on Abstract Imagery and Visual Music

First lets talk a bit of technique…

Color

My colorspace is an accidental discovery, achieved by layering three copies of the image and doing math on each pixel. Copies one and two are delayed in time by 3-60 frames (up to 2 seconds roughly, but usually more like 1/10th of a second) and composited either with addition or taking the brighter pixel. The third copy is again delayed, but this time subtracted from the composite of the first two. This leads to a “negative” color space which I have come to love.

Shape

The shapes here are all from a photogram I made using fabric instead of negatives in a darkroom enlarger. Some blurriness if part of the photogram, other is from moving the materials quickly under the lens or purposely setting the depth of field such that small vertical movements exit the focal area.

Motion

The other result of my compositing algorithm is that if I stop moving the materials it turns 100% black. This is because I am subtracting the image from itself (once the delays catch up to real-time). That provides visual space I find analogous to the space between sounds in music. It allows my visual language to speak closely to the musical language - and allows the viewer’s eyes to rest in between phrases.