Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
DSpace
UBCO
Holt, Emerald
Master of Fine Arts - MFA
University of British Columbia
"The Voice of the Land" combines the exquisite sounds and colors of nature to create an expressive Visual Music composition of the Okanagan Valley, BC. Utilizing creative research methodology process, I recorded original soundscapes of the Okanagan environment, and created visualizations based on the four seasons. My composition is based on the interwoven melodies and visuals of the local landscape, creating an immersive media artwork that invites people to experience nature's marvelous vocabulary. I composed four movements of multimodal experience which corresponds to the viewersâ presence in the valley. In the interactive installation there is a light source that illuminates the zone of interaction, where viewers trigger samples of prepared piano, flute and cello sonification based on scales derived from nature. I developed several versions of the software that allowed the audience to interact in two ways: as dancers and as audience members. By using real-time visual and audio processing "The Voice of the Land" promotes unique connections between the local environment and our experience of nature. The installation will assist the public in building lasting relationships with their natural surroundings which will be critical in a future defined by environmental challenges. This was one of the first studies to present the soundscape of the Okanagan using contemporary sonic technology, and it brought to life the metaphoric expressions of the land through innovative interactive performances and visualizations. The project was a result of extensive study of visual music theory and involved research creation methods and theoretical ideas. Given my background as a trained pianist, a painter, a digital media animator, and a 3D modeler, the completion of the research project was a rewarding journey.
THE VOICE OF THE LAND: A PERFORMATIVE VISUAL MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE OKANAGAN VALLEY by Emerald Holt B.F.A., The University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 2018 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2021 © Emerald Holt, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: The Voice of the Land: A Performative Visual Music Composition of the Okanagan Valley submitted by Emerald Holt in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Fine Arts . Dr. Aleksandra Dulic, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor Dr. Robert Pritchard, Faculty of the UBC School of Music Co-supervisor Neil Cadger, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Miles Thorogood, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Liane Gabora University Examiner iii Abstract "The Voice of the Land" combines the exquisite sounds and colors of nature to create an expressive Visual Music composition of the Okanagan Valley, BC. Utilizing creative research methodology process, I recorded original soundscapes of the Okanagan environment, and created visualizations based on the four seasons. My composition is based on the interwoven melodies and visuals of the local landscape, creating an immersive media artwork that invites people to experience nature's marvelous vocabulary. I composed four movements of multimodal experience which corresponds to the viewersâ presence in the valley. In the interactive installation there is a light source that illuminates the zone of interaction, where viewers trigger samples of prepared piano, flute and cello sonification based on scales derived from nature. I developed several versions of the software that allowed the audience to interact in two ways: as dancers and as audience members. By using real-time visual and audio processing "The Voice of the Land" promotes unique connections between the local environment and our experience of nature. The installation will assist the public in building lasting relationships with their natural surroundings which will be critical in a future defined by environmental challenges. This was one of the first studies to present the soundscape of the Okanagan using contemporary sonic technology, and it brought to life the metaphoric expressions of the land through innovative interactive performances and visualizations. The project was a result of extensive study of visual music theory and involved research creation methods and theoretical ideas. Given my background as a trained pianist, a painter, a digital media animator, and a 3D modeler, the completion of the research project was a rewarding journey. iv Lay Summary My masterâs thesis exhibition, "The Voice of the Land," combines the exquisite sounds and colors of nature to make an expressive Visual Music composition of the Okanagan Valley, BC. For this project I collected sounds and visuals from the environment to use as a basis for my compositional technique for immersive installation. The exhibition uses a series of projected screens to exhibit the colors of the landscape in combination with the cycles of the seasons. The interactive interface invites people to experience nature's marvellous vocabulary through their body motion which triggers sounds and visuals. With the help of my supervisors, I developed digital software that turned the gallery into an active space for collaborative interactive experience. Through the use of contemporary sonic technology and real time processing I will bring to life the metaphoric expressions of the land through innovative performance visualization technology. v Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... xi Dedication ................................................................................................................................ xiii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Context ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Purpose ....................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Positioning ................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Founding Principles of Visual Music: Kandinsky, Klee and Early Film Pioneers ........ 4 2.1.1 Kandinskyâs Musical Architecture of Painting ........................................................ 6 2.1.2 Kandinskyâs âMusical Lineâ in Time ....................................................................... 9 2.1.3 Kandinskyâs Symphonic Color Analogies ............................................................ 10 2.1.4 Countermovement in Kleeâs Visual Music ........................................................... 12 2.1.5 Kleeâs principles of growth in nature as an active agent of art ............................ 13 2.1.6 Kleeâs growth as a texture of dynamic occurrence .............................................. 13 2.1.7 Kleeâs Functional Process and Motion ................................................................ 13 2.1.8 Percussive Instrumentation in early visual music films ....................................... 14 2.2 Founding Principles of Nature in Music: Soundscape Ecologies and Musical Theorems and Compositions Derived from Nature ............................................................. 18 2.2.1 How to Sonify the Landscape? ........................................................................... 18 2.2.2 Characteristics of music derived from the Landscape ........................................ 18 2.2.3 Pierre Schaeferâs sonorous objects and acousmatic listening ............................ 19 vi 2.2.4 Murray Schafer soundscapes and acoustic ecologies ........................................ 20 2.2.5 Bernie Krausâs Animal Orchestra ........................................................................ 21 2.2.6 Nature communicates through sound undetectable to the human ear ............... 21 2.2.7 Schaeferâs Music Concrète ................................................................................. 23 2.2.8 Messianâs Musical Compositions of Birdsong ..................................................... 23 2.3 Founding Principles of Interactivity: Immersive artworks, computational frameworks of nature, and musical programming language and grammars .......................................... 24 2.3.1 Solutions for visual music approaches that cocreate with nature ....................... 24 2.3.2 Visual music art that works with nature ............................................................... 26 2.3.3 Computational Programming modeled from nature ............................................ 27 2.3.4 Musical Programming language and grammar ................................................... 29 2.3.5 Immersive media environments .......................................................................... 29 Chapter 3: Research Creation Methods and Artwork Development ................................... 31 3.1 Creative Methods structure: ...................................................................................... 31 3.1.1 Okanagan Sounds Recordings (Gathering) ........................................................ 31 3.1.2 Audio Postproduction Techniques ...................................................................... 32 3.1.3 Editing sounds in waveform and spectrograms (Interacting) .............................. 32 3.1.4 Audio Experimentations ...................................................................................... 33 3.1.5 Compositional Structure: How I built visual music techniques? .......................... 34 3.1.6 Visual Music animations (Constructs) ................................................................. 35 3.2 How I studied the Landscape of Nature in the Okanagan? ....................................... 37 3.2.1 Okanagan Video recordings of Indigenous Plants and Animals ......................... 37 3.2.2 Okanagan Video recordings: Non-anthropocentric perspectives ........................ 37 3.2.3 Color Grading Technique .................................................................................... 37 3.2.4 Post production techniques for Video ................................................................. 38 3.2.5 Adjusting Video Depth of Field ............................................................................ 39 vii 3.2.6 Video Codec and wrappers for Max/MSP ........................................................... 40 3.3 Interactive Programming for collaborations with nature .......................................... 40 3.3.1 Non-anthropocentric compositional frameworks (goals, intentions) .................... 40 3.3.2 Absent presence: Issues working in non-real time .............................................. 41 3.3.3 Active Presence: Advantages of working in real-time ......................................... 43 3.3.4 Two theoretical approaches for using recordings of nature in an installation ..... 44 3.4 Interactive Sound and Painting- Magpie Movement, 2019 ....................................... 44 3.4.1 Magpie Movement, 2019 ..................................................................................... 44 3.5 Immersive Visual Music Installation .......................................................................... 46 3.5.1 Spectral Gesture April 2019 ................................................................................ 46 3.5.1.1 Natural User Interface ................................................................................. 48 3.5.1.2 Non-material Boundaries: Light source and interactive framing .................. 49 3.5.1.3 Non-predictable soundscape provokes Egalitarian basis for collaborative experience ................................................................................................................... 50 3.5.1.4 Visual Music Animations ............................................................................. 50 3.5.1.5 Laser cut materials and sand blast technique ............................................. 53 3.5.1.6 Projection Mapping of Screens ................................................................... 53 3.5.2 The Multimodal Landscape, 2020 ....................................................................... 54 3.5.2.1 Spatial Design for The Multimodal Landscape: Multi-perspective of Visuals, time, and space ........................................................................................................... 58 3.5.2.2 Caution with deriving Geometric shapes from Nature ................................. 59 3.5.2.3 David Hockneyâs Joiners technique ............................................................ 59 3.5.2.4 Generative Soundscape that uses principles of Serendipity from the Natural Landscape ................................................................................................................... 60 3.5.2.5 Rich layering of sonic landscape ................................................................. 61 3.5.3 The Intervals of Nature, April 2020 ..................................................................... 61 viii 3.5.3.1 Multichannel video inputs- Seasonal Cycles ............................................... 63 3.5.4 Improvisations and Collaborations between January 2019- April 2020 .............. 64 3.5.4.1 Aeon Performance 2019 ............................................................................. 64 3.5.4.2 Looks like Sounds performance 2020 ......................................................... 65 3.5.4.3 Paintings Based on Music- Live Collaborations .......................................... 65 Chapter 4: The Voice of the Land thesis exhibition .............................................................. 67 4.1 Principles of Color based on animalsâ unique perception of Light Spectrum ............ 67 4.2 Colorscape of the Okanagan Landscape .................................................................. 68 4.3 Instrumental Databases interpreted from key bird species: The Northern Mocking bird for Cello and the Robin for flute ................................................................................... 68 4.4 Screen Design ........................................................................................................... 69 4.5 Interactive Screens in multichannel mode ................................................................ 70 4.6 Seasonal color palette for video media ..................................................................... 70 4.7 Spatio-Temporal Strategies for Evolving Frameworks .............................................. 71 4.8 Sound Media ............................................................................................................. 72 Chapter 5: Discussion .............................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 6: Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 76 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 79 Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix A .......................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix B .......................................................................................................................... 87 ix List of Figures Figure 1 Woman in Control. 4 x 4â. Oil painting on board. Emerald Holt ...................................... 8 Figure 2 Visual scoring of notes ................................................................................................... 9 Figure 3 Emerald Holt's interpretation of Kandinsky's Color Orchestra ...................................... 11 Figure 4 reification in contrasting visual form ............................................................................. 15 Figure 5 Dance of the Wasp 2018. 4 still images from the visual music film¬, taken during moments of percussive instrumentation. .................................................................................... 17 Figure 6 Mission Creek water reflections in fractal counterpoint ................................................ 28 Figure 7 Examples of Indigenous Okanagan plants with visual geometric fractals and mathematical ratios ..................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 8 Robin Song Syllables from April 3rd 2019 audio recording .......................................... 33 Figure 9 Okanagan Etude audio materials ................................................................................. 35 Figure 10 Still images from a series of 4 ambient videos. Visual material was based on the Okanagan colorscape of seasonal indigenous plants including (left to right) Heart leaved Arnica, Delphinium Nuttalianum, Indian Paintbrush, Wild Lupin, Nootska Rose, rose hip, and pine tree branches. .................................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 11 Chokecherry Berries near Lake Kalamalka in Kakuli Bay using a large aperture ...... 40 Figure 12 Fixed media (video) to audio Max/MSP program ....................................................... 42 Figure 13 Live video input to audio Max/MSP program .............................................................. 44 Figure 14 Magpie Movement- 4â x 6â mixed media drawing on paper. Charcoal, Indian ink, acrylic paint, and chalk. .............................................................................................................. 45 Figure 15 Spectral Gesture- singular user experience ............................................................... 47 Figure 16 Spectral Gesture- multiple user experience ............................................................... 47 Figure 17 Spectral Gesture ......................................................................................................... 48 Figure 18 Circular Animations .................................................................................................... 51 Figure 19 Rosy Pink Animation with opalescent cast shadow .................................................... 52 x Figure 20 The Multimodal Landscape 2020 ............................................................................... 55 Figure 21 The Multimodal Landscape 2020 ............................................................................... 