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THE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC AUDIOVISUAL
Lelio Camilleri (traduzione a cura di Robin Luis Fernandez)
In 1924, the visual artist Viking Eggeling (1880-1925) created, in collaboration with Erna Niemayer, his visual work titled Symphonie Diagonale. A silent film, as sound synchronisation was not yet available, which however implies a strong link with sound: it was based on visual themes formed by abstract figures, variations, and events, all connected by a network of relationships, just like the elements of a musical piece. As a matter of fact, the visual artists of those times were fascinated by the abstraction of musical properties, which they hoped to manage to shift into the construction of abstract moving images. One example of this will later be found, with synchronised sound, in Tarantella (1940), by Mary Ellen Bute, with piano music by Erwin Gerschefski.
I have taken Eggeling’s film as an initial example not so much because in the 90s it found itself with a new soundtrack with music by Paolo Pachini, but simply due to its interest towards abstract images which no longer represent reality, as it takes its lead from an art form like music, which is already abstract in itself even though it will then live exclusively through its sound manifestation.
In the 1940s, Norman Mclaren began his experiments with sound composition on film starting from visual abstraction. Mclaren would use the track of film reel where the sound is recorded (hence the term soundtrack) to draw the sound events that had to combine with the visual ones, which were painted onto the visual part of film. This way each visual element is combined with a sound specifically “drawn” for it. One of the first examples of this is Dots (1940), a perfect combination of visual and sound abstraction, although Mclaren also used sound drawn onto film in short features where he adds figures from reality, animating them, as is the case of Neighbours (1952).
From the 1950s onwards, many video artists chose to use electro-acoustic musical compositions to reinforce the visual discourse of the abstract. One example from the ‘50s is Energies (1957) by American artist Jim Davis, with music by Normann de Marco. It is interesting to notice how, in this case, music doesn’t just underline the abstraction of the images, but also functions as a segmenting element that divides the video into separate sections. Furthermore, the music, using sounds identifiable as electronic and others with substitute identities (such as voices or prepared piano sounds) highlights certain characteristics of the images themselves.
An example where the relationship between electronic music and images is instead mainly based on an audiovisual counterpoint is provided by Bell of Atlantis (1952), by Ian Hugo. The flow of transfigured images and of Anaïs Nin’s text is expanded by the flow of sound structures, produced by the electronic circuits assembled by Louis and Bebe Barron, two pioneers of American electronic music.
A far more radical approach can be found in the structural film movement, where the research on the use of minimal visual materials is brought to its extreme. One of the characteristics of this movement is the use of visual material originating from flickering light or from fixed camera shots. The most extreme example is The Flicker (1966), by Tony Conrad. The images in The Flicker are based on an alternation of white and black frames, which create visual rhythmic trajectories. The music was created by Conrad himself, using a specially built synthesizer, based on a frequency range revolving around 20Hz. This allows to obtain an oscillating rhythmic pulsation but also a perceivable pitch.
A different method is instead offered by Michael Snow, who uses electronic sound, and specifically a long glissando, to increase the perception of the camera’s progressive approach in the main section of Wavelength (1967). In this case, the abstractness and simplicity of the electronic sound, a sine wave glissando that goes from 50 to 12000 Hz in 40 minutes, make the long process of approaching a photograph hanging on a wall even more explicit, while also conveying the feeling of an empty space.
In White Hole (1979) by Japanese video artist Toshio Matsumoto, the music by Joji Yuasa highlights the abstraction of the images as well as their movement. Said movement of complex visual structures is expanded by the movement within the sound textures, based on complex sounds or filtered white noise. The movements inside the sound spectrum convey the sensation of motion and of the complexity of the visual world flowing within the screen.
It is important to notice how, in these examples, electro-acoustic sound and electro-acoustic writing aren’t only tasked with emphasizing the abstraction of the images, but instead also transfer some of their main spectromorphological characteristics into those images: surrogacy, type of motion, and spatial perception, both localised and on the spectrum.
In the 1970s, the convergence between electro-acoustic sound and moving image in video art was determined by the invention of prototypes of visual synthesizers, which replicated the operating method of audio synthesizers. Three examples of this are Stephen Beck’s Direct Video Synthesizer (1968), Steve Rutt and Bill Etrav’s Rutt/Etra Scan Processor (1971), and Dan Sandin’s Image Processor (1971). The use of this kind of equipment brings to an increasing attention to signal and flow processing, rather than to editing. Furthermore, their operating procedures allow use in live performances. Two examples of these different approaches are The Matter (1974), a work by Woody Wasulka, and the Illuminated Music 2 & 3 (1973) performance, with sound produced in real time by Werner Jeson using a Buchla synthesizer.
A combination of electro-acoustic musical composition and a very unique, semi-narrative form of animation composed of imaginary characters and shapes can be found in the works of Polish video artist Piotr Kamler. Upon moving to France, Kamler collaborated with some of the main electro-acoustic composers, such as Parmegiani, Bayle, and Ferrari. Among the videos he worked on with Parmegiani is Une Mission Ephémère (1993), where the French composer’s music uses sound bundles and rhythmic-melodic patterns to emphasize and expand the scenic design and the cyclical nature of the actions occurring within the various sequences.
In the full-length feature Chronopolis (1984), Luc Ferrari creates a wide-ranging composition in which, using electronic sound and transformed acoustic sounds, he combines repetitive sequences, sound bundles, and thematic elements to underline the dreamlike science fiction mood of the film.
The widespread circulation of technology and the development of computer graphics programs, used for the creation of synthetic images and complex visual textures, occurred in parallel with the expansion of the possibilities of sound synthesis and transformation, as well as of the electro-acoustic compositional language. The relative ease of use of these technologies may, in some cases, reduce the complexity of the relationship that underlies moving images and music, dulling it out to a simple link based on synchronicity and isomorphism.
The link between electronic structures and experimental images does however continue in different visual contexts and territories. Two interesting examples can be found in the work of Luke Fowler, who often combines images from reality with minimal electronic sonic textures, specifically in one episode from the Three Minutes Wonder (2016) series and in certain parts of Mum’s card (2019).
A different example, this time of complex abstract images, comes from Energie! (2007), by Thorstein Fleisch. Thousands of sheets of photographic paper are exposed to an uncontrolled 30000 volt discharge provided by a cathode ray tube, generating a series of fast flickering changing images. Jens Thiele’s music is based on a mutating but slow drone which, besides contrasting the speed of the images, makes the details even more noticeable.
Within electro-acoustic audiovisuals, the rules for the relationship between sounds/music and images have no differences from those for conventional audiovisuals. They are only more abundant, because they involve an extension to moving images of the many characteristics which are unique to the electro-acoustic language. Just as electro-acoustic music has expanded the boundaries of the world of sound, allowing the creative use of any type of material, in the electro-acoustic audiovisual there is not only an extension of types of events, both visual and sound, but also of the ways in which they combine, interact, and exchange meanings.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Fifer, S.J., Hall, D., (edited by), 1990. Illuminating Video . An Essential Guide to Video Art, San Francisco, Aperture/BAVC.
Meigh-Andrews, C., 2006. A History of Video Art, Oxford, Berg.
Rogers, H., Barham, J., (edited by), 2017. The Music and Sound of Experimental Film, Oxford, Oxford