in time”, ”visual music”, “symphonies of light and sound”, “cinematic paintings”, “color light music” or “space light art”. Target Groups: The “Visual Music Award 2010” is again an international call for proposals addressing young talents. Invited for participation are young independent creative artists and designers as well as students for example in the disciplines of new media art, experimental film and music video and allied disciplines. In the year 2010, for the second time, we invite video jockeys (VJs or DJs) and "live-performance" artists to participate with their formats in the new catagory "visual music live contest"! Criteria of Evaluation: The competition entries should s...

"onedotzero_adventures in motion: festival call for submissions! a fantastic opportunity to get your work seen by a like-minded, connected and creative international community. this years festival premieres at the bfi southbank, London 10-14 november 2010 before touring internationally. deadline for receiving entries is 30th june 2010, 5pm. onedotzero are seeking innovative short films, installations, interactive work and live audiovisual performances to showcase at the bfi southbank, london, uk, 10-14 november 2010. the five-day festival is the first stop on onedotzero's extensive worldwide network of events. onedotzero_adventures in motion has been the largest dedicated digital short film festival in the world since 1999. over fourteen years the programme has expanded to embrace a wide range of digital motion arts and is acclaimed by artists, audiences and creative industries alike for providing a platform to explore new ideas and fresh innovation through curated...

Sara Rossi's beautiful video installation - " TV effect " created in 2008, is being exhibited as part of the " LookAtFestival 2010 " consisting of Video Art and Music, to be held in Italy, from 15 to 30 May, 2010. Sara's video installation caught my eye for the use of three screens and optical effects that remind me of much visual music work. View video excerpt and still images of " TV effect " on Sara's website http://www.sararossi.net/work/tv_effect/tv_con_video.html LookAtFestival info: http://www.lookatfestival.it/ Sara Rossi website http://www.sararossi.net/

The new video for Jinesis 's music track candy is available to watch on vimeo. The video is a tight audio visual piece, which focuses on abstract visuals to work with the music.  The video was produced by NGB . The music is by Jinesis and the style is experimental soul.  It is wonderful to see a visual music approach been taken to the video for the music track.  Using processing in conjunction with quartz composer and after effects,  "Candy" explores visuals sonically exuding the 'feeling' of music in a 'synthesized synesthesia'. More information on the video "The Video for Jinesis's slinky audio escapade "Candy" was designed to take geometric lines and patterns and interpret the five senses we feel when in love into just 2: audio and visual. Open to the viewers interpretation, the video's Kaleidoscopic effect is intended to unravel the premeditated ideas of set borders when we think of love." Source: http://vimeo.co...

Chiaki Watanabe is performing new live audio visual performances and installations in May, June 2010 at several visual music and audio visual events in Copenhagan, Denmark and Karlsruhe and Berlin, Germany. "Chiaki Watanabe is a visual artist/designer based in Copenhagen, and New York. She creates abstract visual music works in various forms: video, live video performance and installation. Her work explores cross-sensory experience in a minimalist framework by integrating sound and visual imagery. Known for “hardcore-abstract” visuals. Her interest lies in visual phenomena within music and music within visual phenomena – visual music in physical space - psychophysical effects of visual music - how visual music stimulates the senses."(US/JP/DK) Bio at: http://www.camp-festival.de/artists_en.php See also: http://www.vusik.net/bio.html Visit vimeo page : http://vimeo.com/vusik Live visuals at dansehallerne, copenhagen DK 09 Live visuals at dansehallerne, copenhagen ...

The website netEX - networked experience has a really useful resource page that list forthcoming calls for works that would be relevant in particular to those who create visual music and audio visual work. The page is called "calls and deadlines" and is worth checking into every now and then for opportunities to get your work shown. http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/

Shane McKenna is a composer and video artist based in Ireland, who creates the most intricate muscial visual music pieces.  He expolores the use of animated graphic notation to create musical collaboration. His latest piece - Moving Lights in D is a wonderful example of his approach.  It can be viewed on Vimeo and is embedded in this post Moving Lights in D from Shane Mc Kenna on Vimeo . Information about Moving Lights in D "To experiment with processed video footage as an animated score I performed this short piece myself in twenty separate takes on both classical guitar and electric bass. Each track was recorded listening to playback from the previous track only to allow some interaction between parts but a free feeling overall. I stayed within the key of Dmaj to tie the layers together while following the visual rhythms gave a sense of pulse at certain points. Playing along with D maj or B min scales will sound tasty if you have an instrument handy or just follow t...

{R}ake A performance series of alternative and collaborative electro-acoustic music and video Event: Thurs April 22 - 8pm Issue Project Room in The Old American Can Factory 232 3rd Street (corner 3rd Avenue) 3rd Floor Park Slope, Brooklyn 718 330-0313 This Month's A/V: Set 1 - Giles Hendrix - Video Set 1 - Richard Lainhart - Music Set 2 - Kamran Sadeghi - A/V Set 3 - Bradford Reed - Music Set 3 - Ursula Scherrer - Video This Month's Message: {R}ake is a performance series of alternative and collaborative electro-acoustic music and video. Performances range from pure improvisation to more structured pieces, with video-artists and musicians working together in exploratory ways. Link for more information on this event More Info: http://www.ursulascherrer.com http://www.rakeav.com http://issueprojectroom.org/

vanishing.point from Joseph Hyde on Vimeo . View the wonderful audiovisual work - Vanishing Point by Joseph Hyde. For a really informative account of the ideas explored in the work, visit his vimeo page for the video. http://www.vimeo.com/10216134 Joseph Hyde's website: http://www.josephhyde.co.uk/