56 Figure 22 Alternator poster for The Multimodal Landscape ........................................................ 57 Figure 23 The Multimodal Landscape (January 2020) ............................................................... 58 Figure 24 The Intervals of Nature 2020 ...................................................................................... 62 Figure 25 Intervals of Nature, 2020 ............................................................................................ 62 Figure 26 Intervals of Nature- viewer interacting in gallery ......................................................... 63 Figure 27 Aeon collaborative 2019 ............................................................................................. 64 Figure 28 Looks Like Sounds 2020 ............................................................................................ 65 Figure 29 (Detail image)- The Scroll of a Cello- oil painting 3 x 3'. February 2020 .................... 66 Figure 30 Wild Saskatoon Berries near Kakuli Bay .................................................................... 68 Figure 31 Northern Mockingbird Call for Cello ............................................................................ 69 Figure 32 Summer Okanagan Color Palette ............................................................................... 71 Figure 33 Summer Okanagan landscape ................................................................................... 71 Figure 34 Northern Mockingbird Spectrogram ............................................................................ 72 xi Acknowledgements I would like to begin my acknowledgements by thanking my supervisor Aleks (a.k.a. Sila) for teaching me so much over this incredible journey of my masters. She has inspired me to follow my dreams and believe in myself. I am so grateful to her for the many research assistantships that she offered me, such as Celestial Bodies and Waterways. Working at the Centre for Culture and Technology has taught me how to be confident working with digital media as a creative tool of expression and building long lasting relationships with an incredible group of colleagues whom I admire and now call friends. Thank-you Aleks for all the wisdom and professional advice you gave me during our frequent âwalks and talks.â I hold the memories from all the collaborative projects that you invited me to be apart of close to my heart. These were some of the best times of my life! I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Bob for mentoring me over these past two years on my artwork creation, and always keeping me in good spirits with your awesome sense of humour and invigorating me with your super intelligence! Thank-you for sharing with me the UBC MAX/MSP toolkit and helping me customize several interactive interfaces! One of the highlights from this program was having you as my supervisor since you taught me so much about music theory and compositional techniques. I am forever grateful. To the very talented Kenneth Newby for showing me how to program and help build and improve my interactive frameworks! Thank-you for taking the time to teach me from near and a far, while helping me achieve my goals. (Your tremendous programming style and super sleek MAX patches will be something I will always admire!) Thank-you. To my amazing committee members, Neil and Miles. I will cherish those awesome musical memories from our rehearsals and experimental jam sessions at the studio. Thank-you Neil for giving me the opportunity to exhibit my artwork for the Living Things International Arts Festival. xii To Jacen Dennis for sharing with me all your incredible knowledge about animation and digital media! Your patience and willingness to educate me is something I will always be grateful for. There is no one else who I would have rather have worked with all those hours at the research centre. Thank-you for your friendship, kindness, and genuine care. To the very brilliant composer and professional cellist, Nicholas Denton Protsack for his inspiring musical performances, collaborations, and conversations. Thank-you for all your support and keen advice! I really enjoyed our nature hikes at Mission and Mill creek gathering sound recordings and field research. It was wonderful to be able to work with you along this journey! And finally, a big thank you to my wonderful family, especially my mom and dad for always showing me the support and encouragement I needed to accomplish my goals. xiii Dedication For nature and all of Godâs creations. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Context The relation between visuals and music has captured the minds of many scientists and artists, such as Pythagorasâs correlation of the mathematical ratio of intervals to the orbits of the spheres (Levin 154), Isaac Newtonâs exploration of the association between tonal intervals with the color bands of the visible light spectrum (Newton) to the lyrical abstractions of Wassily Kandinsky (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane) (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting) and Paul Klee (Klee). Following the development of Alexander Rimingtonâs Color-Organ, 1893, the first composer to orchestrate a symphony using a Color Organ was Alexander Scriabin in Prometheus, âThe Poem of Fireâ 1915 (Peacock 399 and 403). This idea of playing color was an inspiration to me and continues to be for many visual music artists, performers and musicians (Gawboy). The past two decades have witnessed a huge increase in the number of creations for interactive systems and audio-visual instruments using a variety of electroacoustic approaches. More specifically, interactive Visual Music performance has developed into a significant current within contemporary art (TeamLab, 2016; Snibbe, 2005; Levin, 2003; Snibbe & Levin, 2000; Dannenberg, 2005; Neill, 2012). While responsive systems are fast becoming a common means for the interaction of composers and audiences, a few artists use similar strategies to work with or use with wildlife. David Rothenbergâs improvisation with whales (2008) and Julie Andreyevâs co-productions with crows (2016) are examples of artists creating environments that allow them to use sounds or data derived from the activities of non-human beings. My work explores the co-creation with the natural environment, building on the world soundscape project (Schafer 1977; Truax 1978) but extending it to lyrical expressions of Visual Music. 2 1.2 Purpose My artistic investigation illuminates the intrinsic foundations of the local natural environment as a poetic metaphor for musical composition and visual interpretation. The Voice of the Land uses the typology of the Okanagan landscape in a new media composition, a use that has importance in light of recent situated media such as (Dulic & Hamel, 2009) which uses new means to build social relationships through cultural and environmental knowledge. This work is the first study to present the soundscape of the Okanagan combined with contemporary audio visual technology. Within this context, my research contributes to the renewed presence of nature in situated media and bring to light new interfaces for musical and visual expression. For this project, I developed software that allows the viewer to interact with the visual music installation in real-time, using the audio/visual language Max/MSP. By combining local soundscapes and landscapes into a Visual Music composition, the outcomes of my work offer new knowledge to viewers and listeners, providing a framework for understanding our place in the Okanagan. Since there is no exact consensus on the scientific correlations between sound and color, my creative research bridges this gap with methods that reflect a clear understanding of the natural environment of the Okanagan as a foundation for my artistic approaches. Contemporary methods to color visualizations of sound tend to use computer generated conversions while the goal of this piece is to correlate the color and sounds of nature by interpreting the patterns, rhythms, and movements of the natural environment as a base for visual music composition. This interpretation is informed by the seasonal patterns and sounds, using new methods to cocreate with Okanaganâs landscape in relation to interactive visual music artworks. Recently, new media artists have attempted to communicate the importance of nature through their art, but have not considered strategies that connect the viewer to nature through co-creation of the artwork. In my work I combine the seasonal soundscape with the seasonal 3 colour palettes of the Okanagan, creating an integrated approach to correlating color and sound in the region. The natural soundscape of the environment varies throughout the year. For instance, in the Okanagan there is a diversity of birds, some of whom are migratory and some who reside in the area all year long. These born singers contribute to the natural rhythms of the local landscape and mark the changing tempos of the seasons. Interestingly, I discovered that the recorded bird calls of the environment revealed a striking resemblance to the topography of the land when using 3D visualization techniques. As such, the sonic structures of some of the voices of the land were used as musical structures for communicating the location and abundancy of rich diversity of sound and color in the Okanagan: these distinctive vocalizations of local animals provide the living sound structures/maps of the land. Because of this discovery, I used bird songs as a primary foundation for the majority of compositions in The Voice of the Land. 1.3 Positioning As an accomplished artist and Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (Piano Performance Diploma 2015) I develop cutting edge tools for interdisciplinary and interactive visual music. Through my coursework and UBC-tool kit, I have developed an understanding of composing interactive music, visual music techniques, and interactive media systems with the help of my supervisors Dr. Aleksandra Dulic and Dr. Robert Pritchard, and Kenneth Newby. The coursework, combined with my training in painting and drawing, in digital animation, 3D modeling, and digital media (at the Centre for Culture and Technology), and expertise as a performing musician makes me well suited to offer relevant research in this discipline. As a life-long resident of the Okanagan Valley, my knowledge of the regional culture combined with my training allows this project to speak in a relevant manner to the local communities, while contributing to the development of new media artwork. 4 Chapter 2: Literature Review For my creative research I combined three areas of knowledge to produce a comprehensive framework for understanding visual music discourse with a focus on sounds and visuals that are derived from â and co-produced with â the local landscape. The first area of research includes visual music applications in painting and animated film. I investigated early to mid-twentieth century artworks, and how the techniques used in them have influenced contemporary visual music art practices. In the second area, I examined the work of philosophers, scientists, early soundscape artists and avant garde composers. I was especially interested in those who used radical ideas and explored experimental works guided by nature, which shifted the discourse for compositions and musical theorems from those of Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, and Arnold Schöenberg to those of Olivier Messiaen. Lastly, I studied relevant interactive artworks that immersed audience members through lively audiovisual interfaces, guided by theoretical and computational principles of nature. 2.1 Founding Principles of Visual Music: Kandinsky, Klee and Early Film Pioneers My thesis relates to the theories and methods of visual music applications put forth by early modernist abstract painters such as Wassily Kandinsky (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane) and Paul Klee (Klee). Through evaluating Kandinskyâs writing and artworks I developed similar methods for composing my animated abstract films and visualizations. For my visual music animations, I drew inspiration from these visual effects and artistic correlations that Kandinsky used to pictorialize the sounds produced by other musical instruments. Pictorial, musical and sensation of experience Like other artists, Kandinsky studied Gestalt psychology which considers the human mechanisms of perception and how they affect our understanding of the environment. In search for a "universal languageâ Kandinsky asserted that non-objective art had an âordering influence on the observer,â because the artist âreacts intuitively to a superior influence and realization of the universal law, (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1947, p. 9). The cultural significance of 5 this claim has received criticism by Rudolf Arnheim who is skeptical of Kandinskyâs formation of abstractions derived from musical relations, and warned that âThese characterizations are so heavily overlaid with personal or cultural factors that they cannot claim much general validity" (Arnheim 371). Although this argument is an important one to consider, Konrad Boehmer points out âThis objection, however, does not automatically exclude the aesthetic and analytical relevance of the qualities of material mentioned by Kandinsky - and other artists. On the contrary, artistic experiences and evocation are much more plausible and convincing as individual and culturally specific traits than in form of common features.â (Boehmer, 1997, p. 52) Based on this argument, it was important for me to study Kandinsky and other artistsâ individual aesthetic who studied the relationship between music and the art of abstraction before I could interpret the sounds and colors of the Okanagan environment. When I am drawing from landscape in terms of sound and compositional elements, I am taking this objective creative freedom, and map them in what I consider to be appropriate compositional ways. Whether such mapping is individually or universally based the point is that Klee and Kandinsky were mapping the abstraction of music theory into the visual arts theory. Both artists were musicians and were interested in looking at the perceptual effects of music and how to map that into a visual language. In Kandinskyâs abstract theory of form, he was interested in non-representational expression while Klee was interested in the score of process. Kandinsky was interested in non-representation and expressing the pure form, inspired by the atonal music being composed by Schönberg. Kandinskyâs articulate non-representational abstractions became a highly intelligible and dynamic universal language. At the same time, the pure form which Kandinsky studied is linked to Kazimir Malevichâs art movement Suprematism, which is based on the basic geometric form as "the supremacy of pure feeling" rather than on the visual depiction of familiar objects (Malevich 64). Kandinsky and Klee were musicians, and Klee absorbed aspects of music theory by analysing Johann Sebastien Bachâs counterpoint and applying it to pictorial arts. Klee was 6 interested in understanding the composition from the nature of nature. Klee linked the abstract process to the formation of nature and music. Klee is less concerned with the appearance of âan art objectâ and more focused on the whole of the âformation as a processâ (Klee 11) while also exploring the temporal âorganic relationshipsâ derived from a âparticular condition of space and time,â (Klee 16). Kleeâs approach to scoring the process fits very well with adaptive media, since this approach strongly supports more flexible media compositions. I am more interested in the process of formation as practiced by Klee than I am to the outcome. 2.1.1 Kandinskyâs Musical Architecture of Painting âThe rhythmic law of consecutive counterpoint, contained in a creative masterpiece, sets into motion life itself, through a rhythm displayed between harmonies and the contrasts of colour and form, with which the given space is beautified.â (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane 9) The parallel shift from representative to non-representational abstract painting and tonal to atonal music is demonstrated by Kandinskyâs Impression III (concert), which was painted in response to âSchönbergâs String Quartets in D (op.7), in F-sharp (op.10) (1907/08), five songs from op.2 and op.6, and the Piano Pieces op. 11 (1909) (Boehmer 9). This musical catalyst provoked Kandinsky to develop an elevated pictorial art theory that progressed towards the inconceivable nature of art that Schönberg had proved through his âtheory of harmonyâ. Through this, Kandinskyâs pictorial theory compares the ânature of expressive and structural qualities of materialâ (17) found in painting to Schonberg's âmaterial in music,â (Boehmer 16, 17). Kandinskyâs pioneering perspectives of non-objective painting reflect an artistic discipline and scientific vigour that led him to cross the boundaries between scientific research and art, which is why he called his art âartistic science.â In general, his visual compositions were based on the instrumental timbres, harmonies and temporal structures of orchestral music and rendered in the âbasic plane.