Moiré Patterns

Country: IRELAND Year: 2023 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: The formal element primarily explored in this study is motion. Motion could be viewed as one of the fundamental aspects that music must contain i.e., a change in sound over time. In visual music, the motion of sound can be amplified and built upon through the addition of visual elements. What does it take to create a sense of visual motion? And what new forms of motion might be created through the multiplication of two distinct objects?

Credits:

Direction: Anna Garvey

Sleeping, Walking, Talking, Dreaming

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: For this assignment, I was inspired by the study of colour and how it can express emotions within a piece of music. Due to the nature of this, I decided to use a piece of my own music I created as it seemed the best way to truly express the emotion of the piece. After thoroughly researching this genre of abstract art, my video project idea stemmed from the artwork of Oskar Fischinger. I enjoyed his use of colours and also movement throughout his pieces. I wanted to focus in on the idea of rhythm, movement, and time-passing, thus inspired by his works, I used methods in which to animate based on different colours having certain meanings, and through use of technology, were programmed to appear on certain beats throughout the song via a song analysis in Processing and Minim.

Credits:

Direction: Aoibhin Redmond

Oisin

Country: IRELAND Year: 2020 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: The soundtrack used for this video is a track called ‘Oisin’, a composition from my own music project ‘Little Movies’ released in 2017 on ‘The Little Movies Long Play’. In a sense, originating alongside musings on electronic instruments and their capacity to convey real human emotion, this comes from an album borne of long studio jams and improvisation sessions. Emerging from the cold and constantly warping non-human sounds emerges something which draws out emotions I could only describe as deeply human. The video’s basic concept of slowly changing and ever-abstracting shapes originated listening to this song in consideration of a piece of music to create a video for. The intention was for the changing and warping of the shapes to match similar changes happening on a sonic level in the piece.

Credits:

Direction: Ben Donohoe

Black Umbrella

Country: IRELAND Year: 2022 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: The Black Umbrella is a short film which incorporates influences from the fields of visual music, field recording, poetry and art-house cinema. The film is predominantly in black and white, with the effects of camera blur and digital manipulation forming an abstract motion of light and dark lines and blobs, hung like a ghostly veil over more distinct footage and still images. Set against the sonic backdrop of the dawn chorus, the images work in counterpoint with the soundtrack, moving between tight synchronisation and non-synchronicity, the natural music of sunrise providing a sense of depth, twisted into something more sinister. The dawn chorus provides what Michael Chion refers to as an anempathetic soundtrack, ‘the noise of the world’ which unfurls indifferent to the action on the screen (Chion, 2019: 9). The Black Umbrella is a psychological horror with an abstracted narrative, a mystery involving a crushed snail and an abandoned umbrella, and in this abstraction of narrative and meaning it is also a poetry film. Shot in the first-person, or poet’s perspective, the visually musical elements present an altered vision, synaesthetic screen between the eyes and reality, dark psychological pressure. The piece is also a metaphor about the act of filming and recording – the snapshot, blood red light of the record button. Horror of missing the fleeting moment in the attempt to capture it.

Credits:

Direction: Ben Burns

Unwavering Advance

Country: IRELAND Year: 2024 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: This visual music study delves into the synthesis of geometric abstraction and rhythmic synchronisation, inspired by Oskar Fischinger's "An Optical Poem." The intent was to create a visual dialogue with one of my own compositions, exploring the temporal and spatial extensions of abstract forms. The synchronisation of visual and auditory elements aimed to evoke an experience that reflects the early 20th-century avant-garde movements, specifically the work of Oskar Fischinger.

Credits:

Direction: Daire Lennon

Breed

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: Breed is an animation set to a piece of music by the author called Choke. The name of the animation is derived from a constant process of visual material trying to grow or breed into something that is more. The animation is created using Adobe Aftereffects. The formal element I choose to explore is motion/movement... An abstract approach to motion also creates a more abstract approach to space and form. It allows the artist to create less deterministic approaches or avoid constant repetition. He or she is not thinking “ I have to fill this part or section of time with some visual element”. It can be a blank screen or a random figure. It is not predictable motion linked to a mechanistic clock or tempo.

