ARCHIVE | IMAGEAUDIO
ImageAudio is a project constructed through a criteria derived from the production of the Graphic Interchange Format file (GIF). The project consists of a series of event scores proposing instructional, action-based processes in which to compose music. Scores are completed through the precise performance of the given instruction. Each event score is produced through interpreting one or more of the criteria's elements. ImageAudio constructs a musical language using verbal notation, one in which a process is followed enabling the production of music with little or no formal training in music notation.
The e-publication includes the full collection of scores. The full archive of demonstrations and realisations of event scores can be found under #imageaudiodemo and #imageaudiorealisation via @ImageAudio on the Internet Archive.
ImageAudio was funded by UKRI's Arts and Humanities Research Council.
ImageAudio: Demonstrations
ImageAudio: Realisations
Adam Łukawski - Tone Row
‘Tone Row’ NFT: https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/tone-row
“The above NFT is my realisation of ‘Tone Row’. The NFT is an audiovisual composition where with each iteration, the algorithm composes a new, unique piece of music along with an audio-reactive animation, executing one possible take on the text score.”
Music, visuals, and composition coded by Adam Łukawski (sunsetsobserver).
Background images source: ImageAudio e-publication.
Adam Łukawski,
Ghent, BE
14 May 2024
Robert Blatt - Expansion
“This release includes five realisation of ‘Expansions’. Each recording was made in a very quiet location at or within walking distance of my apartment in Benicia, California.”
Robert Blatt,
California, USA
13 June 2024
Yorgos Stavridis - Ambience
“In this realisation of ‘Ambience’ I collated juxtaposed layers of nine one-shot recordings using feedback with piezo pickups, induction coils, speaker cones and solar cells as microphones. Found speakers and microphones were used in the performances, including old telephone amplifiers, faulty speaker cones, piezo transducers, solar cells and induction coils. This method produced electronic synth-like tonal sounds with slow changes in amplitude and harmonic content.
I also improvised with an induction coil feedback system consisting of coil microphones and speakers, with sound outputing from different speaker cones. By varying distance between microphone and speaker, unpredictable creature-like sonorities were produced, all unstable and difficult to control.”
Yorgos Stavridis
Athens, GR
5 June 2024
7balcony - Draw A Straight Line And Follow It
“In this realisation of ‘Draw A Straight Line and Follow It’, the result of audio being converted into image data creates a physical musical score. We programmed an audio file, the waveforms of which serve to produce the image data. The data retrieved from the audio to image conversion is framed as notation. Audio is absent in the output of the performance of the event score.
Rather than sound being the end product of a notated musical score, through the performance of the score, sound itself creates notation.”
7balcony (zach dawson, Richard Stenton)
Birmingham, UK
6 May 2024
MIZI - Vandalism
“The selected sound source is the digitised phonoautogram recording of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, the earliest recording of a recognisable human voice dating back to 1860. The recording is vandalised through data-bending. Using the open-source hex editor ‘Hex Fiend’, digital data is manipulated by replacing hexadecimal 4-bits, cutting and pasting snippets of the source code and completely deleting parts of it. The recording is corrupted in real-time revealing a slow, methodical disintegration of the sound.
In this realisation of ‘Vandalism’ one can perceive two layers of disrupting mediation. The very early means of recording are foregrounded and tightly coupled to the recorded content; the almost incomprehensible speech, high distortion levels, and the audio artefacts present on the recording are now forever embedded to the voice. This is no longer Scott’s voice, but Scott’s voice through the phonoautogram. A new and unique sound object which 164 years later is further subverted and distorted through the new and seemingly transparent digital medium.”
Georgios Mizithras
Athens, GR
9 May 2024
Lou Barnell - Redaction II____ ______TAKE_IT ALL
“In this realisation of ‘Redaction II’, I filmed myself on my phone singing an excerpt of a song, which was then projected back onto myself, whilst singing the same line. I repeated this process until the layers of film, words and sound dissolved into themselves. The piece has been filmed in the format, aspect ratio, and the length of an Instagram reel.
The longer version documents the making of the piece, and the shorter version is the finished score.”
Louise Barnell
Birmingham, UK
25 June 2024
Magno Caliman - Messages
Messages (performance)
Messages (print)
Messages (sound)
“In this performance realisation, I printed the ‘Messages’ event score onto 3mm MDF board using a laser cutter. The process of laser cutting the score onto wood produced an art object (print). A video recording filming the inside of the machine as the laser cutter ‘performs’ the score produced documentation of the objects creation (performance). A sound recording captures the sonic process of the performance taking place over 8 hours (recording).”
This performance took placed at the Orpheus Instituut in Ghent, Belgium. Documentation of the full 8 hour performance can be found here: https://youtu.be/7h-KCcjOotg
Print, performance and documentation - Magno Caliman
Photography - Sahjan Kooner
Magno Caliman
Ghent, BE
11 June 2024