â The approach that Kandinsky used to prove the underlying audio-7 visual correlations was to simplify the visual structure into points and lines in an abstract, and non-objectifiable manner. Through mathematical ratios and geometric forms Kandinsky analyzed the primary forms; triangle, square and circle. This is significant because many people believe that music is like a mathematical language, and Kandinsky was able to translate the basic geometric forms into numerical relations which amount to a â12-note chordâ which he used to align the linear spatial distribution of visual form to organized sounds (Short 67) (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane 67). As stated above, Kandinsky was responding to Schönbergâs music, and as such the linear proportions of his â12-note chordâ (the basis of his visual music architecture) plays a vital role in the creation of his responses. Additionally, Kandinskyâs color structure links the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue to the primary shapes of square, triangle, and circle (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane 73, 74). This is because Kandinsky believed that the 90 degree angle corresponds to the color of red, acute angles to the colors of yellow, and obtuse angles to the colors of blue (Kandinsky 72, 73). As a result, Kandinsky used these geometric relations as the compositional grounds for his visual music paintings. As a pianist, my own experience of expressing sound through a percussive instrument has a large effect on my insight as a painter. It is interesting to note that Kandinsky (who was also a trained violinist), expressed music through paintings in ways similar to my own. As Kandinsky states, â[t]he piano is a âpointâ instrumentâ (Kandinsky 98). I interpret visuals by understanding the compositional points and lines of a painting in relative musical durations and pitches and often generate color wheels based on my interpretations of instrumental harmonies. One of my paintings I completed in my BFA exhibition was based on the series of visual music, in which I drew inspiration from the sound in a range of colors and circular motifs used to imply harmonies and intervals and musical relations, (Figure 1). 8 Figure 1 Woman in Control. 4 x 4â. Oil painting on board. Emerald Holt Kandinsky states that musical scores can be notated in visual forms such as points rather than notes (43-45). Based on Kandinskyâs understanding, it is logical to think of a painting based on a musical translation of points. For this kind of musical analysis, musicians and composers will refer to conjunct (step) and disjunct (leap) motion as either ascending or descending to describe the linear connections of notes. To illustrate Kandinskyâs notation of musical points, Figure 2 shows the visual techniques I employed for my musical correlations based on Kandinskyâs writings, (Figure 2). 9 Figure 2 Visual scoring of notes Some examples of my visual scoring techniques are as follows: 1a and 1b â mirrored, 1c and 1d â repeated, 1e â symmetrical, 1f â sequenced with diminution, and 1g and 1h â inverted. Kandinsky also refers to âactive and passive point formations which bear a relationship to the musical form of the point,â (Kandinsky 42). Here, Kandinsky traces the energy of a point based on a ballet dancerâs movement. This tracking of motion allowed him to observe body gesture in graphic diagrams of points, as seen in his image of the dancer Palucca, (Kandinsky 42). These kinds of pictorial notations used by Kandinsky were useful tools for my own visual music graphical approach. 2.1.2 Kandinskyâs âMusical Lineâ in Time In contrast to examining the musical potentialities of points in visual form, Kandinsky asserts that âtime, in general, is discernable in the line to a much greater extent than it was in the case of the point: length is a concept of time,â (98). Therefore, correlations of rhythm, harmony, color and form which he uses in repetition, accentuation, angle, and color show that an artist can convey persuasive connections between music and art through temporal spatial understandings. From these visual observations Kandinsky posited that the âmusical lineâ is the culmination of time and space, (98). Kandinsky correlates the length of a line to time, explaining 10 that âthe time required to follow a straight line is different from that required for a curved one, even though the lengths are the same; the more animated the curved line becomes, the longer is the span of time it representsâ (99). Contemporary examples of this approach are to be seen in the animated films of Tal Rosnerâs In Seven Days (Rosner) in which he extends the visual animation of a piano concerto with multi-media onto six separate screens to emphasize the interconnected spatial timings of more than one plane. To a lesser extent, this can be seen in the animated films of Renaud Halleeâs Sonar (Hallee, Sonar) and Combustion (Hallee, Combustion) where he uses linear and circular motifs as fundamental measurements of time. Thus, this notion of line as a measurement of time is useful for my own visual music compositions. In my initial study of visual music, I made many films (Chapter 3 Methodology). The notion of line also anchors the discussion in later chapters pertaining to the work of early visual music film pioneers like Oskar Fishinger, Norman McClaren and Len Lye who explored the lineâs temporal and musical properties. This notion of line is also useful for visual music tools and the process of my study of nature, which I will draw from later. 2.1.3 Kandinskyâs Symphonic Color Analogies Kandinsky devised the âpainterly counterpointâ of the pictorial arts, making clear his symphonic approach to analogies between color and sound in his written work Ãber das Geistige in der Kunst, Insbesondere in der Malerei, 1912 (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting). These color tones became emblematic associations to Kandinskyâs distinct style which conveyed the âlaws of counterpoint and harmony in music,â (Boehmer 24). Unlike music whereby several notes combined may produce a chord, several colors combined produce only one distinguishable color. Therefore, the inner harmonies of colours Kandinsky describes as âthis harmony that make several into one, opposites and contradictions - that is our harmony,â (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting). Based on this 11 principle of color harmony, Kandinsky demonstrates that there are âfour main sounds of each colorâ warm and light, warm and dark, cold and light, or cold and dark, (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting). As part of his studies relating to color music, Kandinsky lists instruments that he relates to certain tones of colors, like bright red as âthe tuba ringing,â vermillion with âthe tuba [and] strong drum beatsâ, cold red with âelement of passion, middle and lower notes of the celloâ, warm red âlike Largo singing old violin,â yellow âlike an increasingly loud blown trumpet or a raised fanfare tone,â green like the âcalm, stretched, medium-deep tones of the violinâ, violet like âthe sound of the English horn,â light blue like âa flute, the dark one is like the cello, deepening to the wonderful sounds of the bass violin; in a deep, solemn form the sound of blue is comparable to that of the deep organâ (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting). As you can see in the image I created to understand Kandinskyâs color theory, I did this to study the theory and apply to my work (Figure 3). I created this image as a way to understand Kandinskyâs concept in my own visual music compositions. Figure 3 Emerald Holt's interpretation of Kandinsky's Color Orchestra As a result, these findings tell us about the applied tones of color that Kandinsky perceived from instrumental timbres. Part of the building curiosity that has fascinated artists and 12 scientists for centuries, as Kandinsky admits, is that âThe tones of the colors, like those of the music, are of a much finer nature, arouse much finer vibrations of the soul, which cannot be described with words.â (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Especially in Painting) 2.1.4 Countermovement in Kleeâs Visual Music âThe energies that move a line are the result of forces working in different directions. Tension is connective.â (109 the Thinking Eye) In visual music, attraction and repulsion signify the pinch and pull of movement and rhythmic variation. This is what Kandinsky referred to as the âtotal tensionâ of hierarchies of visual music composition, which is the visual equilibrium of the painted sum of lines and dots which he used to articulate the balance of an image and the weight of individual forms. (Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane 174). However, for lively movement I reference Paul Klee who suggests that the tensions and their discharge act as the motivating force of reciprocal movement in one, two and three dimensions (Klee 125) Furthermore, he asserts that corporeal spatial tensions yield progression as an âenrichment of spatial emphasisâ (29). Depending on the velocity and propagation of points, an artist can create different visual rhythms, implying musical tempo and speed (19). Additionally, âprinciple movementâ and âcountermovementâ in pictorial compositions can elicit similar effects to the subject and countersubject of music. This supports Kandinskyâs idea of the weight of visual forms and gives credit for the amount of influence Kandinsky had on Klee. Take for example a modern piece of visual music (Hallee, Combustion) (Hallee, Sonar) (Rosner) and you will see the immediate rhythmical correspondence to Kandinskyâs ordering of sound in purely abstract terms and Kleeâs notion of the âdischarge of tension from outside [â¦] the center as point of culmination,â (32-33). Together, Kandinsky and Klee paved the ground work for visual music film pioneers as well as contemporary media artists to create the accentuation of visual gestures and musical phrases through dynamic moving forces. 13 2.1.5 Kleeâs principles of growth in nature as an active agent of art Klee used guiding principles of natural growth for the application from musical to visual expressions. By evaluating Kleeâs work, I developed similar methods for how I could incorporate principles of fractal geometry in my visual music compositions. I drew inspiration from Kleeâs notion of âpictorial polyphonyâ (79) and âdynamic movementâ (105). These principles allowed me to understand the correlation between the visual and temporal in relation to living forms. The rhythms achieved in my painted animations reflect the manner of pictorial polyphony that Klee refers to in his writings. 2.1.6 Kleeâs growth as a texture of dynamic occurrence As a trained painter and pianist, I was taught how to âguide the eyeâ in the compositional strategies of painting and how to âdirect the viewerâs listeningâ in musical performance. These are exact skills that take many years of training to obtain, and which allows an artist or composer to understand the natural undercurrents of the compositional structures of their genre. Klee accepted this challenge by studying art in its purest form, and at the core of his artistic philosophy was a question of âhow growth as a texture of dynamic occurrences can be represented âin its essenceââ (37). In his investigations he found the answer to his question in nature by analyzing similar complex movements in the various forms of art. Klee often painted biomorphic forms taken from nature, and used âbright, âabstractâ colours and more or less ânaturalisticâ tonalities,â (108, Tower, Beek Bell, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee in Munich dissertation) 2.1.7 Kleeâs Functional Process and Motion My approach draws parallels to Kleeâs approach in analyzing paintingâs function based on organic shapes and natural formations of growth, which I used to generate the pictorial material for my visual music compositions based on nature. Klee investigated basic forms such as plants and living creatures âaccording to their faculty of motion, their behaviour, and their 14 essenceâ (27). Unlike Kandinsky who evaluated paintings from a scientific perspective, Klee upheld that art âis not a science, but on the contrary, a world of diversityâ (23). Kleeâs results are similar to those reported by Leonardo Da Vinci in his journals, discussing natural phenomena and related observations about biological growth, human movement and natural laws. Note that Da Vinciâs writings are expansive, and they ask more questions than they provide. While studying at the Bauhaus, Klee drew inspiration from the natural forms of honeycombs as a key theme for âfunctional process and motion,â (Klee 35). Kleeâs terminology of âDynamic movementâ is the point seen in âdynamic terms as an agent,â (Klee 37, 105) Moreover, Klee agrees with Kandinsky that the natural germination of living structures âcorrespond to hidden numerical relations present in other works of art and nature; that these numbers and proportions do not signify something cold and rigid, but breathe lifeâ (22). Through a more computational lens, Gary William Flake agreed that âfractals in biologicals systems must be grownâ (Flake 77). These mathematical mosaics of nature, as seen in plant morphology and expansion can be modelled by algorithmic computations such as the Fibonacci sequence, Gielis curves, the Mandelbrot Set, the Pythagorean tree, and many others as described in section 2.3 of this chapter. Therefore, Kleeâs abstract drawings can become blueprints of organic movement from which I generate similar abstract paintings based on natureâs principle movement as a key for dynamic expression. Klee inspired me to focus my imagery based on organic shapes and musical gestures from the landscape. 2.1.8 Percussive Instrumentation in early visual music films Oskar Fishinger studied violin as a child and â after finishing his apprenticeship as an engineer â began to apply his skills as an abstract filmmaker. Similar to Kandinsky who communicated musical infrastructures through visual approaches, Fishinger made use of cutting-edge technologies that would allow him to use music as âan architectural ground planâ from which he could map rhythm and time (Jewanski 156). 15 Len Lye was a New Zealand-born abstract film pioneer whose early studies of non-western art fueled his interest in the aboriginal art of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the South Pacific. His interest in the Constructivist art of the Soviet Union and motifs of automated mechanization may have led to the visual motifs and expressive quality of animation that Lye employed in his hand-made gestures and mark-making found in his direct film making process. (Parrot, 6) Norman McLaren was a Scottish-born Canadian artist who had little formal musical training growing up, yet developed a new sound recording process called âanimated soundâ, which led him to become a pioneer in electronic music (McWilliams). His early animation, Loops (1940), used the sound creation process called âanimated soundâ which involved placing hand drawn or etched markings on the optical soundtrack on 35mm film, resulting in sounds that had a â3 octave rangeâ (McWilliams). Fishinger, Lye, and McLaren each used the similar process of creating sound by drawing waveforms and placing those on the optical soundtracks of film. Figure 4 reification in contrasting visual form Obviously, dealing with a moving image is different than a painting for several reasons, one being the perception of spatial separations. In particular, visual reification is highly exploited in Fishingerâs visual music films using brightly colored forms, alluding to the inner workings of a negative and positive shape in three dimensions, similar to this example of a circle and triangle in Figure 4. Fischinger wrote in 1936 that the kind of music best suited for abstract film was ânot music at all but a tapestry of sound [Geräuscheteppich], woven of rhythm and dynamics [â¦] The orchestra playing this music would have to include the strangest sorts of percussion instruments and, in fact, consist primarily of drums and noise-making instrumentsâ (Jewanski, 16 1936, p. 163). Fischingerâs idea of non-traditional instruments to create sonification ensemble, shows a possible awareness to Italian futurist Luigi Russoloâs Intoronumari instruments and Edgard Vareseâs Ionization (1933) which was a âpiece written solely for a collection of unpitched percussion instrumentsâ (Martinez) who said â[w]e need to make a new and simpler approach to music. The development of the art has been hampered by certain mechanical restrictions which no longer need prevail. . . . Just as the painter can obtain different intensity and graduation of colour, musicians can obtain different vibration of sound, not necessarily conforming to the traditional half-tone, but varying, ultimately, from vibration to vibration....[w]e are waiting for a new notation â a new Guido d'Arezzo â when music will move forward at a boundâ (Wen-Chung). Thus, each type of technology influences what is possible to do with sound, and new technologies influenced the development of Futurist machine art. The kinds of noise-making instruments that Fischinger wrote about foreshadowed the future trends of experimental abstract film, such as Lyeâs Free Radicals (1958). Lyeâs unusual combination of raw materials like âbrushes, bones, combs, and stencilsâ (66) and other experimental techniques gave birth to âscratchâ innovation in animation that developed out of his interest in âkinaesthetic theoriesâ (OâRawe, 2012, pp. 60, 65). Additionally, Lyeâs preference for free-flowing improvisational forms like jazz and scat complement the bold palettes and colorful rhythms that articulate âthe free âchoreographyâ of his doodles, free lines, brush strokes, superimpositions, stencil and stamp printsâ as shown in A Colour Box (1935), Rainbow Dance (1936), Trade Tattoo (1937) (OâRawe 70). When I first began composing music for my visual music films and viewing/ listening to the works of others, I was often drawn to percussion instruments like the kalimba, cymbals, and tambourine which I used as visual inspiration for my visual music films (Figure 5). 17 Figure 5 Dance of the Wasp 2018. 4 still images from the visual music film¬, taken during moments of percussive instrumentation. After hearing these sounds in context with certain visual cues, I understood the importance of percussive music as the rhythmic structure. Most significantly, percussive instruments demarcate a clear pulse, giving the moving visuals clear punctuation and rhythmic pulse. This is particularly clear in works such as McLarenâs Dots (1940), Lines Vertical (1962), and Mosaic (1965). 