Credits:

Direction: Daniel McDermott

Black and White Bits

Country: IRELAND Year: 2023 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: This piece was inspired by Oskar Fischinger’s works, particularly his set of 14 black and white Studies made between 1929 to 1933. Though the exploration of color and sound is fascinating, I wanted to limit my scope to shape and movement as in Fischinger’s studies to better understand how I can use them to create visual music. For my simple animation, I chose to set an excerpt of Peter S. Shin’s "Bits torn from words: II. I’m terrible at making decisions" as performed by Roomful of Teeth. This soundtrack was chosen because of the variety of vocal timbres and vowels used as well as my own interest in modern choral music and personal attachment to the overall piece, "Bits torn from words."

Credits:

Direction: Andrea Regli

Farewell

Country: IRELAND Year: 2024 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: The concept for this project was influenced by a musical composition that I created earlier. The title of the piece is Farewell, and it is an electroacoustic work that is basically created out of the sounds that water makes when falling onto the metallic surface of the kitchen sink. This composition, as its program note also states, is a piece for my cat Salva, who loved drinking water from the kitchen sink. Apparently, the thematic of the piece is influenced by some of my personal experiences, while its musical outcome relates a lot to sudden events happening from left to right and disappearing into a reverberant aural space. In relation to this piece, I decided to use the same protagonist, the kitchen sink, and create a complimentary visual composition that would match with the atmosphere and the environment of my music. As a result, the two works develop together but are independent as the one does not follow the other, but each of them separately tells perhaps the same story: sudden events occurring, changing, and disappearing and appearing again through different forms.

Credits:

Direction: Eleni Michalopoulou

Pattern Study

Country: IRELAND Year: 2012 Duration: 4 mins.

Sinopsys: This work attempts to synchronise musical sounds with moving imagery to create the illusion of interaction between audiovisual 'objects'. The visual representations of these 'objects' are simple lines and geometric shapes created in Adobe Photoshop and animated in Adobe Premiere. Their audio representations are simple sounds designed in Ableton Live based on instruments commonly used in electronic music such as drum machines and synthesisers. The sounds are designed to occupy their own areas of the audible frequency range so that they can be clearly distinguished from one another. Similarly, each object's visual identity is unique. The timbre of the sounds and minimal visual aesthetic are intended to complement each other and unify the aesthetic of the piece as a whole. As more elements are added the sounds and audio frequencies do overlap. Dissonance is created in the audio spectrum represented by moiré patterns created in the visual field

Credits:

Direction: Neil Smyth

In Praise of Idleness

Country: IRELAND Year: 2024 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: Drawing on the work of Walther Ruttmann’s “Lichtspiel: Opus I, Kandinsky's ideas concerning points and lines to composition, and reference from the pre-cinema Phenakistoscope. Using these varied techniques, the sum purpose was to focus on the relationship of different elements in a piece and how they can be visualized together at the same time – often in this piece through motion. The audio selected is from a forthcoming album by myself, and the rationale for using it was that it offered the ability to explore musical motifs in a visual setting, while also featuring percussion and different textures to explore in tandem, often through the lens of Kandinsky’s material – the likes of the double point as sound.

Credits:

Direction: Max Clarke

Ink Drawings

Country: IRELAND Year: 2012 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: I used my artwork as the compositional material. The music for the video is a piece of Musique Concrete I composed using “found sounds” samples. The idea behind Musique Concrete is that of using sounds of the world, letting the sounds themselves take precedent. For my artwork I adopt a similar idea, letting a simple silhouette or the outline of an object, be the focus of the piece. With this is mind I thought the accompanying music would work well for the video. The music itself is quite dark and foreboding. So before starting the composition I knew that by the end of the piece, I would have to create some kind of relief to lighten the experience for the viewer. I decided to do by using part of one of my artworks,”hear no evil,”. The idea being that the monkey is almost poking fun at the music, with his hands held to ears in dismay!. I though lightening the mood at the end was crucial and in a way bringing the whole piece together nicely.

