Sometimes, when I listen to a piece of music such as Apparat's "Not a Number", the textures, timbres, colors, and rhythms in the sound are so vivid that I can actually see it in my mind’s eye, and bringing this to life has been a brainchild of mine for years.
I began this project by gathering the building blocks of color, shape, and light to create each instrument. I created simple graphics to represent each instrument, and then animated various components and added selective effects to reflect the character of each note. I then assigned each instrument a space on the screen that would change and engage in dialogue with other instruments over the course of the piece. Finally, I devised a modular structure that sorted each element of the composition into categories and sub-categories, which gave me the ability to modify the size or position of an instrument or cluster of notes.
This work draws on data visualization, traditional animation set to music, and lighting design. One particular inspiration for this work is the animation set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor in Walt Disney’s Fantasia • Fantasía: Tocata y Fug... . Another is Stephen Malinowski’s Music Animation Machine, a data visualization software that creates animated graphical scores from a MIDI file / smalin . And finally, my affinity for lighting, for which I have my father, Mark Harvey, and my mentor, Brian Bjorklund, to thank. It was my light lab project in Brian’s design class in my first year at St. Olaf where I discovered my love for colorful light, and if it wasn’t for that discovery this work might never have been created • Light Lab Project - Th... .
The project also involved creating an intimate space in which to view the project. I engineered a dark room where the projected played on repeat, using a Mac Mini, a projector, a projection screen, speakers, dark hanging blinds, and chairs. The installation remained on display for a week in a dedicated room at St. Olaf.