18 2.2 Founding Principles of Nature in Music: Soundscape Ecologies and Musical Theorems and Compositions Derived from Nature 2.2.1 How to Sonify the Landscape? What kinds of methods have composers used to transcribe the land into sound? How might an instrument be tuned according to the local landscape? With these questions in mind, I started by looking at the typology in the Okanagan (mountains, tree lines, lake shores) for use as maps for musical scoring. Well known examples of this technique include works by Heitor Villa Lobos who composed the New York Skyline Melody (1939) using silhouettes of New Yorkâs terraced skyscrapers to create melodic lines for the orchestral work based on Joseph Schillingerâs system of musical composition which used graphic notation based on a Cartesian co-ordinate system to make a non-traditional model (Degazio). A more recent example is a work by Nik Sawe, who mapped pitch to the tree height of Alaskan forests to create his musical structure from the Alaskan landscape (Renssen 171). More recently, composers have used data from the landscape to convey climate related compositions. For example, Charles Boguinia reveals the rising temperatures of recent global warming impacts through a conversion from CO2 to frequencies in Rise (2015), performed by the Kronos quartet, which concludes with a climatic cliffhanger where the string quartet and choir end in a furious frenzy that signals the alarming current level of CO2 data. 2.2.2 Characteristics of music derived from the Landscape German scientist Hermann Helmholtz proved through his design and use of resonators that despite European orchestras having a standardized tuning frequency (A440), the specific note used by different orchestras during the late 1800âs varied slightly depending on regional factors like the kind of wood used for soundboards and geographic altitude (Helmholtz 21). For example, Helmholtz recorded that in certain areas in France each orchestra had a unique tuning frequency with a higher tuning of strings than in other areas in Europe (21). In contrast, 19 contemporary orchestras which use uniform tuning systems and fixed media have lost these diverse local variations. Part of the reason for using the particular range of color and sound of the Okanagan is to bring attention to our local aural experience and attach it to the physical landscape, from which it was derived. 2.2.3 Pierre Schaeferâs sonorous objects and acousmatic listening Since the development of audio recording technology, our ability to capture sound, remove it from its source and re-synthesize it has changed. A notable French audio engineer and composer surrounded by early day radio broadcasting, Pierre Schaefer, remarked that, â[w]e have split the sound from the maker of the soundâ (Warner 34). As I am interested in the local sounds of the area, it was important for me to consider what Schaefer coined âsonorous objects,â which are sound objects that functioned autonomously from their own noise, (an example being recorded sounds on live radio technologies). Similarly, his aim was to reproduce music without the physical instrument, and this led to his developing the concept of âacousmatic listeningâ (77). Accousmatic listening is a type of listening which removes the source of the sound from the experience of listening, or abstracts the experience of listening away from the object. This juxtaposition between sound and object relates to how we navigate the natural landscape. Often in nature, we hear before we see, such as hearing the snap of a branch in the stillness of the forest and wonder, âwhat made that noise?â, hearing the Screech Owl pierce the silence of night with its high-pitch shrill, hearing the ice breaking on a frozen lake on a sunny winter day, or hearing the residual sound of a noisy airplane as you look up into the sky to try and trace its whereabouts. In my own approach, sound is the best vehicle for understanding the multimodal sensory streams of the land. As Mark Grimshaw Aggard states, âhearing is the modality nonpareil that confirms and locates ourselves in the world and so affords our feeling of presence,â (Grimshaw-Aagaard 80). The theory of acousmatic listening claims that when 20 humans were in rural high-fi environments, the entire body was sensitive to sounds. But in an industrial age, humans have drowned out these areas with sound pollution creating environments which are low-fi and filled with the constant buzzing and background noise of anthrophony. If the theory is correct we have lost the receptivity to environmental sounds which are disappearing every day, as highlighted in the work of early soundscape researchers like Bernie Kraus, Murray Schafer, Barry Truax, and Hildegard Westerkamp in the World Soundscape Project. My artwork encourages the listener to reflect on the sounds that emerge from the landscape and to form their entire body into a listening ear (Schafer). 2.2.4 Murray Schafer soundscapes and acoustic ecologies Murray Schafer coined the term âsoundscapeâ, which is all the sounds in a particular location at a particular time as perceived by human. Similar to Pythagoras who argued that âthe universe is held together by the harmonies of some precise acoustic designâ, Schaeferâs approach was to appreciate the world soundscape âas a macrocosmic musical compositionâ (Warner 30). In Schaferâs World Soundscape Project, he created soundscapes from recordings of rural and urban areas. He discusses how high-fi sounds in rural environments contain richer amounts of information, than do urbanized and industrial areas (30, 32). This evidence inspired him to record as many rural places as possible, before humanized sounds eroded the precise bioacoustics of the land. This caused him to become an advocate for the natural sonic preservation of the land, and a co-investigator and founder of the World Soundscape Project (Schafer 1977; Truax 1978). One functions of the World Soundscape Project (WSP) was to records soundscapes of important cultural and natural environments, which are documented in the WSP tape library. Likewise, Bernie Kraus asserts that soundscape recordings are useful evidence for evaluating relationships in natural acoustic environments. Schaferâs work includes local sound environments, but also cross-examines the local, cultural, natural and built sound environments 21 across the globe. I find this method useful for studying the self-expressive songs of animals and nature that I record. By working with nature, I can use the rhythms of a magpieâs movement or the pulse of a rippling shallow stream to explore methods of co-creating with nature to lyrical expressions of Visual Music. I also believe that by studying the acoustic ecology of the land, I can learn more about the relationships within our built environments. 2.2.5 Bernie Krausâs Animal Orchestra In The Great Animal Orchestra, Finding the Origins of Music in the Worldâs Wild Places, Bernie Kraus â who is a bioacoustician and musician â coined the terms âgeophonyâ (Kraus 52) âand biophonyâ (68) which are two categories of living and non-living natural sounds on the planet. He discusses the intersections between sounds, culture and spirituality as founding principles for appreciating the importance of our global and local acoustic ecologies. He argues that by studying the natural sound ecologies on earth artists and scientists can gain a greater appreciation of the natural chorus of our land (98). One of my favorite spectrograms is recorded in figure 7 on page 97 of his book that shows the dawn chorus in Borneo which is an old growth tropical rain forest with â[b]irds, insects, and mammals [that] each form their own temporal, frequency, and spatial nichesâ (98). Each creature inhabits a unique part of the orchestral score that is specific to their environment, which Kraus calls the âcollective sound signatureâ (99). 2.2.6 Nature communicates through sound undetectable to the human ear Kraus also notes that the hidden spaces of sounds can often go unnoticed. An example of this is the way that ants communicate by stridulating their legs, with which they also use to sing (58). Other examples of this include the biphonation (two-voiced singing) of certain birds (Marler 19), and (as Kraus describes) the singing of a cottonwood tree, âI put a hydrophone in the trunk of a cottonwood [â¦] and recorded the 70 kilohertz sound, which is 2.5 octaves higher than humans can hear. When I got back to the studio I slowed it up by a factor of 7, and this is what I got [insert music] [â¦] Itâs a whole micro habitat created through soundâ (Krause) (1:03-22 1:14). Similarly, Joan McIntyre describes how the Humpback whale sings a âsong sessionâ which can last for hours (McIntyre 139). These song sessions contain sounds outside of the human auditory range and can only be interpreted through sonograms that visualize these frequencies. When scientists decipher these song sessions of the blue whale and humpback whale they are amazed at how intricate and encoded their language is (McIntyre 137). These examples of expressive aural communication between animal and plant networks underlies the key principle to my musical methodology. An excellent marker of an ecosystemâs health is the living qualities of sounds that can be perceived. A great example is the one-minute recording at Sugar loaf, California, which illustrates the biophony in this area after the impact of an eleven-year drought (Kraus, Sugarloaf 2004-2015). Similar to how Klee describes the parallels between the âessenceâ of dynamic growth in art and nature, I refer to the âliving structure of soundâ for the holistic treatment of sound. This approach for deciphering the mysteries of sounds of the landscape through marvel and wonder for nature is necessary for understanding the âaudible geographyâ of the land (Bandt 265). Field Recording methods derived from early sound ecologists Within this context, my research contributes to the renewed presence of nature in situated media and brings to light the natural tapestry of sounds of the Okanagan environment. Through reading Krausâs book and his reflective writings of the rich layering of natural âsound signaturesâ, I developed similar methods of transposition where I slowed down recordings by powers of two (to decrease pitch by 1 octave) to allow me to decipher the encoded rhythms and complex variety of lively patterns found in nature. Within my field research I strived to capture the immersive sound environment, by travelling while wearing sound cancelling headphones connected to a multi-directional X and Y stereo microphone, similar to how Kraus and Schafer explored the sound environment from the positioning of their microphone. After recording audio, I wrote reflective journaling describing my observations of the location such as temperature, colors, time of day, or the emotional response that I experienced with each unique sound 23 encounter. This method I learned from Kraus was an excellent tool for gaining appreciation of my personal response to a sound or sounds, and learning how I could recreate and reposition these sounds from nature in the gallery context without losing the sincerity of the place from which they were born. 2.2.7 Schaeferâs Music Concrète Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry invented âmusique concrèteâ â music composed using naturally occurring sounds. In Schaefferâs âEtude Aux Chemins de Ferâ he used recordings of railyards and steam engines as his sonic source material. The natural recordings I use in my research relate to the ways in which musique concrète and soundscapes have developed and are used in contemporary sound research. For example, today many artists who work with fixed media use recorded soundscapes as natural backdrops for instrumental works or use software that can mix and process fixed media with a live performance in a real-time dialogue. Some composers have integrated musique concrète using different methods. Take for example Vareseâs Deserts which use recorded sounds from electronic tape during live performances which influence the musical structure from the musical episodes and interpolation of Organized Sound. Another example is Terry Rileyâs Sun Rings performed by the Chronos Quartet which included Don Gurnettâs recorded space mission sounds of lightening on Jupiter and the radio emissions on earth at the beginning and end(Jacobs 38). 2.2.8 Messianâs Musical Compositions of Birdsong The composer Olivier Messiaen was captivated by nature from a young age, and said that Nature was an âever beautiful, ever new[â¦] inextinguishable treasure-house of sounds and colors, forms and rhythms, the unequalled model for total development and perceptual variation.â (R. C. Hill). One technique that I found useful for notating bird song was recording it and then shifting the playback speed down, resulting in slower, lower pitch: this is one procedure Johnson notes that Messiaen used to analyse bird song (Johnson 120). By using this 24 technique, Messiaen was able to adopt and adapt the mesmerizing melodies of the Nightingale, Black Bird, Golden Oriole, American Wood Thrush, Woodlark, Cardinal, Robin and many others, scoring them for instruments of the orchestra in his work Cataloque dâoiseaux, as well as other works. However, the musical notation is inapt for translation of bird speech since no instrument in the orchestra can play at the high pitches of most bird song nor accurately portray the irregularities of rhythm and unfixed tempi (Barrington 266). Even though traditional western musical transcriptions are not precise notations of birdsong, they still offer a creative interpretation of a language which we still do not understand (Marler 5). Since well-tempered instrumentsâ tuning can often work against a birdâs fluctuating micro tuning, I prefer instruments that have not been tempered or have been modified in a way that avoids them being locked into well-tempered tuning systems. This is why I prefer working with the prepared piano first used by John Cage, and with the microtonalities of the cello and certain fingerings for the flute which allow the unique vocalizations of birdsong to be personified. Cageâs stated intention in 1957 was ânot to deny traditional audience enjoyments, but to invite rich responses more usually experienced in the great outdoorsâ (Rogalsky 133). By refusing to use fixed musical archetypes and theoretical laws (such as scales and key signatures,) artists and composers can create and adopt new strategies for musical expression that may encompass lively co-creations with nature (Rogalsky 133). 2.3 Founding Principles of Interactivity: Immersive artworks, computational frameworks of nature, and musical programming language and grammars 2.3.1 Solutions for visual music approaches that cocreate with nature One solution for building audiovisual artworks that cocreate with nature is to focus on interactive or responsive frameworks which allow for lively collaborations with nature. For this, I refer to artists who have incorporated the language of the land through collaborations with the local ecology, acting as the principle activators, producers or composers of sound and visuals. 25 By fostering similar approaches for collaboration with the landscape, I can establish new interactive discourses situated in-between the art and the doing/act of nature, as opposed to a medium that focuses on only the viewerâs response. In this way, the audiovisual interface becomes an extension of nature, contributing to an experience that is inspired by these forms in nature. Interactive visual music artworks that use the body, technology, and collaboration Interactive Visual Music artwork has developed into a significant genre within the last two decades, due to the increase in computer processing capabilities and the evolution of adaptive interactive and immersive systems (TeamLab, 2016; Snibbe, 2005; Levin, 2003; Snibbe & Levin, 2000; Dannenberg, 2005; Neill, 2012; Lozano Hammers; Utterback; Squid soup). The first processing method used by David Rokeby, â a well-known pioneer in audiovisual interactive media â transformed his body movement into a playful sound composition in Very Nervous System (1986) (Beira 46). Rokeby captured the body gesture through a video camera and used an image processor and synthesizer to translate the data into a real time improvised music performance (Roekeby). Responding to the necessity for audiovisual interfaces that can respond to nature, earlier humanitarian and animal rights advocate Mcintyre urges that we âprobe [â¦] with our imagination and feelingsâ (105) An excellent example of this kind of immersive environment where a viewer can explore the unfamiliar terrain of the inner world of nature is Char Daviesâ pioneering work in the field of virtual reality (VR), Ephémère (1998). Daviesâ efforts to immerse the participant in an interactive audiovisual environment allows viewers to explore immersive virtual media representations of nature, in a manner that is very well done. A more recent interactive performance which combines speech analysis and computer vision is exemplified in Messa di Voce (2003) by Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman. Janet Cardiff and George Bures Millerâs Experiment in F# Minor (2013) is a mixed media installation that incorporates closed circuits cameras, light sensors, and custom-designed algorithms to 26 create a sonic environment. Lastly, the 360-degree immersive installation Hidden Fields by David Glowacki uses cutting edge computational science to derive visualizations and sounds based on the moving atomic fields of people (Glowacki). This installation was made using Danceroom Spectroscopy Technology which uses molecular dynamics to model a nanoscale world where performers collaborate to manipulate and sculpt their own visual music experience. âIntra-actionâ: interfaces that provoke creative collaborations between body and technology, but lack co-creations with nature An important component of immersive artworks which use the body as an activator is the interface that allows the viewer to form a ârelationship between the body and technology as a co-constitutive and collaboratively produced experienceâ (Shanbaum 38). Phaedra Shanbaum argues that interactive new media exists in relation to the viewer, and installations should strive to situate the viewer as the interface through relationality and embodiment (41). Shanbaum calls this kind of interactivity âintra-actionâ (65). She states âIntra-action happens through expositionâthrough an exposure to, and creative exploration with, other entitiesâ (45). Such approaches, however, have failed to address the opportunity to interact with nature. The question arises then, as to how can the efficacy of âintra-action" which Shanbaum describes be coupled with innovative audiovisual programming as a way to communicate the powerful metaphoric expressions of the local landscape? 