Transposition investigates the movement of visual information into sonic, spatial, material, and performative forms. Through computational, orchestral, and sculptural processes, images—and more specifically reflected light—are translated into alternate systems of representation that test the relationship between perception, memory, and evidence.
The works below are drawn from collaborations and a larger body of interconnected projects that transform visual information through a sequence of translations. Moving between image, sound, notation, object, and performance, they examine how meaning changes as information migrates from one representational system to another.
The following works are drawn from a larger body of sixteen interconnected projects derived from four source films. Through a sequence of computational processes, visual information is translated into sound, notation, drawing, performance, and object form. The selected works below represent key stages within that broader investigation.
Untitled #198 (Persistent A), 2019
Collaboration with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra
Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, (“Rhenish”), Mvt. 4
TRT: 5:46
Research shows Schumann suffered from tinnitus, potentially created by a brain tumor, which caused him to hear a persistent A note.
To understand how the composer heard his own compositions, I placed imaging sensors around the stage and close to the musicians. As the musicians played “Rhenish” the light reflected from their moving bodies was captured and translated into the equivalent audible tone in realtime, in the key of A, overlaid with the orchestra’s performance.
According to research, and Conductor Teddy Abrahams, this work is “unprecedented”. There were two public performances, each with unique audio created by variations in the performance.
Untitled (35 662618 632814 5), 2019
Performance documentation
Collaboration with choreographer Justin Michael Hogan and the Louisville Ballet,
TRT: 18:12
10 performers, 3 media tablets, 2 live projections
This project features a live performance by dancers from the Louisville Ballet, performing an original composition co-created with choreographer Justin Michael Hogan.
The live performance is synchronized with a recursive projection of a second group of dancers performing in an adjacent location. As the work unfolds, prior recordings of the dancers can be accessed by the audience through augmented reality on tablets.
The project examines personal relationships through the layering of live performance, recorded movement, recursive projection, and audience interaction within a mediated environment.
Untitled #181 (78/45), 2018
4k Video
5.1 Surround Sound
TRT: 1:55:38
Translation Systems. Ongoing inquiry where still and moving images are converted into sound. Rather than preserving the image, these works test what new knowledge is understood when visual information is translated into another form.
Full work at: https://vimeo.com/251224786
Untitled #182 (Wimpy) , 2018
C-print on metallic paper
16 × 24 inches
Untitled #182 (Wimpy) extends the Transposition series into drawing. Using the image-derived soundtrack as its source, changes in volume, pitch, and speed drive a point across a virtual canvas, generating marks from the movement of the audio data.
Rather than depicting the original image, the work records one stage of its transformation: image becomes light, light becomes sound, and sound becomes line.
Untitled #183 (The Man Who Knew Too Much), 2018
Hand-bound book
8.625 × 11.125 inches
Untitled #183 (The Man Who Knew Too Much) translates the image-derived audio from Untitled #181 into a musical score for string orchestra. Generated algorithmically from lightwave-based sound data, the score converts the visual structure of the source film into notation that approaches, and likely exceeds, the limits of human performance.
The resulting book functions as both score and artifact, preserving a translation that moves from image to light, from light to sound, and from sound into a score that is unplayable by humans.
Untitled #184 (So no one else would have to), 2018
3D print
PLA
11.9 × 8.25 × 10.2 inches
Untitled #184 (So no one else would have to) extends the Transposition series into sculptural form. The soundtrack generated from the translated image is mapped into three-dimensional space, producing a physical object derived from the sound of the image.
Rather than representing the original film directly, the sculpture materializes one stage of its transformation: image becomes light, light becomes sound, and sound becomes form.