Credits:

Direction: Anthony Wigglesworth

Study

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: When listening to music, certain images spring to mind. These images may be associated with the real world – a snare drum might suggest the rattle of a train while a violin could evoke imagery of birds on a sunny day. The imagery may also be completely abstract. Various shapes beyond description could be generated in a mind stimulated by music. The video created for this project explores various representations of what music can bring to the eye. The music in question is an extract from a previously created piece of music refined down to one minute. It was chosen due to its simplistic progression and easily identifiable elements. The visual aspect of the video is partly subjective and partly informed by the work of the artists Oskar Fischinger and Mary Ellen Bute. The final result is a ‘non-narrative’ or ‘Absolute Film’ with visual and aural elements that are represented with equal importance.

Credits:

Direction: Patrick Conneely

Dismal Waves

Country: IRELAND Year: 2012 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: Dismal Waves is an audio visual performance focusing on the relationship between audio sounds and their shape characteristics. The audio itself was the performance, and through mapping related graphic shapes to their audio counterpart, created a visual performance to accompany the audio soundscape. The idea represents the links between audio and visuals; how graphics are made from shapes in the same way that audio tones are constructed using wave shapes such as squares, triangles and sine waves.

Credits:

Direction: Pauric Freeman

Visual Music Motion

Country: IRELAND Year: 2020 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: I wanted to repaint and recolour images stripped of their colour using ideas taken from Synchromism. However, in studying these new influences in the filmmaking of Adam Yauch and Ash Beck, as well the constant inspiration taken from Mary Ellen Bute, I decided to retain this idea, but instead of using strictly Synchromist principals, infusing them with negative photography, extreme film grain and decay, and kaleidoscopic imagery. I decided to use photos I have taken in the past couple years on trips to Berlin and Bratislava, as well as at home in the midlands. The goal in the creation process was to create an ever evolving and mutating visual, transforming from one image to another through use of heavy effects, to a point of not knowing where one finishes, and another begins.

Credits:

Direction: Robyn Avery

Undying Waltz

Country: IRELAND Year: 2023 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: The narrative behind this piece is a simple 3-part structure. The first section of the film shows the evolution from a dot to a line and then into a shape. This represents the cycle of life. And this is shown further in the formation of a triskele shape. The triskele is commonly used in Celtic art, symbolizing the cycle of life, death and rebirth. This piece follows that structure, as the triskele grows and multiplies, this shows a lifespan. It joins a harmonious rhythm as larger structures are formed and move together. But this growth eventually ends and the structures fade away. However it leaves a small part of itself behind forming a new seed to start the cycle all over again. This is the rebirth that comes after death. The visual style borrows from Fischinger and McLarens expressive moving shapes, but also artists like M.C.Esher and Bridget Riley. At the climax of the film, the use of inversion was inspired by Op art.The aim of this project was to create an animated film accompanied by a score inspired by the work of Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren. Motion graphics were utilised to create an abstract musically driven piece that follows a simple structure.

Credits:

Direction: Toby Clarke

Ballet Synchromy

Country: IRELAND Year: 2020 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: The video created for this assignment explores the idea of time through still images. This effect is created through video editing, as well as the structure and movement of the featured images. The video also explores the juxtaposition between early cinema techniques and newer video editing opportunities, and also between an older art movement and its existence in the modern world. To explore this fully, the seminal Dadaist film from early 20thcentury cinema, ‘Le Ballet Mécanique’ (1924), directed by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy has, not only been researched as a case study, but used as a direct influence for the video presented. The audio used is the song ‘Her’ by the band SWANS, released in 1991. This is the outro for the song that combines original instrumentation created by the band during recording, and an audio interview from one of the band members when they were thirteen years old in July 7th1969.