2.3.2 Visual music art that works with nature I am interested in ways that artists have communicated the results of ecological shift through interactive interfaces that consider non-human perceptual frameworks in order to better understand the local consequences of climate change. It is important that the reality of climate change be reflected in our culture, and art can assist in an important cultural shift by the way in which we act within the context of climate change and environmental protection. Art can be both socially engaged and collaborative in order to open new dialogues between nature and 27 humanity, dialogues that focus on the local ramifications of environmental issues. Barret and Mowen question the contention surrounding climate change communication and suggested that âartistic and place-based interpretive programming on communicating climate change [â¦] might better connect audiences to this issue by evoking powerful emotional, intellectual and stewardship responsesâ (Barrett and Mowen 10). Good examples of this kind of place-based research include the work of Natalie Jeremijenko, who studied the water quality in New York through the point of view of a filter feeder, a bivalve. In Mussel Choir, the musselâs act of filtration is transformed into a chorus of pitches with changing tempi, created by the opening and closing movement of the shell. As a result, the work evokes an emotional awareness to the animals and immerses viewers into the choir of mussels. Similarly, we see David Rothenbergâs saxophone and clarinet performance with whales, which makes viewers appreciate the sophisticated live collaboration between Humpback whale and human. In Amphibious Architecture, Jeremijenko lets people passing through boardwalks know about the underwater presence of fish through a text message conversation with marine inhabitants. These works are important because the interactive user interface becomes the mediary that relays current states of our natural environment through text and sound based expressions. 2.3.3 Computational Programming modeled from nature While Klee proved that the natural forms that he studied in nature revealed a matrix of hidden âdynamic processesâ and which he then used for the motion and creative growth of his paintings and drawings, scientists have long studied nature through many lively branches of scientific inquiry of natural systems (Hirst and Mandelbrot) (Mandelbrot) (Pickover) (Flake) (Hofstadter). Although I did not use the algorithms put forth by these scientists in my own visual music programming, I did use them as a methodological framework for how I understood and studied nature, and how I communicated the intricate balance of image and sounds from the 28 landscape into an immersive media environment as seen in compositional studies of Figures 6 and 7. Figure 6 Mission Creek water reflections in fractal counterpoint Figure 7 Examples of Indigenous Okanagan plants with visual geometric fractals and mathematical ratios 29 2.3.4 Musical Programming language and grammar Karlheinz Stockhausen (who studied in Cologne, then in Paris with Messaien, then with Schaeffer at RDF, then back at WDR) was important in combining the then separate schools of electroacoustic music of musique concrète (using natural sounds), and elektronische musik (using such things as amplitude, ring, and frequency modulation). This is important, as many kinds of electronic music techniques evolved as a bi-product of the Second-Viennese school. In the Second Viennese School, serial methods emerged in an effort to defy classical forms of rhythm, dynamics, and tonalities, such as Pierre Boulezâs use of serial modes for rhythm, Arnold Schoenbergâs development of the 12-tone row in Wind Quintet Op.26 (1923-1924), and Olivier Messiaenâs duration rows for dynamics and durations in Quatuor pour la Fin de Temps, (1940-1941). As a result, artists could apply âserial principles to the construction of the sounds used in a composition as well as the structure of the composition itself. All aspects of music could share a structure unified by serial processesâ (Holtzman 161). With advances in electronic music technology, a plethora of easily useable electroacoustic techniques became available, allowing for combinations of various methods such as âLinear Predictive Coding, granular synthesis and a variety of stochastic mixing techniquesâ which were used in Paul Lanskyâs Idle Chatter, (Lansky). More recently, artists have developed new interactive systems and audio-visual instruments in a variety of electroacoustic musical approaches as discussed in Electronic music and sound design: Theory and practice (Cipriani) and Foundations in Sound Design for Interactive Media: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Filimonwicz). 2.3.5 Immersive media environments How have virtual reality and immersive installations been created in the past? In Oliver Grau, (Grau, 1999) reflects on the use of architectural spaces that work with the immersion of multiple points of view and how renaissance church paintings brought the viewer inside the belly 30 of the image (Grau, Into the Belly of the Image: Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality ). Bill Viola responds to these concepts of mirroring the inner and outworlds of humanness in his immersive video installations. This interaction of the inner and outer worlds is reflected in the work of many contemporary artists such as myself, and artists including Squid Soup, an international collaborative âof artists, researchers, technologists and designers working with digital and interactive media experiencesâ who combine immersive spatial design with sound and interactivity (About Us) For me, the kind of immersive techniques that are most relevant are the kinds which these artists employ to create a total combination of space, sound, and image as immersive interaction experience. 31 Chapter 3: Research Creation Methods and Artwork Development In Chapter 3, I focus on 5 areas of study: sound, compositional structure, color, spatial design, and program. I offer a variety of techniques that are useful tools for bridging the gap between audio and visual correlations by using the local Okanagan landscape as a metaphoric link for artistic expression. More specifically, the results section highlights the exact process of the creative outcome. The creative research in 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 focus broadly on the tools, methods, and theoretical and conceptual frameworks used to devise visual music applications and new interactive media. These preliminary chapters include studies and initial experiments that were essential for the final research implemented in sections 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8. This accumulative structure of my thesis helped flush out all possibilities for best compositional structure for the thesis. Each iterative exhibition combined certain areas of research, building from these established methods and procedures which used the landscape as a template for diverse understanding of nature's poetic vocabulary as a basis for musical compositional structure, and visual sonification. 3.1 Creative Methods structure: 3.1.1 Okanagan Sounds Recordings (Gathering) Since soundscapes are a useful method for studying the collective sound signatures of the local landscape, I wanted to begin by studying the specific animals associated to each location in the landscape. By studying the aural niches that each animal occupies within the multilayered sonic environment, I was able to pinpoint where these sound characteristics were most prominent. I recorded at multiple locations in the Okanagan such as at/in Penticton, Kelowna, Lake Country, and Vernon. Some specific locations included the old pond at the University of BC-Okanagan, Mill Creek, Mission Creek, Shingle Creek, BX Falls, Silver Star, the Commonage ranch lands, Roseâs Pond, Coolâs Pond and Kalamalka Lake. I collected audio from up close and far away to assemble a spectrum of audio material needed for later 32 documentation. After recording I stored the sound collections by folders organized by date and kind. For example, a long clip with the focused sounds of a squirrel might be called âCommonage ranchSept92018longclipsquirrel.wavâ. I used consistent naming conventions and organized the sound collections by seasons and year as I neared the completion of my thesis. Along with the recorded soundscapes, I also recorded sound walks while at these locations to allow me to later recall the experience of being in these environments. This was ideal for two reasons: first, I gained a deeper appreciation of the peripheral sounds of the multidimensional sound spectrum surrounding the soundscape in focus. Secondly, a sound walk offers an audible history of my physical presence of being in the land from my own perspective as the artist engaging with nature. 3.1.2 Audio Postproduction Techniques Soundscape audio postproduction can involve the spatialization of sound to recreate experiencing sound as we do in real life. While recording through headphones helps me target sound in a clear manner, editing postproduction audio positioned in the head through earphones eliminates the perception of being in a three-dimensional environment (Dyson 140). Since the gallery is a large empty space, the sound reverberates and to emphasize this sensation, I edited the sounds with extra reverb tailored for larger room size in Audacity using one of the Blue Cat plug-ins. Therefore, the audio was tailored for a specific gallery installation, since room acoustics alter the perception of sound. Interestingly, cinema soundtracks often use exaggerated sounds effects, because they are more likely to contribute to an image appearing sharper. 3.1.3 Editing sounds in waveform and spectrograms (Interacting) For my sound editing I used several programs such as Adobe Audition, Audacity, and Sonic Visualizer. After importing sounds into the program, my first step was to analyze the waveform. By studying the amplitude of the wave, I could eliminate clipping and normalize the 33 sound clip. A second step was to cross-reference the waveform with the spectrogram to correlate the pitch and rhythm which I refer to as the audio score. During this phase I could use spectrograms to visualize the simultaneous streams of multiple sonic layers present in one soundscape. For example, a spectrogram that detects audio frequencies between 0 and 20,000 hz, can provide information about high and low frequencies that may not be easily discernable in the trace of a waveform. Additionally, âambient sound is a central component of natural habitatsâ, and residual sound is especially high near urbanized spaces (Gray et al. 53). By using a spectrogram, some background frequencies can be easily isolated and essentially removed with a de-noise filter using a high pass or bell curve. A spectral analyser is an ideal tool for song analysis of individual bird calls, as it can locate the birdcalls within close frequency proximity and isolate specific frequencies of the selected bird call such as in the example Figure 7. In this way spectrograms can be useful methods for reading the voices of the landscape. Figure 8 Robin Song Syllables from April 3rd 2019 audio recording 3.1.4 Audio Experimentations During the creative growth of my reasearch, it was essential for me to improve my improvisational ability. Through recording myself perform on the piano through the MIDI keyboard, I used a variety of electronic virtual instruments for musical experimentation. I studied 34 many post-modern orchestral and solo works, like Toru Takemitsuâs Rain Tree Sketch for piano, Alfred Schnittkeâs Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Aaron Coplandâs Piano Variations. I also conducted a collaborative experiment with my graduate cohort by dividing them into three groups and having them improvise. Each group based their piano improvisations on one of three distinct styles: classical (Mozart), post-modern (Aaron Copland), and Gypsy jazz guitar. After recording each groupâs performance, I combined the three improvisations into one composition. This experiment encouraged my interest in unusual combinations of different musical styles, leading to my curiosity in polystylism coined by Alfred Schnittke's in his essay "Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Musicâ (1971). From this perspective I composed 3 experimental compositions âChaosâ, âMash Upâ, and âOrchestral Mood Swingâ, which combined MIDI keyboard and percussive sound recordings using a digital audio workstation (DAW). These electronic experimentations were excellent examples of my improvisational growth; however, they did not relate to the Okanagan landscape. For this reason, I needed to develop methods that incorporate the collective sound signatures of the local landscape and construct a compositional framework which would allow me to cocreate with nature. 3.1.5 Compositional Structure: How I built visual music techniques? I constructed several musical montages using sampled recordings of the Okanagan environment with MIDI recordings in a collage style. I created a collection of Okanagan Etudes, entitled Etude no.1 âDance of the Waspâ, Etude no.2 âThe Sky Spokeâ, and Etude no.3 âIcy Fire Crackleâ. The intent of the etudes was to integrate the soundscapes I had recorded from the landscape with an instrumental movement. The symphonic orchestrations worked complementarily to the primary focus of the sampled soundscapes. These Etudes were poetic reflections of nature that were orchestrated in a manner that was similar to the sound collage method in the previous experiments. Ultimately, these Okanagan Etudes would become the 35 score for the visual music animations. In Figure 9 I have listed the audio material used for each etude as a supplementary guide for the reader. Figure 9 Okanagan Etude audio materials 3.1.6 Visual Music animations (Constructs) For my next step I tried to visualize the sound. The first method of doing this was to make an audio reactor in Adobe After Effects that would animate the waveform given the amplitude. Although this method was visually appealing, it lacked specific relations to the Okanagan land from which the sounds originated. This was challenging since any time I made a visual reference to the landscape, the metaphor was destroyed and the delicate equilibrium between audio and visual forms became heavily one-sided and broke the metaphor. As a consequence, the viewer lost appreciation for the evocative beauty of nature. At the MFA Open House on November 27th, 2018, I exhibited my three visual music compositions. In Dance of the Wasp, I used rich visual textures that were derived from the personification of a wasp flying in autumn leaves. I was inspired by what I thought was the inner being of the wasp. I studied the waspâs flight, noticing the way it fluttered in and amongst the 36 trembling copper and crimson hued wilted foliage as a kind of elaborate performance, a sort of fall ritual dance. This type of careful observation led me to a profound way of viewing nature. This kind of âinner viewingâ as Klee puts it is described below in further detail. (Note: the âobjectâ which Klee describes is used in the example of a seed, but may be applied to other organic forms and processes.) 'The object grows beyond its appearance through our knowledge of its inner being, through the knowledge that the thing is more than its outward aspect suggests. The sum of such experience enables the âIâ to draw inferences about the inner object from the optical exterior and, what is more, intuitive inferences. The optical-physical phenomenon produces feelings which can transform outward impression into functional penetration more or less elaborately, according to their direction. But there are other ways of looking into the object which go still farther, which lead to a humanisation of the object and create, between the "Iâ and the object, a resonance surpassing all optical foundations.â (Klee 65) From this quote it is clear to see that nature may be expressed through studying beyond the âoptical-physical phenomenonâ. From my understanding, this kind of inner appreciation of nature is an invaluable form of artistic engagement with nature. By studying the waspâs movement, the image can be spatialized through audio and visual forms in ways similar to Oskar Fishingerâs and Len Lyeâs visual music films. In Dance of the Wasp, the trickling descent of melodic intervals was used to signify the falling spiral of the wasp in slow motion. As well, the bass and treble range of high and low sounds, were used for animating the X and Y coordinates of the animation to reflect the dynamic movement of the wasp in space. This sparked my interest in translating the lively visual movement of nature as a metaphoric maker of sound. Although these animations correlate the collective sound signatures with painted abstract animations based on the Okanagan landscape, I learned that non-real time video was not the best format for a compositional framework which would allow me to cocreate with nature. 37 3.2 How I studied the Landscape of Nature in the Okanagan? 3.2.1 Okanagan Video recordings of Indigenous Plants and Animals For my video material I filmed many kinds of vertebrates and invertebrates (see Appendix A for animal species and locations). I also photographed many native plants of the Okanagan region. (see Appendix B for plant species). 