Experimental Electronic Music and Visual Arts Festival/ 21-24.04.2010/ La Farinera del Clot Barcelona "The fifth annual festival of experimental electronic music and visual arts organized by the platform Störung will start next Wednesday 21st of April offering us, during four days, the performances of outstanding national and international artists of the electronic and experimental scene./ Störung Festival 5.0 features, besides the performances of the invited artists, a cycle of conferences, a permanent screening of audiovisual works in the exhibition room, and a thematic day on Friday 23rd of April titled 'Hydrophonia', dedicated exclusively to subaquatic sounds./ With this program the festival wants to offer the audience the chance of getting to know in detail different tendencies of the electronic music scene, continuing the work that the multidisciplinary platform Störung has been doing since 2006./ Störung's aim, in short, is to promote and support a varie...

A really innovative and innovative concept for the production of thematically and visually connected music films, organised by the acclaimed rock band - Filligar with students from USCs School of Cinematic Arts in L.A. 8 thematically and visually connected videos set to music FAR : a series of eight thematically and visually connected music films. Beginning 3/2/10 one film will be released every Tuesday for eight weeks. These films were written and directed by seven student filmmakers from USCs School of Cinematic Arts in L.A. and one graduate film student from DePaul in Chicago. The 8 videos were produced by Alice Mathias, also a USC grad student. FAR will culminate in the release of a new Filligar album in May. The 8 Directors: Alice Mathias Brian Brown Pete Mignin Giles Andrew Andy Landen Joselito Seldera Jeff Hersh Meredith Upchurch " Filligar , the acclaimed rock band that contributed their music to Far, encouraged the eight directors to do whatever they wanted with ...

"rain is a minimalistic audio visual composition you can play yourself" The iphone application was created by Rainer Kohlberger , a Berlin based freelance visual artist and designer. rain documentation website http://kohlberger.net/rain credits rain was created by rainer kohlberger 2010. sound samples by max kickinger. follow twitter.com/khlrqa vimeo http://vimeo.com/10557321 You can view more work by Rainer on his website http://kohlberger.net/

Visual Music: Sensory Cinema 1920s-1970s Northwest Film Forum and T he Sprocket Society , in association with Center For Visual Music , present this special series celebrating the history of Visual Music, at Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, April 9 - 13, 2010. Over the past century, there have been a number of prescient artists who’ve approached cinema as a tool for merging visual art and music in order to create a new art form and explore uncharted areas of synaesthetic experience. Through a vibrant history of cinematic experiments, these pioneers have been inventing the concepts, aesthetics, techniques and technologies on which our modern image-and-sound culture is based. VISUAL MUSIC is a rare opportunity to see restored film prints of work by such master animators as Oskar Fischinger , Mary Ellen Bute , Jordan Belson , Robert Breer and many others on the big screen. In addition, we’ll host a panel discussion on Seattle’s own history of visual music in the 1960s and early ’70s....

I have only recently got round to compiling some of the books I have checked out (and would like to check out) when researching topics for visual music.  There are also some great DVDs worth getting.  These resources I have compiled into an amazon a store - at present it links to books on the amazon.co.uk website, but I will be also creating a similar one to link to amazon.com These resources are not all exactly visual music resources, but they are definitely helpful in any kind of visual music investigations or research or in the broader area of audio visual composition/installation/interaction I have signed up with Amazons affiliate programme, so every link you click from my store and then go onto purchase I get a small percentage.  I am slightly monetising my blog to help pay for the time I spend putting work here, so thanks in advance if you purchase from my astore link to amazon programme. Link to my compiled resources for Visual Music Research http://astore.a...

The OpenEnded Group: Upending - World Premiere A stereoscopic theater performance, which will premiere at EMPAC on March 26,2010 "Upending, a work commissioned by EMPAC and appearing here in its world premiere, is a revelatory stereoscopic theater performance, an actor–less drama of disorientation and reorientation that compels us to rethink our relationship with the material world. Using ordinary flat photographs and processing them with non-photorealistic rendering and stereoscopic HD video, Upending transfigures familiar objects, spaces, and persons in ways that are both beautiful and uncanny. " http://openendedgroup.com/index.php/in-progress/upend/ EMPAC @ Rensselaer 110 8th Street Troy, NY 12180 518.276.3921 http://www.empac.rpi.edu/ http://www.empac.rpi.edu/events/2010/spring/oeg/index.html

A lecture on the art of algorithm in the moving image. 'The lecture demonstrates, by means of practical examples, the use of algorithmic relationship in the art of moving images, from films and early generative art to contemporary digital techniques... The lecture will include the projection of films by Peter Kubelka, Kurt Kren, James Whitney, Larry Cuba, Dan Sandin and Granular Synthesis.' visit website

CALL FOR VISUAL MUSIC WORKS - an event to be curated by Jean Detheux (incredible filmmaker visual music artist - see http://www.vudici.net/ ) Visual Music (event curated by Jean Detheux ) may be described as the art of combining music and moving image into "something" that neither medium can offer on its own. Music can inform images as much as images can inform music. Visual Music manifests its author’s (or authors’) discovery and creation of a novel composition that marries its components in a manner that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. In exploring this Art form, one often encounters two "bad" extremes: one consists of music and images that merely mirror each other in a very literal, redundant way. The other "bad" extreme offers music and images so far apart that they have nothing to do with each other. The components do not inform each other. The paradox of Visual Music is that even if it is very often presented as "New Media," i...