Credits:

Direction: Robyn Avery

Differential Glass

Country: IRELAND Year: 2018 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: This study is part of a thesis project expand upon the work of experimental animator John Whitney. Whitney developed a system for creating patterned visual animations that relied on Pythagorean laws of harmony. These laws were mapped to the incremental steps of animated points in what Whitney called Differential Dynamics. This mapping was a type of abstraction and did not come directly from the pitch of a sound source. Many have attempted such a direct mapping but none have examined the usefulness of compartmentalising Whitney’s differential dynamic algorithms. By segregating the algorithms there are new possibilities for direct mappings. One such mapping relates to the development of an audio-visual instrument that maps the intervals of simultaneously sounding voices to the visual spacing of these differential algorithms. This process allowed for the creation of an audio-visual tuning system that could be used to create audio-visual compositions. Five practical studies done on the audio-visual system were conducted using Max/Msp and Processing. The findings of each study were tested against similarly inspired audio-visual works. Adherence to the fundamental philosophies of Whitney and his Differential Dynamics was also considered in the design and findings.

Credits:

Direction: Dean McDonnell

Liminal

Country: IRELAND Year: 2023 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: Creating Impressions and Expressions of Irish Nature in Audiovisual Installation is a hybrid thesis which is comprised of both research and compositional components. The research component of the thesis seeks to firstly unravel and provide clarity around the core techniques and subject matter of the following art movements: Impressionism, Post- Impressionism and Expressionism in painting. Abstract Expressionist Film, will also be investigated in the context of the aforementioned movements in painting, through the work of Abstract Expressionist filmmaker, Stan Brakhage. There has been a specific focus on the works of Irish painters, Walter Osborne and Jack B Yeats, whose work will be categorised across the movements listed above. Detailed research and analysis of work by these Irish artists and of that of Stan Brakhage aims to unveil the techniques and motivations employed by these artists so that the author can use these as a foundation to compose an effective audiovisual installation piece.

Credits:

Direction: Roisin Doyle

Deep

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: SeaSoundSight is an investigation into a method for constructing audiovisual relationships in visual music composition. This project consists of three visual music studies that have been constructed from a theoretical standpoint by the author in extending and adapting the concept of the audiovisual object by Myriam Boucher & Jean Piché (2020) into a theory of a natural audiovisual object. This thesis intends to create an advanced contribution to the field of visual music and, in part, also contribute to a new method for composing film music with a close attention to the power of audiovisual relationships. Deep is one of three movements from this film.

Credits:

Direction: Tara Scanlan

Dynamo A

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 6 mins.

Sinopsys: The purpose of this hybrid arts practice research and composition project is to 1) develop the author’s visual music practice, and 2) contribute to the development of the field of visual music in general through an exploration of theories identified in electroacoustic music and abstract art which can be applied to visual music. Dennis Smalley’s Spectromorphology paper and Paul Klee’s Notebooks have been explored in depth for transferable and connected concepts and approaches. The findings have been laid out in a series of tables, and applied in two original visual music compositions entitled Dynamo [A] and Dynamo [B] respectively. These visual compositions have been composed around an existing piece of electroacoustic music by the author, Dynamo (2020), which was composed using spectromorphology as a guiding framework. The two visual music compositions explore a variety of approaches, from literal or direct to metaphorical or indirect visual translations of the music.

Credits:

Direction: Sam Kay

The Portal

Country: IRELAND Year: 2022 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: Making Another Kind of Sense: The Poetry of Audio-Visual Counterpoint is a hybrid thesis which consists of both research and compositional elements. The aim of the research element is to investigate and examine the use of audio-visual counterpoint in the fields of experimental film and visual music, in both historical and contemporary contexts. Many filmmakers who have made use of audio-visual counterpoint have either identified as poets or associated their work with poetry. The research seeks to uncover the nature of this connection between audio-visual counterpoint and poetry. Particular attention has been paid to film-sound theorists Michel Chion, Walter Murch, Holly Rogers, and Silvia Carlorosi. Filmmakers whose works have been researched include: Dziga Vertov, Stan Brakhage, and Franco Piavoli. Detailed analysis of the poetic use of audio-visual counterpoint in Franco Piavoli’s Voci nel Tempo has been carried out. Arising from this research, the compositional element has resulted in the creation of an experimental film entitled The Portal. The Portal explores the poetic potential of audio-visual counterpoint as a technique for setting up two-way interactions between auditory and visual sensory streams, and forging new and unusual sensory and semantic connections. The Portal attempts to synthesise the influences of Franco Piavoli and Stan Brakhage, whilst remaining true to the composer’s own developing style.