3.2.2 Okanagan Video recordings: Non-anthropocentric perspectives The type of field research that I carried out is essential for developing an experienced understanding of the Okanagan topography, and it inspired my interest in the ways animals cohabitate in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. For example, I filmed the Sockeye salmon and Kokanee (Kickininee) salmon underwater in Shingle Creek and Mission Creek to take a closer look at their slender dancing figures. I also moved the tripod to points of view not at eye level and framed scenes that distorted visibility and surprised viewers with unexpected perspectives. 3.2.3 Color Grading Technique One of the techniques I used in editing film footage was color grading certain qualities of the film to heighten the hue, saturation and value. Since the Okanagan climate accommodates four distinct seasons, the visual journey encompasses the diversity of plants and animals. An important factor of developing a color range, was to keep some restraint to the colors cited for each season to create a recognizable contrast of seasons. Specifically, creating a thematic approach to the colour of the Okanagan helps to evoke the reminiscent atmosphere of the lived experience of the landscape, by building a specific color range for each located scene and designating key color associations for each season. As a result, I created a series of six ambient videos using the photographs of native plants I had photographed during different seasonal color ranges (Figure 10). 38 Figure 10 Still images from a series of 4 ambient videos. Visual material was based on the Okanagan colorscape of seasonal indigenous plants including (left to right) Heart leaved Arnica, Delphinium Nuttalianum, Indian Paintbrush, Wild Lupin, Nootska Rose, rose hip, and pine tree branches. 3.2.4 Post production techniques for Video Part of the postproduction video process is editing the contrast between dark and light scenes. To help achieve a well-balanced image, I used shapes, curves, and keys to bring out the level of depth and color of the setting for each video. Additionally, âthere is a feature known 39 as âvibrance,â or a similar feature called âcolor boostâ which can add saturation to desaturated areas that can bring âpopâ to any images without overly damaging already saturated colors,â (Haine 91). Lastly, I also experimented using video masks with overlay clips using a custom shape to provide a multiplanar view of the natural environment. 3.2.5 Adjusting Video Depth of Field Since I am able to get within close range of my photographic subjects, I prefer to use a Nikon DX7100 digital camera with an 18-140mm lens. While some wildlife photographers may need a telephoto lens like a 300mm with an f2.8 to get a good view of their subject, I tend not to distance myself beyond speaking range with my subject (Caputo). As a result, my camera works well for up-close to mid-range focus. The amount of contrast between foreground and background of up-close and far away shots varies depending on the camera and lens. By using a larger aperture with a smaller depth of field, (Caputo) I was able to experiment adjusting the F-stop to create interesting shots that blurred the background, and focussed on the rich contrast of mid-tones and interplay of foreground, like in Figure 11. Here, the details of the wild chokecherry are outstanding, because the background recedes out of focus. 40 Figure 11 Chokecherry Berries near Lake Kalamalka in Kakuli Bay using a large aperture 3.2.6 Video Codec and wrappers for Max/MSP In order to make the visual material run smoothly in MAX/ MSP, I needed to convert the .MP4 files with the wrapper H. 264 into easily compressible and decompressed formats. A solution that worked was rendering videos in .MOV/ Photo JPEG using the QuickTime Player. 3.3 Interactive Programming for collaborations with nature 3.3.1 Non-anthropocentric compositional frameworks (goals, intentions) After I finished the Okanagan Etudes and visual music animations, I began to invest my time in learning interactive programming in Max/ MSP. I was interested in developing a program that would allow a musical composition to be generated from nature with minimal human interference. I wanted to explore the notion of âletting sounds be themselvesâ (Cage 10), by encompassing solutions for sounds to be produced through non-anthropocentric compositional frameworks. Furthermore, I wanted to give credit to nature as the composer, in a similar 41 sentiment as exhibited in Messianâs own words, âIâm anxious to disappear behind the birdsâ (Hill and Simeone 203-204). This idea inspired me to design an interactive audio program in Max/MSP that could sonify the landscape. I created an audio interface that could translate the movement of trees and birds into a musical performance. The program synthesized the dynamic properties of movement of nature, (i.e. trees and birds) with the expressive sounds of the landscape. For this program I used a background subtraction technique in the camera to detect moving objects. This allowed me to study the movement of trees and birds through an aural translation. With the UBC Max MSP tool kit (provided to me by my supervisors Dr. Dulic and Dr. Pritchard), I was able to test out different modules for interactive sounds and visual approaches. With the help of Dr. Dulic, Dr. Pritchard and Kenneth Newby I was able to tailor these modules into custom programs that were adapted to my artistic needs. 3.3.2 Absent presence: Issues working in non-real time There are two different approaches for compositional frameworks which allowed me to sonify the landscape: real time and non-real time. Since I was most interested in translating the movement of the magpies I had recorded, I chose to use the video reader (which is a patch that reads movie files,) as the input for the frame differencing technique (Figure 12). 42 Figure 12 Fixed media (video) to audio Max/MSP program In Figure 12 the video frame is divided into many quadrants, with each square representing one audio response. The sounds I used in the audio trigger sub-patch were produced from the Magpie, ie. squawking, biting, pecking, walking, eating, hopping, ect. Although this was a useful technique for re-contextualizing the original sounds of the magpie through a new audio-reactive framework, the pre-recorded video input was not a suitable technique for collaborative exchange with nature. The first problem is that the program interface uses fixed media (video) for the audio output. Therefore, the audio composition is generated from artifactual material, and therefore the audio is an archive of this lifeless process. The second problem is that the presence of the Magpie is reduced to a single moment in time. Therefore, using pre-recorded video as the source trigger for sounds would run the ârisk of calcifying a particular sonic freeze frame out of a dynamic moment in timeâ (Comstock et al. 43 173). Similarly, the application of recording the audio from this closed-circuit interface would be denigrative to my original intentions, which were to create a compositional framework that could collaborate with nature. Moreover, to then record the audio composition derived from a non-real time recording would be meaningless. From this point of view, I was cautious not to preserve these sounds of the program into a sonic archive (Comstock et. al. 173). 3.3.3 Active Presence: Advantages of working in real-time In the next program I created a computational framework which would allow nature to be the composer in real time (Figure 13). Since the goal of the program was to sonically engage with the transient movements of living structures of nature, i.e. trees and birds, I used the live input of the web camera to transform motion into sound. I selected ten sounds that corresponded to the magpie for the interactive soundscape. Although I selected the sounds for the program audio sources, the resulting sound score is a lively collaboration with nature. I remember when I showed my collogues this interactive musical program for the first time, I told them that the music was alive. This real time interactive method became a fundamental aspect of interactivity for future visual music interactive installations. This was a very important aspect of this technique and contributed to my vision of interactive programming as an opportunity to engage with nature through living sound structures. 44 Figure 13 Live video input to audio Max/MSP program 3.3.4 Two theoretical approaches for using recordings of nature in an installation Since my role is to interpret/translate the expressions of the landscape into an expressive visual music composition that reflects the locality of the Okanagan environment, I developed two theoretical principles which I employ in interactive programming which are derived from the previous research. The first rule is, any use of sound or video recordings of nature in the gallery must be produced by an active living structure, i.e. interact with viewers in the gallery. The second rule is, any use of sound or video recordings of nature that do not involve an active living structure, must be generated through a chance operation or interpreted through a generative soundscape or generative visual tableaux. 3.4 Interactive Sound and Painting- Magpie Movement, 2019 3.4.1 Magpie Movement, 2019 Magpie Movement is a combination of painting and interactive sound installation, designed to mimic the movements of the Magpies in the gallery (Figure 14). The sound 45 component is based on audio recordings of the magpie chirping, fluttering, chattering, clicking its tongue, scratching and stomping. The work was my first MFA thesis cohort exhibition at The FINE Gallery at The University of British Columbia, Okanagan from February 18th â 22 2019. I inverted the technique previously discussed (Figure 13), where instead of live video input triggering sounds of nature, I inserted the recorded sounds of the magpie, which would be triggered by the movements of people in the gallery. In this example, the sound retains its living properties because the sound is activated by living, breathing people. Figure 14 Magpie Movement- 4â x 6â mixed media drawing on paper. Charcoal, Indian ink, acrylic paint, and chalk. 46 3.5 Immersive Visual Music Installation The notion of the art as an immersive installation is important since Kandinsky believed that âthe work of Art mirrors itself upon the surface of our consciousness. However, its image extends beyond, to vanish from the surface without a trace when the sensation has subsided. A certain transparent, but definite glasslike partition, abolishing direct contact from within, seems to exist here as well. Here, too, exists the possibility of entering art's message, to participate actively, and to experience its pulsating-life with all one's sensesâ [1]. In this example, Kandinsky may be referring to Art as immersive art form, where the viewer is invited to experience a world from within, situated between the collective conscious and personal desire. 3.5.1 Spectral Gesture April 2019 Spectral Gesture is an immersive interactive media installation for dynamic visual music display and was designed for singular experience (Figure 15) or collective experience (Figure 16) within a central stage. The work was exhibited at The FINE Gallery at The University of British Columbia-Okanagan from March 25th â 28 2019, and on the last day of the exhibition, a group of performers from Dr. Magnatâs theatre class at the University of British Columbia were invited to interact in the space (Figure 17). 47 Figure 15 Spectral Gesture- singular user experience Figure 16 Spectral Gesture- multiple user experience Within the reactive visual music stage, participants may maneuver their body to conduct or trigger the rich tapestry of sound and image. This is an effective mode of interaction as the work becomes an extension of the body. The user interface is programmed in Max/MSP which takes the web-camera and transforms it into a motion sensor used to detect the actions of the viewer through frame differencing technique. The audio-visual interface recognizes the motion 48 from the camera sensor and triggers corresponding video and sound output. Since the digital interface uses frame differencing, it can only detect movement. Depending on the volume of people in the installation, the space can be very quiet and sparse of visual sensory, or boisterous and full of energy and color. Spectral Gesture successfully invited viewers to emotively express their audiovisual experience through improvised dance and performance. Figure 17 Spectral Gesture 3.5.1.1 Natural User Interface As previously discussed in my literature review of Jeremijenkoâs work, I drew inspiration from interactive artworks that used ânatural user interfacesâ (NUI) through multiple modalities such as voice, touch, and gesture (Mortensen). Drawing from this principle of NUI, Spectral Gesture encouraged and helped viewers interact in unconstrained and improvisational performance through body motion to drive both the visuals and music of the installation. I found this method best for connecting the userâs body to the interactive landscape, since body movement is a form of intuitive expression and is a direct form of engagement. This view is supported by Grau who asserts that âPsychobiological tests show that the more the participants are involved, the less they are able to differentiate between the artificial world and personal experienceâ (Grau, Into the Belly of the Image: Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality 369). Here, 49 Grau speaks about the personal relationship of viewers felt in a digital realm, and in the same sense, I appreciate that the same principle may be applied to immersive installation where the viewersâ self is sensed in the presence of interactive media. In the gallery this is a useful tool for user self-expression, as the audiovisual display becomes a permeable space of self-extension/ self-reflection. The fundamental approach maintained for the interactive design generated in Spectral Gesture was modeled on the viewerâs detected motion, and this proved to be an effective strategy for performative co-creation in the space. It proved to be a useful method for transforming the viewerâs movement into lively expressions of sound and visuals in a reflective manner that created a cohesive visual music composition. As the interactive system was not limited by a set capacity of performers, the possibility of open-ended collaboration with others added an important aspect to the work, similar to how a musician learns to freely perform and improvise with other musicians. 3.5.1.2 Non-material Boundaries: Light source and interactive framing Interactive boundaries are an important part of the installation space, and drawing from the notion of NUI, I strived to design a space that was equally inviting. The focus of the Performative Zone provides a sensitive area for direct interaction with the visual music composition. As viewers are encouraged to explore the installation without guidance, their bond with the multimedia landscape was strengthened by their own pathway/journey. People are attracted to the space through the visible light. In this case, light denotes where the activation boundary is, however viewers will not know this prior to entering the space. The work becomes a learned environment, and the immersivity of the space is achieved by the viewer gaining knowledge about the environment through personal experience such as participation or observation. The light is also useful for a focused viewing of the artwork in the gallery space, once they realize their movement can alter the surrounding audio-visual environment. Here, the 50 audiovisual stage becomes a vessel for collaborative and poetic exchange and opens meaningful approaches for shared or individual expressions of visual music. 3.5.1.3 Non-predictable soundscape provokes Egalitarian basis for collaborative experience The spatialization of the sonic program converts the horizontal construction of the piano keyboard into a grid, which is mapped on the circular stage from a ceiling mounted camera sensor. Each zone within the grid corresponds to a selection of notes from the pentatonic scale, and triggers the paired visual animation. Each section of notes are played in an unpredictable manner. For the sonic program, I selected a series of thirty-four notes from John Cage prepared piano based on the pentatonic scale over a 5-octave range. The prepared piano selection gave me a rich tonal variety to experiment with and altered the standard range of the piano. As Grau notes, unexpected outcomes reinforce the viewers experience in immersive environments. He argued that by utilizing this kind of unexpected framework, viewers ultimately relinquish their desire to control the space, and instead are inspired to work with the space in a collaborative effort. The main difference is that viewers cannot predict what the next sound will be based on previous outcomes learned from the audiovisual interface. Moreover, this mode of interactivity is well suited for a collaborative approach since no viewers are ranked in a higher position of control based on learned NUI experience, and this helps create a space that is purposely egalitarian. 