Output details
36 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
University of the West of Scotland
Lux Audiovisual artwork (video)
Interdisciplinary collaboration
Lux is an audiovisual artwork by artist Alison Clifford and composer Graeme Truslove; it is the third work in the Interstitial Articulations series exploring aspects of the interstitial through collaboration. Lux focuses on combining contrasting visual aesthetics realised separately in earlier works in the series. It proposes a new interstitial language based on direct translations of textures in the audio matched with abstract visual forms present in the source photograph.
The work builds on visual aesthetics explored by early visual music pioneer, Thomas Wilfred in his lumia compositions. Whereas Wilfred’s compositions are the result of direct manipulation of light, Lux explores this digitally. The challenge was to unify the organic aesthetic expressed in Substratum with the more synthetic aesthetic of the 3D environment, expressed in Palimpsest. This was investigated through dynamically driven animation, working with 3D software simulations of natural forces to animate the light-forms. Further textural effects translating interstitial elements in the source image were achieved working with fluid simulations.
Audio for the work was selected from Truslove’s microsound compositions by ‘matching’ sonic textures to visual forms. Using techniques of reduced listening (Schaeffer) individual sound-layers were linked to visual elements; the final work was constructed by carefully combining these elements to synchronise with the audio using montage techniques.
Lux continues investigations of the computer as a collaborator in the creative process. Through the use of fluid simulations and dynamic animation, the computer contributes to the final work by presenting varying visual responses that could not otherwise be created.
Lux was shortlisted in the final 10 artworks for the Lumen Prize an international award for digital art, and was exhibited internationally as part of the Lumen Prize exhibition. It was also exhibited at the Hypersonica Event in Sao Paulo, at FILE International Electronic Language Festival.
