Time-Lapse Phonography and the Visual Processing of Music

Synaesthesia, as a rich metaphor for artistic discussion and collaboration, has been with us for quite some time, as visual and musical artists (with or without actual synaesthesia) have mined each other's forms for inspiration in their own. The capability of computers to seamlessly 'transcode' digital media, whether they are sound, image, video, or any other information, from one sense-domain to another, has provided an interesting opportunity to reintroduce ideas of synaesthetic art into new media practice through the malleability of digital representation. This article looks at some of the author's own work in composing music through visual idioms (and visual art through musical techniques) by using transcoding strategies. These techniques for audio-visual art provide an interesting lens through which cultural understanding of media can be critiqued and interrogated.