Welcome to The Trance...
making pictures sing.
...this is a new concept, to be released 2024
please contact ant smith for full details, which are otherwise underwraps for the time being UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED :^)
In which case here you can view the current works-in-progress on this page.
Introducing the TrancePorter: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Digital Synthesis
In the dynamic intersection of art and technology, the TrancePorter transcends conventional boundaries to unlock the latent potential within digital imagery. More than just a device, it serves as a portal to a realm where pixels harmonize with notes, and images resonate as symphonies of sight and sound.
Liberating artworks from the constraints of traditional mediums, the TrancePorter presents them in a new light, offering an immersive experience that reveals the energy and rhythms inherent in the original creations. It goes beyond mere generation of synthetic sounds, facilitating the synthesis of audiovisual compositions that captivate the senses.
By democratizing art, the TrancePorter opens doors to creativity for a broader audience, recognizing that art transcends the physical artifact. With the TrancePorter, anyone can explore the expressive potential of visual imagery, experiencing the melodies and harmonies that have always resonated within pictures.
Moreover, the TrancePorter democratizes music creation, offering a platform for aspiring composers who may lack the needed training or dexterity. Through the fusion of sound and color, individuals can orchestrate vibrant symphonies, where hues carry melody and lines beat rhythms.
For curators and galleries, the TrancePorter presents an exciting opportunity to engage audiences in a multisensory exploration of creativity. By integrating digital synthesis into exhibitions, curators can invite new audiences to experience artworks through alternative perceptual channels.
Join us as we embark on a transformative journey with the TrancePorter, where art and technology converge to redefine the boundaries of creative expression and imagination.
Trances
trance-1-d3-24: Seat Leather
Seat Leather is an image shot at the Artikum Science Centre in Rovaniemi; the wear of the leather resembling a galactic vista, a found-metaphor of its own surroundings. In the production score we heated the data more or less over time so that it would grow and congeal, glow and fade in the rhythms and harmonies dictated by the image. It represents the constant ebb and flow, with occasional maelstroms, of the continuum.
trance-2-v2-24: Through the looking glass
This trance is initiated with an image of stained glass from St. Lawrence's Church in Rosedale Abbey. One of the core functions of stained glass is to create an ethereal ambience, an other worldliness in sympathy with the spirituality of the space; which makes it an ideal starting point for a Trance. Stained glass windows are often thought of as simple picture books for an unread population, a quaint historical bygone. They are rarely by many, in these days, experienced as a spiritual accoutrement - and so this Trance is a prime example of not only how art works can be 'tranceported' but also why they must be, if they are to retain their relevance.
trance-3-v1-24: Strawberry Moon
aka Clangers 2000
This is part of a series of shorter (3 minute) pieces where we aim to organise the instrument to produce a stronger sense of narrative and rhythm. Composed in comon time in the key of C major (with F and G harmonics) the audio is intended to have a bright, almost joyous, counterpoint to the video - which is reminiscent of global nuclear or biological warfare in its visual styling!
Image Gallery
Here is a gallery of the initiating images for each of the Trance's above:
About The TrancePorter
Art is not The Artefact. The art of a piece lays within it's inherent harmonics and rhythms, however they might be expressed. The Tranceporter tears digital artworks open in order to release this inherent musicality. Pitch is pitch, whether of light or sound. With The Tranceporter it is possible not only to hear pictures, but to hear them sing. Everything experienced in A Trance comes directly from the data of the image. All creation starts with destruction. Tranceportation is death of the artist. A new, different, perhaps even slightly alien, way of perceiving artworks.
Anatomy of a Trance:
As an 'instrument', the Tranceporter is 'played' by a producer. The precise notes and rhythms are under the influence of the image pixels, the producer sets-up conditions that superimpose a time-based narrative. The synthesis comprises 7 stages:
Base Video Synthesis: The seed image is evolved based on set rules akin to "Conway's Game Of Life" [ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life] that cause flux in the image pixels. (Alternatively direct audio sythesis from pre-existing videos os also possible)
Layered Video Synthesis: The producer defines 'scene effects' within the video synthesis (such as roll, warp, blend) with the pixel data determining the extent of the effects (e.g. degree of warp depends on the overall contrast of current frame). The instrument provides 'tempograms' to help the producer decide where shuch effects should be applied, so that ther result is a collaboration between human and data.
Frame Analysis: The resulting video is inspected frame by frame so that 10 derived values are generated for each frame (around 120,000 high-order calculations for 6 minutes of video). These include means and spreads but also detail frequency and motion intensity.
Tempo Analysis: The underlying harmonics of the video are analysed from the frame data so that a dynamic, continuously evolving, BPM can be discovered.
Data Focus: The video frame data is quantised relative to the dynamic BPM so that, at any given time (and tempo) there is exactly 1 data-point for every 1/24th of a musical beat. This process assures strong affinity between the resulting musical and video rhythms.
Synaesthetics: At this point the video data (as derived from the original image) is 'cross-wired' to the Tranceporter's audio synthesizer. This is similar to human synaesthesia where, for example, music may be perceived as colour. Musical pitch is related to to the frame's mean hue (red, green, blue...); Musical note duration is related to the video frame's motion intensity; etc...
Record and mix: The Tranceporter delivers a set of midi tracks along with the synthesised video, which are then post-processed to voice, compile and equalize the media. It is not (currently) a real-time process, the resulting media is a normal video file.
The TrancePorter visualises the flow of data within the video over time. In this example we see the motion intensity of video frames (horizontal time axis) relative to the mean and spread of the visual data. This allows the producer to spot rhythms and/or outliers, from which major narritive decisions can be drawn.
The Tranceporter is not a 'robot' that simply chews up digital images and spits out whatever it will. Nor is it an 'AI' designed to plagiarise previous works it has seen. It doesn't aim to be the musician, but rather just an instrument. But an instrument that helps to democratise music making by offering a radically alternative approach - want a brighter feel to the music? Use a lighter picture, or add some contrast, or shift the white-balance...