New Work: Audiograms

Posted on in Audio Visual

In the summer of 2016, Amy and I circumnavigated the Northern Hemisphere, visiting family and friends, old and new, in the US, South Korea, Nepal, England, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. We called this our Circumnavacation.

One of our destinations was an interdisciplinary conference where I would show my interactive installation, Audiograph (2015), a projected clock that translates sound into light in real-time. As we traveled, I took field recordings to use for future artwork based on the concepts and algorithms behind Audiograph. This is the first iteration of that new work.

Audiograms are visual encodings of one minute field recordings from my travels around the world. An Audiogram is a message from me to you, and from me to me – an artifact of remembrance, of being somewhere, of what it was like to be there at a particular place and time, and to listen.

Soundscapes that we often consider background – birds and rustling leaves, traffic, conversation, machinery – are brought into the foreground in this series of prints, videos and interactive experiences. I love being outside surrounded by nature, so the first four recordings I have chosen are all from the outdoors. My code analyzes the frequencies and volume of the sound, and uses that data to draw patterns into digital images. The resulting artworks are like fingerprints – each unique – and carry a resemblance of their natural roots.

I invite you to look and listen in a way you have not before.

Note: Audiograms are on display at Perception & Reality II at Snap! Downtown through July 1. See snaporlando.com for more details.

Photo courtesy Emily Jourdan and Snap! Orlando

Photo courtesy Emily Jourdan and Snap! Orlando

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