Visual Music

Julie Watkins, a practicing visual music artist and theories the in field published the following paper, 'Composing Visual Music: Visual Music Practice at the Intersection of Technology, Audio-visual Rhythms and Human Traces' in 2018. It is published by the Body, Space & Technology journal and is available to read on their website. Read Online:  https://www.bstjournal.com/articles/10.16995/bst.296/# This article is an excellent article on Visual Music and it raises several theoretical ideas as well as analysis of the author's own visual music practice and research intertwined with a very rich source of references to key texts and works in the field. Harvard Citation: Watkins, J., 2018. Composing Visual Music: Visual Music Practice at the Intersection of Technology, Audio-visual Rhythms and Human Traces. Body, Space & Technology, 17(1), pp.51–75. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/bst.296 Reservoir Image retrieved from  https://vimeo.com/181309546   Copyright 2014 b...

2020 marks the fifth year of the SOUND/IMAGE colloquium held at University of Greenwich, London. For 2020, the colloquium is celebrating the publication of an edited volume, featuring artists and academics who have participated in the first years of the conference.   Sound Image Exhibition - University of Greenwich, Stockwell Street Building The book reference is: KNIGHT-HILL, A (2021) Sound & Image: Aesthetics and Practices. Routledge: New York.  https://www.routledge.com/Sound-and-Image-Aesthetics-and-Practices/Knight-Hill/p/book/9780367271466 To celebrate the achievements and continuing success of the SOUND/IMAGE conference, they have hosted an exhibition in the Project Space at the University of Greenwich, Stockwell Street Building The exhibition featured audiovisual works from the book artist contributors. This very cool 360 video documentation features excerpts of works by: Louise Harris - Alocas Philip Sanderson - Tracking Bret Battey - Estuaries 3 Video Embed of 36...

The SeenSound: Visual/Music series provides a space for the presentation of short visual/music works.  "SeenSound is a regular monthly event in Melbourne, Australia, showcasing a wide range of local and international audio-visual works from around the world, with a specific focus on live improvisation. Running formally since 2012, SeenSound emerged from the work of local a/v artists Brigid Burke, Mark Pedersen and Roger Alsop, and has expanded to include a host of regular contributors and guests." Source: [ link ] The Visual/Music series commenced in 2011, curated by Melbourne-based audio-visual artist Brigid Burke, and is supported by Loop bar.   In recent times, it has been curating and presenting monthly editions and screenings online, archived on their website as 'Seensound Livestream' and which can be attended live for a small fee.  As a result of these livestreams new audiences from around the world can attend the editions. October Seensound Livestream - Sound...

Seeing Sound is an informal practice-led symposium exploring multimedia work which foregrounds the relationship between sound and image. It explores areas such as visual music, abstract cinema, experimental animation, audiovisual performance and installation practice through paper sessions, screenings, performances and installations. Seeing Sound Symposium - Bath Spa University For 2020, the Seeing Sound Symposium is taking place online over two days on 12th December and 13th December 2020.    The call for works, panels and papers closes 16th November, 2020 Call for Submissions NOTE EXTENDED DEADLINE to midnight GMT Monday 16th November 2020 http://www.seeingsound.co.uk/2020-submissions/ The Seeing Sound Symposium has been taking place biannually since 2009 and the website provides a rich archive of the events that took place from papers to installations to screenings and music concerts.  Seeing Sound is based at Bath Spa University and is directed by Joseph Hyde [j...

Timo Kahlen - Intermedia Sound sculptor and media artist Timo Kahlen (* 1966) has been creating subtle, intriguing, eye- and earcatching, temporary media sculptures and sound installations for more than 30 years. Presenting challenges to our imagination and perception, Kahlen has chosen to work with new, often unusual, transient and ‘immaterial‘ media: with wind and steam, with light and shade, with pixels and dust, with sound, vibration and noise. "It‘s a paradox. In the dirty twittering, gurgling, hissing, roaring, growling, whistling, thundering, humming, droning, grinding, snapping, rustling and crackling noises we discover unexpected beauty...” Source: http://www.timo-kahlen.de/projectsbiogr.htm WORKS and PROJECTS Works that Kahlen has created have been categorised under the following headings: Works with Wind Sound Sculptures Experimental Media Experimental Photography     Recent experimental photography work: Isolation, 2020 from the series " Rasenstücke " ( Turf...

