SOUNDIMAGEEXPERIMENTS
Kevork Mourad and Liubo Borissov

A series of experiments with live painting and sound and image processing.

The concept behind the soundimage experiments is to explore the potential of visual media as an instrument in interactive performance in a search for creating synesthetic relationships between acoustic and visual perception.

Kevork has developed 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 a very musical painting style, guided by and interacting with the the other performers, responding to rhytmic, dynamic and tonal changes in the music. In addition, the sound from his strokes and gestures against the paper is amplified by a pair of custom-made contact microphones attached underneath the surface of the paper. The raw sound, which has an etherial wind quality, is then processed by a computer, allowing the painter to play his canvas as a musical instrument.

The technical implementation involves a standard microphone preamplifier board (e.g. TASCAM US-122), a MIDI pedal interface (e.g. DigiTech Control 8) and one or two laptops running custom-designed applications -- soundcanvas and videocanvas, written in the Max/MSP/Jitter language specifically for this purpose. The sound from under the paper is filtered in software in such a way that it is possible continuously change from the pure noise of the incoming signal to a pure sine tone with a defined pitch. This can be changed dynamically by the painter or by a second performer, allowing it to become melodies, chords, percussive patterns, textures or simultaneously all of the above.

In addition, it is possible to take a second sound source, e.g. from another acoustic instrument such as a violin and combine it sound of the paint tool, so that the resulting sound is pitched with like the acoustic instrument but has the dynamic expression of a brush stroke and vice-versa. This opens up a spectrum of acoustic possibilities, which is so rich that in performance the sound made by the painter can often be mistaken for one coming from the other performers or for sampled sound.

Here are two performance samples, highlighting different aspects of the experiment. In the first, the soundcanvas is the sole sound source. The only sampled sound is a beat loop near the end. In the second, soundcanvas plays a duet with an acoustic piano and thus mostly constrained to textural and rhythmic elements. The limited tonal range is chosen in a way to allow it to blend with a free-form piano improvisation.