Visualizing Music

Multi-screen projections installation with video and sound. A graphic system that reflects the experience of listening to a piece of piano music. This video and installation piece presents graphic explorations of three contrasting piano pieces that are translated using a set of visual rules and relationships based on the original music score. It exists as multi-screen projections with accompanying videos that the viewer can listen to with headphones. A pamphlet with explanations of the graphic system accompanied the viewing experiences. The graphic system is designed by assigning quantitative notations to musical characteristics such as key signature, note value, tempo, and dynamics from the score. Qualitative notations are assigned to musical characteristics based on existing performance recordings, which reflect a more subjective and expressive interpretation by the pianist. Each note is represented by a shape and each complete video frame represents a measure of music from the score. Notes appear in the sequence in which they are played.