Sonic Visualization [Heartworm]


Title: Sonic Visualization [Heartworm]
Video Doc: Sonic Visualization [Heartworm]
Credits: Directed by, Sean Clute

Music, Days of Lost Pants DJ Set from the album Items of Ill Repute by Brandon Taylor (aka the heartworm

Special Thanks, Ben Fry, James Clute, and of course Heartworm
About:
Sonic Visualization [Heartworm] is an animation inspired by the music of Brandon Taylor (aka Heartworm). The piece shows images of lines and shapes morphing to the rhythms and textures of the music. Created only in black and white, the images are generated using custom made code based on the Processing software environment.

Process:
The creation of Sonic Visualization [Heartworm] was a final project for a workshop instructed by Ben Fry at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Colorado. The workshop, entitled Processing: Coding for Responsive Graphics and Video, was an intensive week spent exploring the computer language Processing. The language was developed by Ben Fry while he was a student at the Aesthetics + Computation Group of the MIT Media Laboratory. Throughout the week, the group learned many techniques for generating and manipulating graphics.  This piece was my final application of these Processing experiments.

The coding for the project is very simple. It uses vector based placement of different shapes, lines, and patterns. The code for the project can be found here.

One interesting aspect of this project was the differences in using Processing versus Jitter (a program I have used for many years). Processing roots are very much based in the world of graphic design rather then music or performing arts. This was immediately evident when discovering the backgrounds of the participants in the workshop.  My classmates were predominately from design backgrounds. I can see advantages and disadvantages of the program compared when to Jitter.

Some disadvantages to using Processing can be found when working with audio and quicktime videos. Audio in general sounds bad and is hard to deal with in Processing. The same applies to quicktime video as compared to the ease of using it in Jitter. The big advantage with Processing is evident when creating graphics. This is most obviouse when you just see the images. The graphics are so much cleaner that it is hard to make something look "bad." Almost like listening to the difference between basic tones in a program made with Supercollider compared to Max/MSP.

Technology aside, the experience at Anderson Ranch allowed me the time to dive into a project with no daily interruptions. I am not exactly sure what spawned the use of Heartworm's edgy music given the tranquil setting at the ranch. I do remember that I was listening to it late one night in the studio and the idea for using images just popped into mind. It might be worthy to note that the music came first, then the images. This could be in part to a joke the workshop group shared: we found it amusing that we all travelled from all over the country to the remote mountains of Colorado to spend the week in a basement on the computer. Truly ironic.

In all, the experience of being at Anderson Ranch was truly refreshing. Even though I am living in the San Francisco Bay Area it was a change to be around such impressive and hard working artists. Many in the group worked at least twelve hours a day in that basement working on their projects. Ben Fry was a hard working instructor and had an exceptional way of explaining the language that he created and how to use it for artistic means. I hope to make it back up to the Anderson Ranch someday in the future.