Hannah Lee,  a producer / DJ from Los Angeles currently based in Quito, Ecuador   has just recently released her debut EP Ciclos  [October 16, 2020] - a four track EP on Mexican label Vaarios Artistas and a new music video to accompany one of the tracks of the EP. There are some really lovely electronic sounds here and some interesting ideas being explored.  The music video track featured here 'Self Care is Part of Resistance' explores a great idea for todays hectic world.  I am really liking this title and what it suggests - self care is powerful and great to express this through music and video. Ciclos EP Ciclos is a sonic journey that purges the subconscious to find inner peace. Developing textured samples, the EP oscillates between ambient and experimental dance music, exploring the introspective and corporal possibilities of electronica. Hannah Lee - Ciclos EP Music Video for track ' Self-Care Is (a Part of) Resistance' Previously released as a single, ‘Se...

Lull Studio Lull Studio is a transdisciplinary creative practice that crosscuts art, science and city cultures, we are inspired by pop culture, the future, are drawn to deep theory, and fascinated by the fast-developing technologies of being.  They have studios in Berlin and Tokyo and are Elena Knox and Lindsay Webb. They also work with associate artists Ed Leckie and Lian Loke. PROJECT Snoösphere by Lull Studio Snoösphere is an expansive, responsive art installation where audiences can roam, touch and explore. It's designed and created with autistic artists, who have a unique, enhanced sense of how spaces perform sensorially and energetically. Its immersive sound, vision, aroma, and touch- and heat-controlled elements affect the entire sensorium, pushing boundaries of engagement and arts access while gaining insight into neuro-diversity. Snoösphere A gallery-based living lab, Snoösphere designs forward to a fully networked world based on advanced technological and synthesized comm...

The highly innovative and excellent Playmodes team create innovative projects crossing art, technology, science, research and code.  Their website playmodes documents all the various projects they create.  They also have a channel on twitch.tv, where they present content live (great idea).  The project focused on here is their recent project titled ' Forms - Screen Ensemble ', which is a what they call a generative visual music instrument. PROJECT:  Playforms - Forms - Screen Ensemble, (Barcelona 2020) Forms - Screen Ensemble "Forms -Screen Ensemble- is a generative visual music jukebox. Driven by chance and probability, this automata creates endless, unrepeatable graphic scores that are immediately transformed into sound by means of sonification algorithms. Images become sound spectrums, making it possible to -literally- hear what you see. The dream of Kandinski. Each screen of this networked ensemble plays a particular instrumental role: Rhythm, Harmony or Texture...

Check out the exquisite experimental animations created by artist: L.P. PONOR and musician: NICK JANCZAK for their art/music and video projects.  Their recent collaborative project - "There Is No More There Any More" can be viewed on their website for the project. https://thereisnomorethereanymore.wordpress.com MESH: L.P. Ponor and Nick Janczak (trumpet + final mix) L.P PONOR are a visual artist (L.P. Ponor) and a musician ( Nick Janczak) who have been making collaborative work with others for the past seven years are working on new collaborative art music collaboration projects. Previously to this, they worked for many years as a visual artist (painter) and a musician on their own projects. They are British but both have (independently), connections to Scandinavia, were they both have worked, studied, exhibited and made music.  When they met up for the first time in the UK, the similarities in how they worked and thought about the connections between art and music making...

I have been following Alba G. Corral's visual work for many years and her powerful and stunning visual work for live audio-visual performances. Each visual I come across or video documentation I watch, I am in such admiration of her talent. Corral works with musicians, music producers and live electronics musician and is involved in many audiovisual projects ranging from installation to audiovisual performance in a range of settings from fulldome, to large-scale screen audiovisual performances. Her output is prolific and her visual style is polished, sophisticated, intricate and beautifully formed. ALBA G. CORRAL [ES] & MAKARUK [PL] - DIMENSION N - audiovisual performance .   Short Biography " Alba G. Corral (b. 1977 – Madrid) based in Barcelona is a Visual Artist and creative coder. With a background in computer engineering, Corral has been creating generative art using software and coding for the past decade. Her practice spans across live performance, video...

Zsolt Gyenes is an intermedia artist and art theorist based in Hungary.  I have been following Gyenes work on facebook and the images that he regularily posts from his current works and practice are so interesting with lovely sense of form, texture, light and colour.  Gyenes refers to his art works as 'audio-visual' works.   Source:  Zsolt Gyenes  http://gyenes62.hu/hybrid_media.html    Zsolt Gyenes  Website:  http://gyenes62.hu   "His artistic practice is concerned with the process of translation and fusion between different forms of media, exploring the creative possibilities of what might be lost or gained through such interpretation and exploring how getting new qualities of art on this way. He has exhibited widely in various international motion images’ and art festivals (for example, Punto y Raya – Iceland, Poland, MuVi editions – Spain, One Minute – Switzerland, Burapha – Thailand, VIVA – Malta, lAbiRynTh – Poland, NRW ...

The Punto y Rya Festival have put out their international call for works. They are looking for abstract films and are open to Abstract / Non-Representational Short Films. Registration is free and online, and the deadline is August 3rd, 2020.

The Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices book edited by Andrew Knight-Hill is available to pre-order on the Routledge website and on Amazon.  It is available in April.  A Focal Press/Routledge publication and part of the Sound Design Series. Publisher's Description  Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices brings together international artist scholars to explore diverse sound and image practices, applying critical perspectives to interrogate and evaluate both the aesthetics and practices that underpin the audiovisual. Contributions draw upon established discourses in electroacoustic music, media art history, film studies, critical theory and dance; framing and critiquing these arguments within the context of diverse audiovisual practices. The volume’s interdisciplinary perspective contributes to the rich and evolving dialogue surrounding the audiovisual, demonstrating the value and significance of practice informed theory, and theory derived from pra...

Boogie Stomp Pink I saw this gem of a work at the Sound / Image 2019 Symposium at University of Greenwich, London in November 2019 and loved it.  It was presented in the installation and in a screening.  It is the work of Independent artist Stuart Pound who lives in London and has worked in film, digital video, sound and the visual arts since the early 1970’s. Stuart's film work is quite incredible and can be seen on his vimeo channel.  He collaborates with the poet Rosemary Norman. "This boogie dance performed by William & Maeva was downloaded from the internet. Vertical sections taken from each frame are arranged into 24 panels to show pattern and movement across every second of it. First shown at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Sept 2017." Boogie Stomp Pink from Stuart Pound on Vimeo . View more of Stuart Pounds work on vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/stuartpound Sound/ Image 2019 Symposium, University of Greenwich https://blogs.gre.ac....

Stages by Paul Klooren I saw this recently at the Sound Image 2019 Symposium held at the University of Greenwich.  I really enjoyed the mixture of natural images and animated drawn visual elements and the use of stillness and motion. It felt like a very dramatic work.  All the sounds originate from a guitar. Klooren is currently studying audiovisual composition in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and works mainly with filmed footage and animation. Stages View more works by Paul at his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8OT3olRdwnawKdUsVCmKXw

About In Situ EnsembIe "The In Situ Ensemble is comprised of three performer-composers: Michael Janz on synthesizers, Ian Stahl on guitar, vocals, and electronics, and Anthony Storniolo on percussion and live video synthesis. They create site-inspired audiovisual performances by blending electroacoustic free improvisations with audio and video recordings gathered from the surroundings of where the performance will take place. Their work uses documentation as a catalyst for improvisation; field recordings and video recordings become source materials that are then translated and manipulated, recontextualizing our preconceived notions of the sonic and visual objects. Musically, the trio draws upon a diverse soundscape that ranges from quiet minimalism to complex textures and loud, distorted noise." In Situ are interested in blending audio and visual improvisation and have developed a system that incorporates analog video synthesizers that have microphones built in,...

The Center for Visual Music ( CVM ) has set up a a library, gallery and archive of the history of Visual Music at Patreon. Become a member at a range of prices to access exclusive content of relevance to the history and contemporary practice of visual music. More info on CVM's collection "has the world’s largest collection of Visual Music-related materials. The collections include papers, films and artwork by Oskar Fischinger; the original research collection of animation historian Dr. William Moritz, and collections covering the history of Visual Music: artists, exhibitions, theories, color organs, vintage instruments, Expanded Cinema, performances, historic events, 1960s psychedelic light shows and more." [ source ] For more information on the CVM Patreon website and to join to get exclusive content visit:  https://www.patreon.com/CenterforVisualMusic/overview

BFI - restoration from archive. "Missing for over 80 years, this experimental film by Bauhaus teacher and artist László Moholy-Nagy was found by BFI curators embedded in a reel of film that also contained Oskar Fischinger's Early Experiments in Hand Drawn Sound. László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was a tenacious, restless creative who associated with various early twentieth century vanguard art movements. Teaching at the legendary Bauhaus school, which this year sees its centenary, his early optical sound films experimented with the formal properties of film and blurred the lines between sound and image and the act of hearing and seeing sound. Newly scanned at 4K, the restoration of ABC in Sound / Tönendes ABC will receive its world premiere at BFI Southbank on 18 June." Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_FU-KAZMM

D.D. Jameson devised a systematic approach to create a colour music score for a specially adapted piano. His scores took the information from a piano music score and applied it to a sound-music colour scheme and translated it into a colour score. The colour score communicated the musical information - such as notes, rhythm, durations. His score was to link to a special adaptation of a piano music instrument that would have the keys prepared with the relevant colours. The musician could then play the piano by following the colour music score.  Not only were the piano keys to be coloured according to his colour to tone analogy system but the score was to also communicate other aspects of the musicianship such as: the intervals of the music, the notes and their octaves, by mapping the height of the colour to the octave of the note and the width of the colour to the duration of the note. "A pianoforte having been prepared in the manner described, any air may be slo...

