2016
Image2Audio
Camera, Wall Vent, Speakers, Microphones, Cables, Laptop, Mixer, Performance
Dimensions variable
This project was an extension of an ongoing interest in the relationship between sound and image. I have been working on a method of converting/translating between the two forms of language. In this work I wanted to focus on how to convert an image into a sound using largely free and open-source software, knowing that anybody with access to the internet can also do this made the work feel more open.
I decided to make the work in a form of live performance/enaction so that the process was visible to the viewer.
The process started with a photo, I chose to photograph a small air vent in the wall of the studio. I wanted the source material not to hold prescribed connotations as I was focusing on the process.
This image was then compressed with all of its colour depth removed so all that was left was a small group of white and black pixels. This was done to make the following step quicker and I was thinking of this whole process as an aggressive form of digital distillation.
The image was then opened using a hexadecimal editing software which showed the information in the code it was made for.
This was then copied into a word processor, and using a search and replace function the hexadecimal variants of the letters a/A through to g/G were replaced with the letters they correspond with.
An open-source midi-sequencer was used to map out this information in the form of notation creating a melody, which would play through a set of speakers.
This was ruptured by a series of microphones; one resting on an amp, one hanging from the ceiling picking up the ambient room noise and one which I swung from the ceiling above another amp like a pendulum.
