10 minute audio-visual recording of ‘variations on a theme’, four channels converted into stereo

'Variations on a theme' starts from a point of fascination with the aesthetics of irregular organic patterns.

Visually as well as sonically the aesthetic of natural patterns thrives on their intrinsic imperfection. Patterns like this are never distributed even or orderly, are never replications of themselves. They are rather reoccurring variations, variations that form a recognisable tapestry of familiarity across an otherwise chaotic and unpredictable structure. They prosper from the tension that arises between repetition and asymmetry. They playfully inhabit the border region between order and randomness. Their aesthetic appeal emerges from within the very disruption of regularity itself.

If one wants to simulate the aesthetic of life, the starting point must be the simulation of the irregularities or variations of its patterns.

Organic patterns are products and representations of the living process. They are visual and sonic marks, they are traces and remnants left behind for us to observe. But nothing that is alive is ever static. As long as there is time there is movement, as long as there is movement there is change. All natural patterns are subject to constant transformation. Any living organism or system generates variations in its patterns in time as well as space. The conscious recognition of these ever-changing variations is only ever limited by the boundaries of our perception.

'Variations on a theme' is a generative audiovisual system with the ability to improvise its own progression.

As a system 'variations on a theme' has no distinct beginning or end, it simply exists in a perpetual state of flux. It is modelled on, and embodies the emergent properties of nature itself. It never repeats, but is rather a flowing sequence of endless internal renewal. It is a system functioning in balanced tranquillity within the boundaries of its established terrain. The only aim of the system itself is to emulate the organic resourcefulness of nature to improvise. It thus eternally strives to explore, to change and to create variations.