BOOK: Visual Music Masters: Abstract Explorations: History and Contemporary Research Author: Adriano Abbado 2018 Adriano Abbado’s recent publication on the history and contemporary practice of Visual Music is available now. A great resource for all interested in learning more about the origins and the field of visual music. It is richly illustrated and very clearly organised and so is also really great for pedagogy purposes too. You can order the book at Amazon at the following link Adriano has provided some more information on the book at his website: http://www.noisegrains.com/?page_id=237 Book topics I History The Beginnings Music and Early Twentieth-Century Luminous Instruments Abstract Films Music and Abstract Art Electronic Art II Contemporary Developments Animations and Videos Installations Performances Language Appendix Synesthesia

http://centerforvisualmusic.org/Symposium/CFP.html PRESS RELEASE from CVM: CFP: CVM Symposium 2018 Exploring and Preserving Visual Music In association with Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, California August 14-16, 2018 Deadline for submissions: March 23, 2017 Website:  http://centerforvisualmusic.org/Symposium/CFP.html Center for Visual Music ( CVM ) is pleased to announce its call for paper submissions for a Symposium on Visual Music, August 14-16, 2018, in association with Sonoma State University. The symposium will explore the theories, histories, and practices of visual music. It features two days of keynote talks and presentations from international scholars, artists, curators and students, plus a final half day of special sessions and a roundtable workshop on August 16. A series of screenings occur throughout, featuring historic and contemporary visual music works. Set in Sonoma County’s wine country, the symposium also features sever...

Oskar Fischinger: Visual Music CVM (Center for Visual Music) has just released a new Oskar Fischinger DVD available now to order from CVM, entitled:  Oskar Fischinger: Visual Music The DVD features the following works: Study no. 2, c. 1930, silent Study no. 5, 1930 Study no. 8, 1931 Coloratura, 1932 Muratti greift ein (Muratti Marches On), 1934 Swiss Trip (Rivers and Landscapes), 1934 Komposition in Blau (Composition in Blue), 1935 ( excerpt online ) An American March, 1941 with bonus features: Pierrette I, 1924-26 1920s-30s Home Movies and Experiments, Berlin (black and white) Squares fragment (1934) and various 1930s color animation tests, image below (note, Squares image is from original artwork painted for the film) "Concerto" and newly discovered animation tests made in Hollywood, 1945-46 - TRAILER showing one test from this reel Excerpts from 8mm Home Movies at Wonderland Park, Los Angeles (c. 1959-1962) ORDER INFORMATION For more informa...

The bi-annual Seeing Sound Symposium is seeking works and papers for its forthcoming symposium to be held in Bath Spa University, UK The deadline is VERY soon - tomorrow the 19th January 2018 has been extended to 24th January 2018 - so time to get your entries in. Please do get your paper ideas and or works submitted for consideration for this exciting and worthwhile event. Visit: http://www.seeingsound.co.uk/2018-2/seeing-sound-2016-submissions/ to submit. Seeing Sound Website:  http://www.seeingsound.co.uk/ PRESS RELEASE: "Seeing Sound will return for its 5th edition on the 23rd-25th March 2018. We are now open for submissions of papers and audiovisual work, deadline 19th Jan! Seeing Sound is an informal practice-led symposium exploring multimedia work which foregrounds the relationship between sound and image. It explores areas such as visual music, abstract cinema, experimental animation, audiovisual performance and installation practice through paper session...

Louis M. Brill’s "Lumia projections are very special if presented in a very slow undulating movement as the light forms unfold, shape shifting from one sensuous image to another. Often to extend the visual presence of animated Lumia a musical track accompanies the Lumia motion which is no different than adding a musical score to a film. When music is played with a Lumia composition, it adds a narrative, emotional and dynamic presence to the abstract moving light as the mind attempts to synchronize the sound and visuals being presented.” [Source: You can view examples of Louis M. Brill’s lumia projections on vimeo now. Earlier I wrote a post about Louis’s blog Sacred Lumia at https://sacredlumia.wordpress.com/ where he posted a very useful article on visual music. You can visit that post here . In this blog,  Sacred Lumia , he has explored the process of Lumia and how it fits into the world of art, cinema and culture as a visual medium of appreciation Sacred Lumia Blog https://s...

There are a number of David Hockney exhibitions taking place soon. The  Metropolitan Museum of Art  is scheduled to exhibit  David Hockney , which showcases the artist. Hockney will also be featured in the upcoming exhibition  David Hockney: 82 Portraits and a Still Life  at the  Guggenheim Museum Bilbao . For more information, such as bio, works, articles and exhibition listings on David Hockney, visit: https://www.artsy.net/artist/david-hockney