3.5.1.4 Visual Music Animations There are fourteen animations in the gallery projected onto abstract screen shapes hung from the ceiling like floating iridescent constellations of the visual music stage. Each animation is based on moving parts of my acrylic and ink painting and is non-representational and abstract. The projected animations cast opalescent shadows on the walls and floor of the gallery. The kaleidoscope arrangement of visualizations can be seen from many angles, giving 51 the visual music space a three dimensionality that emerges through an interesting field of depth for viewers to explore. Even when there is no body in the space, the visual music installation appears to be animated, as the several large projections play continuously. Figure 18 Circular Animations 52 Figure 19 Rosy Pink Animation with opalescent cast shadow These animations are viewed as having their own autonomy, as the viewer can not alter their visual form. Slowly and peacefully, the far-right largest circle animation crossfades gently with rosy pink flower pedals (Figure 19) while the other largest concentric animation sub-rotates around three deep crimson, smooth black and crisp white circular planes and a square shape at different speeds, giving the illusion of visual syncopation (Figure 18). This effect was achieved by layering different speeds of rotating and morphing animations which can be used as a visual analogy for polyrhythm. With the triangular animation there becomes a tempo rubato, where the stretching and pinching of the animated image becomes a metaphor for slowing and gaining 53 speeds. Tempo rubato refers to the art of controlling time, by manipulating the tempo to add expression to a melodic phrase. The vertical and horizontal momentum of the three points of the triangle gives an elasticity that complements the other three concentric animations. 3.5.1.5 Laser cut materials and sand blast technique I laser cut the screens out of semi-transparent plexiglass and sand blasted for a double-sided image. The sandblast technique enables a double-sided image and strengthens the open concept spatial framework. The presence of the visual backdrop is carried in the weight of the shadows which are cast on the floor. Here, the visual arrangements become the focal setting for multidimensional personifications of sound and movement. 3.5.1.6 Projection Mapping of Screens When the camera detected motion, it would trigger an aural response and light up the animated videos which were projection mapped onto a series of suspended plexiglass screens that enfold the dimension and weight of the space. Projection mapping is an ideal method for visual display as the image can be contoured in 3-dimensional space without distorting the image. Secondly, the unique cut-out shapes of the screens are intricate and require precise masking technique which allows the videos to be displayed close together without cutting out the nearby videos with frame perimeters. For example, each video is rendered with an alpha channel and applied custom mask enables transparency. This allows me to intermingle screens without compromise. (Figure 18) Thirdly, projection mapping maximizes storage space by controlling the size of a screen based on available projector dimensions within the fixed resolution. For example, I made a diagram of screen max resolutions based on the shape and size of the screens that correspond to available projector dimensions. For the installation Spectral Gesture, I invited a group of performers from professor Dr. Virginie Magnatâs theatre class at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan to interact in the space (Figure 17). Dr. Magnat expressed that the artwork encouraged experimental interactivity 54 and promoted people to step outside their comfort zone. She urged the class to keep searching for relationships with each other and âfor each other!â Dr. Magnat also advised her students to âimagine you are doing a solo, in a collective group, everyone is working on their own but also together.â This proved that the shifting dynamics of sounds and image extended towards an emergent space for collective and playful improvisation to emerge. She also noted that the visual music stage âis quite a beautiful space with the lights and shadows, and those sounds [â¦] its like you are in a dream. Dreamscape, anything can happen.â Her imaginative interpretation of the space supports the intention that the visual music stage successfully traced the ephemeral qualities of time in both image and sound, by manipulating the speed and movement of the animations to convey the inter-shifting relationships between space and gesture. This is further reinforced by Dr. Magnatâs reassurance to her students to âtry to modulate your speed, size, and energy, explore different possibilities for yourself.â Lastly, Dr. Magnat asked her students to âsee how [the work] inspires you in your adventure and discoveries with your partner.â Therefore, the exploratory nature of the artwork allowed the performers to experiment and discern the space in an emergent manner, influenced by their collective participation. The continuous flow of open-ended experience and anticipation encouraged a playful and unguided exploration of the space through thoughtful performance of sounds and visuals. Viewers emotively expressed their audiovisual experience through improvised dance and performance. With the opportunity to see Spectral Gesture engaged from collaborative performance, I witnessed a lively reception of the work which personified a variety of performative responses. 3.5.2 The Multimodal Landscape, 2020 Building from the previous methods employed in the interactive visual music installation Spectral Gesture, The Multimodal Landscape (Figures 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19) combined the 55 exquisite sights and sounds of the four seasons from the Okanagan landscape. The work was publicly exhibited as part of The Living Things International Arts Festival at The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art from January 17 â February 1st 2020. Similar to our perception of seeing in real life, I wanted to design an immersive media environment that could spatially personify the landscape. In The Multimodal Landscape, I suggested a depth of field through multiple points of view. The spatial arrangement of the suspended screens was inspired by the collage works of Pablo Picasso who was a master of the Cubist style of total field perspective. To reveal the many perspectives of the Okanaganâs environment, the camera sensor needed to be modified to allow participants to appreciate the visuals for prolonged viewing in the gallery. Thus, I changed the Camera Sensor to detect presence, not movement. Through the Camera Background Subtraction technique viewers can sequence and layer sounds and visuals through detected presence. The camera background subtraction technique provided a good solution for gallery setting. These screens when viewed together/ as a whole, reveal the multidimensions of the Okanaganâs colorful medley of the landscape. Figure 20 The Multimodal Landscape 2020 56 Figure 21 The Multimodal Landscape 2020 57 Figure 22 Alternator poster for The Multimodal Landscape 58 Figure 23 The Multimodal Landscape (January 2020) 3.5.2.1 Spatial Design for The Multimodal Landscape: Multi-perspective of Visuals, time, and space The philosophy of space and time of cubism, was, perhaps a bi-product of the Energetics-Atomistics debate during the early 20th century. The scientific confirmation of atomic theory was proved in Jean Perrinâs drawings of Brownian motion in La Réalité des molecules published in 1911 (Aichele 313), which challenged Wilhelm Ostwaldâs theory of energetics who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 (Wilhelm Ostwald - Facts). This kind of scientific conflict may explain Kleeâs skeptical attitude towards cubism. Klee was uncertain âabout the effect of imposing a rigid, reductive surface grid on humans and animalsâ and cautioned that the geometric shapes of the cubist approach often subjugated natural forms to a âcompositional scaffoldingâ which he explains distorted the natural viability of objects and bodies (Aichele 313). This standpoint may have been caused by Kleeâs preference for Oswaldâs theory of âenergeticsâ which would explain the more ânervous energyâ captivated in his line work drawings (Aichele 311). As a result, I reserve the cubist approach for the spatial distribution of screens and camera sensing while maintaining Kleeâs approach for the visual media by 59 preserving the organic features of the landscape through abstract form versus overt geometric forms. 3.5.2.2 Caution with deriving Geometric shapes from Nature Johan Gielis â who is a modern scientist with a background in horticulture and plant biotechnology â studies the âgeometric (technical) theory of Morphogenesisâ and has a similar sentiment to Klee, stating that â[w]e impose âourâ geometry onto the study of natureâ, (Gielis X, 19). Therefore, I studied the natural forms of the landscape, dedicating many hours to appreciating and forming unique visualizations based on the intricate and complex compositional structures of nature, including the plants and animalsâ unique points of view. Gielis discussed the flaw of imposing anthropocentric models on nature, affirming that âstarfish, crystals and trees will experience the world in totally different ways than humans do, because they are constrained in their way of moving through space and space-time, and hence, if they would have the ability to abstract or geometrize their way of measuring, their geometry of their world would be profoundly different. The unit circle of a starfish could well be a starfish curve, not our circleâ (Gielis 19). Therefore, although the organic nomenclature of forms which I produced may have been influenced by Kandinskyâs observation of shape through primary forms like the circle, square and triangle, the shapes of the landscape I derived were by no means a limited response to a geometric representation. Furthermore, the visual shapes I produced for my screens were the result of my extensive field research which investigated and illuminated the subtle movement and emergence of the Okanagan landscape over a two-year period. 3.5.2.3 David Hockneyâs Joiners technique An important artist whose long engagement with the natural landscape incorporates the cubist technique is the photographic montage artist and painter David Hockney, who approached 2-dimensional images in a 3-dimensional poly-perspective of time and space in his 60 polaroid works, âjoinersâ. Hockney has produced innovative video installations such as The Four Seasons (2010) (Melbourne), which pieces together a variety of simultaneous video streams from multiple viewpoints, to create depth of field and the perception of experiencing the past, present and future moments of time in space. This technique he developed is like a temporal montage of shifting footage, and puzzles viewers with anticipation in a similar experience of being in nature. In this way, The Multimodal Landscape I strived towards communicating the perpetual multi-dimensional aspect of Hockneyâs joiners to the visual arrangements of my projected screens by spacing the layers in a sculptural depth of field suspended from the ceiling, similar to a multiplanar mosaic of the Okanagan topography. Moreover, the projected screens become a poignant setting for the formation of dynamic multi-layered visuals and sonic layers of space to emerge over time, as different viewing angles will alter the perceivable position of the screens and divulge new articulations of the viewing space (Figure 23). 3.5.2.4 Generative Soundscape that uses principles of Serendipity from the Natural Landscape In The Multimodal Landscape the viewer gains a renewed appreciation for the natural soundscape by recognizing sounds in unpredictable ways. The audio design augments the notion of chance by selecting sounds and shuffling them through randomized computer decisions. The Multimodal Landscape soundscape focuses on decisions based on chance to emulate music based on the interaction with a natural landscape. The musical database functions by calling out random numbers similar to a lottery, with some larger and some narrowed ranges of chance. Therefore, the higher the number, the less chance the sound will be played. The installation has fourteen individual sounds that would play intermittently based on the chance method previously explained. The result is a multi-layered distribution of sounds that interact in a spontaneous manner similar to being in nature. The principle for designing a chance system for a soundscape supports the notion that the multiplicities found in nature are 61 constantly shifting and changing. The sounds of different birds like the Californian Quail, Ravens, Chickadees, doves, Northern Flicker, Western Screech Owl, and Magpie, and environmental sounds such as creek water, and rustling leaves of trees can be heard throughout the installation. 3.5.2.5 Rich layering of sonic landscape In contrast to the rich layering of natural noises derived from the generative soundscape, the prepared piano sounds form a unique percussive dimension between the distinct polyphonies. Since the installation relies on the viewer to enter and re-enter a zone to trigger a different piano sound, many variations of piano pitch and intonation can be layered with other prolonged noises of nature, creating overlapped piano melodies and sensuous natural layering. Yet, once the viewer is still, only the sounds of nature will remain. 3.5.3 The Intervals of Nature, April 2020 For the fourth gallery exhibition, The Intervals of Nature, I incorporated the same background subtraction technique employed in The Multimodal Landscape and added the seasonal cycle of videos to reinforce the evolving temporality of the Okanagan landscape (Figures 24, 25, 26). The work was exhibited at The FINE Gallery at The University of British Columbia-Okanagan from April 9th â 13 2020. The seasonal associations with the natural environment was an important addition to this iteration of the gallery piece, since I programmed a multi-channel video database. This enabled me to allow videos to transition between different stages of the year, giving the audience an appreciation of the Okanagan landscape from multiple perspectives during the year. Similar to Hockneyâs The Four Seasons, The Intervals of Nature, combined multiple views of the season, revealing the diverse kaleidoscope of plants and trees at different times of the season. I used the Okanaganâs diverse population of indigenous species of plants and animals as the core visual subject matter for the visual media display in The Intervals of Nature. 62 Figure 24 The Intervals of Nature 2020 Figure 25 Intervals of Nature, 2020 63 Figure 26 Intervals of Nature- viewer interacting in gallery 3.5.3.1 Multichannel video inputs- Seasonal Cycles I wanted to explore the multimovement of the viewer in a captivating arrangement of flexible and fluid relationship of sound and image. One feature I added to the interactivity of visual media in The Intervals of Nature, (March 2020) was multi-channel video display. What this meant was that each screen was programmed to interchange multiple times with different video inputs. This technique emerged out of my desire to express the fluidity of visuals with the corresponding changeability of sound. I wanted to encourage the viewers to interplay with the sounds and visuals in an exploratory method similar to being in nature. With this option I realized the importance of developing a pictorial framework which could highlight the diverse perspectives of the Okanagan while upholding the notion of non-predictability. For this aspect, I displayed videos in randomized order without repeat and without media tagging. The automated selection of videos is important because I did not want to deter the ordering of image with my own artistic sentiment/ preference. 64 3.5.4 Improvisations and Collaborations between January 2019- April 2020 Figure 27 Aeon collaborative 2019 3.5.4.1 Aeon Performance 2019 In 2019 I presented my thesis research at the Interactive Arts, Science and Technology Regional Conference (IAST) at the Kelowna Public Art Gallery. In February 2019 I performed with Aeon collaborative at the Mary Irwin Theatre for the Interactive Art, Science, and Technology conference (IAST.ca), which had a performance at the Living Things Festival (livingthingsfestival.com), featuring acclaimed Western Canadian musicians and artists. The performance showcased the diversity and trans-disciplinary nature of technologically informed art (Figure 27). I performed using live musical instruments and spoken word which was used to generate the sound composition through the live artificial intelligence machine-learning system. See video at: https://vimeo.com/335726103 65 3.5.4.2 Looks like Sounds performance 2020 Looks Like Sounds (CCS 583) was a public performance at the Black Box Theatre. This was a collaborative work featuring video artists, dancers, and musicians, and I collaborated with Dr. Aleks Dulic and Dr. Miles Thorogood to create the live video showcase for the gestural musical performance (Figure 28). See attached links for video documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0tcm2tcnjysnoi/Looks_Like_Sounds.mp4?dl=0 and https://www.dropbox.com/s/i12rceqks7ni1r2/Looks_like_sounds_dancers.mp4?dl=0 Figure 28 Looks Like Sounds 2020 3.5.4.3 Paintings Based on Music- Live Collaborations I painted several visual interpretations of live music performed by Nicholas Denton Protsack, a professional cellist and composer who completed his Bachelorâs of Music and Masters in composition and cello at the San Francisco Conservatory. I explored many colors, lines, and visual patterns based on the pitch, rhythm and tempo explored by Nicholas. These visual music paintings served as rich visual tableaus for visual music expression and helped me base my visual music media for interactive display. The oil paintings are based on classical compositions performed by Nicholas on the cello (Figures 31). I also digitally drew compositional studies based on experimental music performed live by dancers for Sounds Like Things, January 2020. 66 Figure 29 (Detail image)- The Scroll of a Cello- oil painting 3 x 3'. February 2020 67 Chapter 4: The Voice of the Land thesis exhibition The Voice of the Land is my thesis exhibition to be on view at the Alternator Centre of Contemporary Art in Kelowna, BC during the month of February 2021. This section contains the creative methods and compositional strategies I employed to create the final imagery and sounds for this exhibition. 