SOUND & SIGHT
Jang Kyungjun
My thesis project is an exploration of live visual graphics with electronic music. Using real-time digital mixing software as a tool, I apply visual animation to electronic music by generating improvised, optical illusory visuals and harmonizing them with sound. The project began with research into the history of techno and house music and is a study into the typology of electronic music from its origins to its present state. It explores repetition, echo, recurrence, and tension and aims to deconstruct electronic music visually into time-based elemental, geometric animations.
The circle is paired in different ways with with different beats of music—describing lights, illusion, and abstraction and allows for an open-ended interpretation from the audience. The project was executed by first making a fixed set of 20 pre-made, short animations using circles and dots at different scales and frequencies. In a live environment, the short animations are then mixed together to the correct bpm (beat-per-minute) of the music. Because each performance is improvised and mixed in real-time, every performance renders a different visual result.