“Exercise in visual notation” exploits the idea of translating uncontrolled, silent natural moments into audible sound.

The seemingly erratic dance of little flies in the centre of a room at the height of summer has for a long time captured my fascination. Observing them, there seem to be strict patterns of behaviour, in other words certain rules and restrictions, to their chaotic buzzing.

This work is an attempt to make the silent symphony, conducted without conscious intention, but rather by the evolutionary forth of nature, audible. The pattern of the recorded movement, filmed at a particular moment for the given time, becomes a visual score to the acoustic work.

In order to translate the visual score into sound, first a tonal scale is devised, in just intonation, based on the multiples of the 7/4, the septimal minor seventh and 3/2, the perfect fifth. This leads to a tonal scale consisting of 36 individual notes contained in one octave. These notes are then distributed across the 2 dimensional surface of the video footage making up the visual notation. The particular order of this distribution derives from the relations of 7/4 and 3/2 making up each individual note.

Analysing the visual score with the superimposed notes (see picture) frame by frame, 25 frames/sec, leads to a written score that then is translated into music and played alongside the video conducting the music. The panning of this 4 speaker piece, also resembles the position of the played note on the grid, and thereby, the spatial position.

The physical manifestation of this process is a non-durational sound and video installation.  The audio-visual part of the work is a loop, with no definable beginning or end, feeding repetitively back into itself. Projected into a sculptural frame with embedded speakers and a back projection screen.

installation sketch (main frame approximately 220 x 220 x 30 cm with 4 incorporated speakers, back projection screen 120 x 120 x 4 cm)