music by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
performed by the Silk Road Ensemble:
Yo-yo Ma (cello), Joe (percussion), Nick (viola) , Johnny (violin), Colin (violin)
Kevork Mourad: visuals
Liubo Borissov: software design

The internationally acclaimed artist Kevork Mourad has been working with live painting and illustration in the context of musical performance for a number of years. He has a unique painting technique utilizng a custom-designed paint-dispenser that allows him to use a specially mixed fast-drying arcyllic paint on canvas as a musical instrument. In large performance spaces, he uses a video camera and a projector to display his canvas as a backdrop to the musical performance. He has developed a very musical painting style, guided by and interacting with the the other performers, responding to rhytmic, dynamic and tonal changes in the music.

Kevork approached me to create unique software allowing him to realize and expand his technique. One of the required features was to enable the artist to smoothly transition between live video of the canvas and pre-recorded clips of him painting, allowing him to create the impression of magically animating the painting before the eyes of the audience. Additional features include a slow shutter emulator and rudimentary live image processing capabilities allowing him to control the appearance of the painting and the hand creating it.

After analyzing the specific requirements of the application, having in mind a particular commission with the Silk Road ensemble, but also wanting to create a reusable application which could be expanded, we came to the conclusion that there was not any ready-made software (or hardware) that worked to our satisfaction. To this end I created videocanvas -- a custom-built computer video interface, which functioned as a software video mixer interfaced with a digital camera, a midi foot-controller and a projector.

This version of Mugam Sayagi premiered on Apr 1, 2005 at the Rhode Island Institute of Design as a part of the Silk Road Ensemble showcase concert announcing the beginning of their five-year residence at the Institute.