Audiovisual Harmony: The realtime audiovisualisation of a single data source in Construction in Zhuangzi

Abstract

This paper explores the context and technical and aesthetic considerations behind the author's generative and improvisational audiovisual work, Construction in Zhuangzi (2011), and in particular the approach of ‘audiovisualising’ the same source of data and its validation, and its possibilities as an artistic practice. First, the origins of integrated audiovisual art in the output of John Whitney are explored. Then, metaphors based on musical textures are used to describe different approaches to the audiovisual medium. Research into perception and auditory displays are next used to justify the simultaneous representation of the same data in both the audio and the video. The aesthetic potential of this practice is then corroborated using Michel Chion's theory of sound in cinema. In concluding, its possibilities for providing an appropriate form and aesthetic approach to the audiovisual material are discussed.