NEW WRITINGS OF SOUND AND MUSIC// Sophie Hoyle// Transduction
‘Transduction’ (2012)
Digital video of 16mm film transfer; instrumentation and methods of interpretation of the score depend on the individual musician.
1. How would you describe this form of writing sound and / or music?
The moving image piece Transduction (2012) explores translation and equivalence between the visual and the sonic in Optical Sound, and between film and digital media. Fragments of the music score for Iannis Xenakis’ ‘Metastasis’ were transferred onto 16mm film, becoming altered from being read sequentially to being read in frame-by-frame in succession, forming a non-linear reading of the score. The graphic score is ‘heard’ through optical sound, where the visual graphics extending onto the soundtrack area of the film are ‘read’ by the projector as sound. Though the video can be played without the Optical Sound, where the composition can be interpreted and performed by musicians to form a new soundtrack.
2. How do you think your proposal can be interpreted?
The piece can provide a ‘score’ or composition from the video’s re-assemblage of Xenakis’ musical and architectural notations, to be interpreted by musicians in whatever way they choose. They can accompany the Optical Sound that is produced by the images, or provide a completely new soundtrack by responding to the images as a composition. The video can be played at various speeds, to allowing different amounts of time for musicians to respond.
3. What meanings or additional level provides this particular form of writing to the performance and / or to the interpretation of the work?
The process of converting musical score to 16mm film, and then to video, is an experimental way of presenting musical notation, changing the way a score is read and how it can be responded to. In the presentation of the work the video score can be projected whilst it also being interpreted and played by musicians, meaning the audience can view the score and hear the response simultaneously.
N.B This is a link to the score itself, and the Optical Soundtrack when the film is ran on a 16m film projector. It does not show a musician interpreting the score.
Follow