4.1 Principles of Color based on animalsâ unique perception of Light Spectrum As I studied and observed nature, I wondered if certain animals could see beyond the visible spectrum of humans. Engaging with the notion of multifaceted perception, Johann Gielis reflected on the missing computational modes of understanding nature stating that âour current scientific methods are based on our own human perception of the worldâ (Gielis 19). Scientists know little âabout non-spectral color perception in animals with more than three types of color photoreceptors,â possibly due to the fact that the receptors in human eyes are trichromatic (Stoddard et al. 15112). More recently, scientists have gained interest in animals like birds, fish and reptiles which may possess tetrachromatic vision in contrast to humansâ trichromatic vision (Stoddard et al. 15114). More specifically, recent studies focused on the visible perception of honey bees and hummingbirds, which worked in my favour having already observed their intriguing behaviours pollinating and gathering nectar. From my research I learned that honeybees have trichromatic vision, but can perceive âone non-spectral color: UV +yellow,â while broad-tailed hummingbirds have tetrachromatic color vision (Stoddard et al. 15116 and 15117). Additionally, honey bees and dragon flies possess a modern apposition eye (compound eye) which can assemble pixelated images into âa perceived mosaic-like imageâ (Brigitte Schoenemann 13491) Therefore, the theoretical framework l applied to the spatial arrangements of screens in some ways support the synchronous multi-perspective viewing of certain bugs. This is a hybrid of cubism that I am trying to emulate in the visual approach of screens. 68 4.2 Colorscape of the Okanagan Landscape The shift from one season into the next is observable in many ways, but color is one aspect of this change that I find most visually inspiring. Color strengthens the temporal dynamics of the landscape and signifies the visual transitions and reflexive state of the seasons during specific times of the year in the Okanagan. For example, the connection of ripe juicy berries of the Wild Saskatoon bush (Figure 30) have key ecological and cultural associations to summer in the Okanagan, among the many other wild chokecherries, red elderberries, and red raspberries that feed the wildlife in the region. The natural rhythms of the landscape were explored through the vivid display of the seasonal color ranges, which are intrinsic to the animated media for this project. The Color order based for The Voice of the Land was based on key associations with the Okanagan plants and trees during each season. Figure 30 Wild Saskatoon Berries near Kakuli Bay 4.3 Instrumental Databases interpreted from key bird species: The Northern Mocking bird for Cello and the Robin for flute The microtonal nuances and dynamic inflection of the birdâs vocal character was reflected in the variety of tonal techniques employed by each musician (the cellist, flutist, and pianist). This compositional method highlighted the specific tonal environment associated to each bird I chose for each season, such as the Robin and Northern Mockingbird. For this project 69 I employed two musicians, concert cellist and composer Nicholas Denton Protsack (San Francisco Conservatory of Music) from Kelowna and classical flutist Emily Richardson (UBC) to instrumentally interpret each bird song I had recorded. I asked them to mirror the birdâs unique vocal abilities by using their instrumental techniques and musical expertise. I showed them the spectrogram song syllables and asked them to record their interpretations either as full song sets or song syllables. Denton-Protsack also notated two song sets for the Northern Mockingbird using a form of microtonal notation in which the octave is divided into 31 equal stepd for this musical figuration (Figure 31). Figure 31 Northern Mockingbird Call for Cello 4.4 Screen Design The screens are designed from Okanagan features from the landscape-ie branch, mountain, rocks, trees, streams ect and are transformed into abstract design. The screens will 70 be hung in shapes like Kandinsky, in patterns that correspond to non-representational musical expression. Screens respond to movement of viewer, flickering their unique colorspace and sonification within that season. Each quadrant of floor in gallery space responds to the certain screen/ sound of that area. 4.5 Interactive Screens in multichannel mode Through the multichannel video database technique I was able to constuct several video compositonal frameworks for each season. This aspect allowed me to compose the visuals through my own artistic approach that reflected my personal understanding of the Okanaganâs seasons through nature and color. There are three unique phases for each season that cycles continuously in a loop, showcasing many specific regions of the Okanagan during specific times of the year. 4.6 Seasonal color palette for video media Each season has multiple videos, focusing on color space of the 4 colour palettes of Okanagan seasons and focal points of Okanagan landscape. Here the visuals will transition between sampled color palette (Figure 32) and representations of the Okanagan landscape (Figure 33) before returning back again to abstract flickering colorspace. Single pixel map in videos of each season will generate sampled colors yielding the flickering colorscape, and I will make square video loops which can go on any screen, so it wonât matter the shape or size of the video. 71 Figure 32 Summer Okanagan Color Palette Figure 33 Summer Okanagan landscape 4.7 Spatio-Temporal Strategies for Evolving Frameworks I used cyclical stages of the landscape similar to Intervals of Nature to align the timed transitions between the seasons. Unlike in Daviesâs Osmose, the end stage is substituted with winter, therefore allowing a continuous cycled loop. The cyclical renewal of the land cultivates new ways to appreciate the natural rhythms of rejuvenation of the land. The different realms of space, are also key components of the evolving framework. 72 âspatially, we wanted to keep the movement within the installation as free as possible, inviting wandering, playfulness, and reflection instead of nudging participants to follow a particular, predetermined sequence of actions. With that said, time and narrative constraints meant that the installation would inevitably include stages where participants had to follow a particular trajectory, resulting in the installation being less labyrinthine than we hoped, with freeform wandering largely restricted to scenes 2 and 4 (see below).â (Roy Bendor) 4.8 Sound Media Each season has a dedicated tonal environment. As part of this I recorded cello strings and prepared piano within the structure of a scale devised from birds and nature. Northern Mockingbird song syllables form the scale for summer, Crickets/ wasps song syllables form the scale for Fall, Great Horned Owl form the scale for Winter, Robin and form the scale for spring. My method uses sonograms of bird calls and nature to generate the pitch and harmonies for exemplar scales of each season. In this example is the Northern Mocking birdâs showy coloratura soprano (Figure 34). The listener uses the musical framework to explore the many voices of nature present in the sound and media environment of the 4 seasons installation. Figure 34 Northern Mockingbird Spectrogram 73 If a viewer re-enters the quadrant of interaction the same process will occur, this time using a feature like âurnâ to call a different representational video. (Randomize but without repeat is most important) before returning back to neautral color palatte of that season. Although the final exhibition The Voice of the Land is designed from the 4 cycles of the Okanagan topography, my work produces non-predictable framework of images and sounds based on the seasonal environment. Beginning with automatic associations like the sound of a running creek, viewers can anticipate a balance between warm and cool color palettes that evoke a spring and/or summer feeling, but at different times the visuals may appear in direct representation, such as a flower, a tree, or a reflection of water. These easily recognizable symbols of nature add clarity to the more abstract audio-visual experience. This unifying component of the audiovisual expectation mixes representational and non-representational depictions of nature which enrich the immersive experience. As a premise for building new associations with nature. In this way, the work strengthens our basic connections to nature and expands our understanding of the landscape through unexpected sounds and imaginative imagery. With the Additionally, the audiovisual display offers alternative understandings of the Okanagan landscape, which shifts the viewers expectation of a typified landscape. 74 Chapter 5: Discussion This section contains my reflections of the thesis based on three methods that I employed. My thesis linked the sounds and colors of the Okanagan region into a performative visual music composition that could be used for audience members to reconnect and reflect on nature through interactive frameworks. The first method I used to analyze the environment consisted of collecting local sounds and video footage for the basis of my visual music composition. I documented the recorded soundscapes and identified a variety of bird songs which exhibited unique characteristics which were integral to my understanding of the aural environment. I used these natural songs of the environment as the source material for my Okanagan Etudes and interactive sound compositions. The second method I used to analyze the characteristics of the landscape was to study the natural formations of the Okanagan typology as a foundation for the visual music abstractions. I applied Wassily Kandinskyâs non-representational theory of abstraction to the visualizations for my painted animations. I linked Paul Kleeâs theory of form to the biomorphic shapes I used to study the natural growth of plants and animals in the region. Kleeâs approach was relevant to my abstract formations since working at a high level of computational analysis, the appearance of my work is shifting and changing and is defined by a theory of process similar to Kleeâs formation of process. The third method I used to study nature was to develop interactive frameworks that supported new modes of cocreating with nature. I developed and refined the interactive technique that best applied the desired effect. For live visual music performance, I proved that the camera sensing interface that used the viewerâs detected motion was an effective strategy for performative interactions in the space. For gallery context, the camera background subtraction technique provided a good solution for viewers who wanted to appreciate the fluctuating sounds and visual landscape 75 without having to constantly move about. This form of meditative viewing in the gallery setting was an excellent method for expressive gallery interaction. 76 Chapter 6: Conclusion Looking back on the work produced over the course of this program, I applied my research findings to answer the questions I asked in the introduction of this paper: Firstly, my question, how to correlate the color and sounds of the Okanagan landscape as a base for visual music composition? is answered in the methodology section of this paper. I felt that my cross disciplinary approach for dealing with this question was effective since each medium used in the body of work; visual music, sound composition, interactive installation, and programming, revealed different approaches, experiences, and insights on the complex interrelationship between sounds and visuals in the Okanagan. Starting with my first visual music film, Dance of the Wasp, I observed that using Kandinskyâs approach for painted non-representational abstraction was best suited for depicting the visual language of sound. Additionally, I was thinking about Kleeâs notion of abstract formation as the âessenceâ of natural growth and the inner necessity as the basis for form creation (Klee 25) which was effective in depicting the inner qualities of the wasp. The painted biomorphic patterns and shapes that emerged in the film were expressed from the point of view of a wasp. The spatialized motion of the animation was achieved through temporal audio and visual display in similar ways to Oskar Fischinger, Norman Mclaren and Len Lyeâs music films. In dealing with my next question, how to sonify the landscape? I linked Schaefferâs âmusique concrèteâ â where I composed music from naturally occurring sounds from the Okanagan environment â with my visual music films Dance of the Wasp, The Sky Spoke, and Icy Fire Crackle (Figure 9). I collected audio recordings of weather and animals from the local region and programmed generative soundscapes for my interactive installations Magpie Movement, Spectral Gesture and The Multimodal Landscape (Figure 20). These kinds of sounds have added importance in the context of immersive media environments, as this kind of association is what Schaeffer termed, sonorous objects, which allow the viewer to experience sound separate from the maker which recalls the ambiguous feeling of hearing before we see, 77 much like we do while being in the natural landscape. Hearing the landscape is akin to touching words, although the sonic impression may be traced to its sound maker, the serendipitous nature of sonic experience is a key principle to my musical programming methodology. In my third question, how might an instrument be tuned according to the local landscape? I demonstrated in the creative methods section of this paper how the song syllables of local birds could be applied to the playing of musical instruments like the piano, flute, and cello (Figure 8) and mapped to the audio database for interactive sound components of each season for The Voice of the Land (in the results section of this paper). I used the birdsong frequencies as basis for tonal structures for the musical application in sound composition to create melodies which use microtones and non-standardized notation, reflecting the dynamic and fluctuating character of birds in the Okanagan region. I used the intricate bird calls in a method similar to how Messiaen composed music from bird song by using the naturally born songsters of this region as a foundation for musical composition. My fourth question, how can the efficacy of âintra-action" which Shanbaum describes be coupled with innovative audiovisual programming as a way to communicate the powerful metaphoric expressions of the local landscape? is answered by applying Phaedra Shanbaumâs notion of âintra-actionâ to local soundscapes and color ranges of the Okanagan. This application (which I explained in the methodology chapter) revealed that Natural User Interfaces play an important role in the viewerâs immersive experience with situated media. The two modes of interaction I developed for the visual music installationsâ Spectral Gesture, which uses camera frame differencing (motion recognition) and The Multimodal Landscape, Intervals of Nature, and The Voice of the Lands which uses camera background subtraction (detected presence), are related in that they both use the viewerâs body to form live visual music expressions. The camera frame differencing technique provided a good example for live performance setting, while the camera background subtraction technique provided a good solution for gallery setting. I had commented that real-time feedback is better suited for interactive visual music frameworks 78 because the active participation of the viewer strengthens the spatial understanding and temporality of space. As a method for well-balanced experience I designed an interaction zone that gave viewers the opportunity to explore a reactive visual music space that responds to their actions, with non-predictive audiovisual framework for egalitarian collaborative basis. This notion supports Grauâs theory that well-balanced experience means giving freedom of choice to the player, through unexpected changes. Concerning how I combined audio and visuals from the Okanagan landscape, I mapped the particular color range of seasons with the specific soundscapes to create a cohesive method that bridges the relationship between color and sound in the Okanagan. This approach calls to attention the temporal associations of climate and region, more importantly, communicates how we share the shifting landscape with many animal and plant co-habitants and how these non-human life forms contribute to our vivid perception of place and reality. 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The MIT Press, 1998. 86 Appendices Appendix A List of animals filmed in the Okanagan region: White-faced meadow fly (Bardolf Lake), Blue darner Dragonfly (Bardolf Lake) (294), Columbia Spotted Frog (Bardolf Lake), Painted Turtle (Rosieâs Pond), Kokanee Salmon (Mission creek), Sockeye Salmon (Shingle creek), Hummingbird (North BX area), Magpie (North BX area), American Dipper (Shingle creek), Western Screech owl (Northern BC area), Bald Eagle (Kalamalka lake), Northern Flicker (Northern BC area) and Black Bear (Silver Star mountain (296). 87 Appendix B List of plants photographed in the Okanagan region The Arrow Leaf Balsam Root Flower, Baltic Rush, Barley Grass, Big Mountain Sage Brush, Black Cottonwood, Black Hawthorn, Blue Elderberry, Common Cattail, Chocolate Lily Flower ârice rootâ, Common Yarrow, Dalmatian Toadflax, Delphinium Nuttalianum, Douglas Fir, Fairy Slipper Orchid, False Lady Slipper, Field Sedge, Hard stemmed Bullrush, Heart Leaved Arnica, Holley Leaved Barberry, Horse Tail, Indian Paintbrush , Kentucky Bluegrass, Kinnikinic, Lichen, Nootska Rose, Nuttailâs Grass, Pacific Willow, Paper Birch, Poison Ivy, Polar Grass, Ponderosa Pine, Purple/ White milkvetch, Pussy Toes, Rabbit Brush, Red-osier Dogwood, Red Raspberry, Sedum, Small Flowered Forget-Me-Not, Snow Berry, Striped Coral Root, Water Birch, Waxy Currant, Western Water Birch, Wild Lupins, Wild Saskatoon Bush and Wild Strawberry.
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Interdisciplinary Studies
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
The voice of the land : a performative visual music composition of the Okanagan Valley
Text