Credits:

Direction: Benjamin Burns

Amach Amárach

Country: IRELAND Year: 2021 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: The purpose of this research is to investigate the creation of a Synaesthesia based arts model for the use as a creative tool in arts based practice. The investigation is carried out through experimental means, creating a colour-music system by gathering data on the perceptual colour experiences of those with Chromesthesia, a form of sound- colour Synaesthesia. Previous areas within the context of the experiential conditions and auditory attributes relating to Synaesthetic colour perception have remained unexplored within the research field. An experimental based test will attempt to investigate these unanswered areas. The creation of the system will be utilised and evaluated within a final art piece called Amach Amárach, an original visual music piece shot on the Super 8mm motion picture film format.

Credits:

Direction: Mathew Winston

Second Atmospheric Study

Country: IRELAND Year: 2010 Duration: 2 mins.

Sinopsys: From the CD/DVD 'Splitzo', a collaboration between the Cortisol Quintet and video artist Mark Linnane. This project was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Credits:

Direction: Mark Linnane

Animated Graphic Score

Country: IRELAND Year: 2012 Duration: 1 mins.

Sinopsys: Performed by The a.P.A.t.T. Orchestra feb 2012, in F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Credits:

Direction: Shane McKenna

Ag Fás Ar Ais Arís (VR)

Country: IRELAND Year: 2022 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: At the core of Ag Fás Ar Ais Arís, is the exploration of audiovisual balance as a method for treating both audio and visual material with equal importance. This compositional method examines the structural character, the independent agency and the contextual richness of the audiovisual material. Through the careful manipulation of these aspects, it is hoped to catch a glimpse of the relationships between the audio and visual elements and in doing so, create a piece in which the audio and visual material is inextricably linked. So much so, there would be no reason for one to exist without the other. The foreground visual material in the piece is a three dimensional kaleidoscopic-iterated-function-systen (KIFS) fractal derived from the Sierpinski gasket. The title of the piece (Growing Back Again in English) refers to the continual evolution of this structure as it continually shrinks, takes on different forms and expands again. The foreground audio material employs granular synthesis techniques as an audio counterpart to the fractal form. This creates an unpitched textured soundworld that exists in the same conceptual space as the visual fractal. The environmental elements are connected to the foreground material through audio and visual objects that exist in an intermediate space. This formal architecture encourages interplay between elements across the conceptual spaces. The piece was written for the medium of virtual reality (VR). As such, this medium introduces a further aspect of balance that must be acknowledged. The balance between the real and the unreal. The sense of presence is at the core of VR experiences. This experience of presence depends on a certain level of cross-over between the real world and the virtual world. However, at the same time, the creative potential of the medium allows for the development of completely unrealistic worlds that could only exist in our imaginations. This balance between the real and unreal is also at the heart of Ag Fás Ar Ais Arís.

Credits:

Direction: Bryan Dunphy

The Thin Veil

Country: IRELAND Year: 2018 Duration: 5 mins.

Sinopsys: The Thin Veil is an audiovisual installation that tries to capture the otherworldliness of the sea, the sand and the stars. The film and sound were recorded while on residency at the Cill Rialaig Project in Co. Kerry. The residency is based on the side of a mountain, surrounded by the ocean, on what feels like the edge of the world. My friend told me as we explored a fort hidden on the side of Bolus Head that it brought to mind a Caol Áit, a narrow passage between this world and another, and I felt it. The film's slow and magnetic rhythm mimics deep breathing, lighting the room up and bringing it down to darkness. This installation presents a mesmerizing earthly cosmos through the infinite complexities of sand and water, where looking to the minute in the sea draws attention to the immensity of looking up to the stars.

Credits:

Direction: Jane Cassidy