03b Research

Case Study: Brett Bolton: Building Musical Instruments from Visuals

I found this video very interesting because I have not before come across anyone else doing something similar to this. I found it relevant to my research for the following reasons:

What I found particularly interesting and noteworthy was that Brett’s system isn’t audio-first. The visuals determine the initial sounds, and the rest of the composition is built up around this. This creates a very effective immersive performance between the visuals, performers and sounds.

In this system the visuals are powered by Notch, and the audio by Ableton Live. It uses Notch ‘hot zones’ to have the position of visual elements trigger sounds when they pass through certain places on screen. The system uses OSC to communicate with Ableton Live.

By working within one musical key the composition stays in harmony.