CITY SOUND MAP | FIELD OF STUDY |
11 | John Cage (1958), Fontana Mix (Woolman, 2000. Sonic graphics/seeing sound, p.8) Fontana Mix is a score by John Cage, made up of a series of translucent overlays. The performer creates the score by randomly layering selected sheets and, once set, it graphically plots when and where the instruments are played. Once this arrangement has been made, the performers must adhere to the score to avoid any improvisation or personal experience that might interfere with the performance.
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12 | Roy Lietchestein (1963), Whaam! (http://www.scienzepostmoderne.org/DiverseArti/ Autori/Lichtenstein/OpereLichtenstein.html) One of the earliest known examples of pop art, ‘Whaam!’ is based on an image from ‘All American Men of War’ published by DC comics in 1962, by the artist Russ Heath. The cartoon style is heightened by the use of the onomatopoeia ‘Whaam!’
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notation system that could be read easily by anyone and by professionals in many fields, particularly those who study soundscapes most closely: architects, urbanists, sociologists, acousticians and musicians (Schafer 1993, p.53).
the clarity of the information. A clear example are the different types of music player softwares, including various kind of “visualisation” plug-ins, which draws very complex digital images that react to the sound of the music.
Sound is obviously an interesting subject in terms of visualisation, because it has a well-defined structure. Many attempts to visualise it can be found in different fields, such as art, design, architecture, generative art, notation, and installations. Most of these attempts do not contain any kind of information about the sound they try to convert, as the focus is in the entertainment value rather than in
Other attempts are connected to music and its structure. An example is the new modern graphic notation (Fig.15) that broaden the communication between composer, performer, and listener. Composers now stretch the limits of what they can communicate through symbols, in terms of intuition, imagination, improvisation, time, and space.