Sinus Aestum (2009)
For computer-realized video and 4-channel sound
Sinus Aestum (Bay of Billows) is a smooth, dark lunar plain articulated by threads of white dust, like the tips of flowing waves. Drawing from this image, the sound and image composition Sinus Aestum presents one sound-synthesis process and nearly 12,000 individual points, which are continually transformed and warped, restrained and released, without cuts, to form compound, multi-dimensional waves of activity moving through unstable states between plateaus of pitch and noise. Mathematical processes are transformed into a contemplation of the continual ebb and flow of human experience. Sinus Aestum is the third in my Luna Series of video-music works, which explore the potentials of editless composition with a specific custom audio technique (Compressed Feedback Synthesis) and animation algorithm (which involves 2D and 3D rotational algorithms and Brownian noise displacement applied to masses of individual points). These works also reflect a sensibility formed by the experience of Vipassana meditation practices.
<optional technical note>
The visuals were created in high definition with a custom-programmed plugin for Apple’s Motion 3 video effects software. The music was created with custom SuperCollider code implementing specially modified digital feedback loops, controlled by algorithms written in MAX/MSP.
Bret Battey (b. 1967) creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesizing a diverse professional and educational background in music composition, computer programming, graphic and web design, and electronics. He has been a Fulbright Fellow to India and a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and he has received recognitions and prizes from Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica, France’s Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, Spain’s Punto y Raya Festival, Abstracta Cinema of Rome, and Amsterdam Film eXperience for his sound and image compositions. He pursues research in areas related to algorithmic music, digital signal processing, image and sound relationship, and expressive synthesis, with papers published in Computer Music Journal and Organised Sound. He completed his masters and doctoral studies in Music Composition at the University of Washington and his Bachelors of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at Oberlin Conservatory. His primary composition and technology teachers have been Conrad Cummings, Richard Karpen, and Gary Nelson. He also served as a Research Associate for the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. He is a Senior Lecturer with the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. http://www.BatHatMedia.com/
Sinus Aestum (2009)
For computer-realized video and 4-channel sound
Sinus Aestum (Bay of Billows) is a smooth, dark lunar plain articulated by threads of white dust, like the tips of flowing waves. Drawing from this image, the sound and image composition Sinus Aestum presents one sound-synthesis process and nearly 12,000 individual points, which are continually transformed and warped, restrained and released, without cuts, to form compound, multi-dimensional waves of activity moving through unstable states between plateaus of pitch and noise. Mathematical processes are transformed into a contemplation of the continual ebb and flow of human experience. Sinus Aestum is the third in my Luna Series of video-music works, which explore the potentials of editless composition with a specific custom audio technique (Compressed Feedback Synthesis) and animation algorithm (which involves 2D and 3D rotational algorithms and Brownian noise displacement applied to masses of individual points). These works also reflect a sensibility formed by the experience of Vipassana meditation practices.
<optional technical note>
The visuals were created in high definition with a custom-programmed plugin for Apple’s Motion 3 video effects software. The music was created with custom SuperCollider code implementing specially modified digital feedback loops, controlled by algorithms written in MAX/MSP.
Bret Battey (b. 1967) creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesizing a diverse professional and educational background in music composition, computer programming, graphic and web design, and electronics. He has been a Fulbright Fellow to India and a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and he has received recognitions and prizes from Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica, France’s Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, Spain’s Punto y Raya Festival, Abstracta Cinema of Rome, and Amsterdam Film eXperience for his sound and image compositions. He pursues research in areas related to algorithmic music, digital signal processing, image and sound relationship, and expressive synthesis, with papers published in Computer Music Journal and Organised Sound. He completed his masters and doctoral studies in Music Composition at the University of Washington and his Bachelors of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at Oberlin Conservatory. His primary composition and technology teachers have been Conrad Cummings, Richard Karpen, and Gary Nelson. He also served as a Research Associate for the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. He is a Senior Lecturer with the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. http://www.BatHatMedia.com/