Very Beautiful

A digital re-reading of John Heineman's conceptual work (1973). Bark-scale spectral analysis, Markov chains, dynamic score. From the Air Piece essay.

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An interactive audiovisual installation re-reading John Heineman's Very Beautiful (1973), born from the musicological study of his work for the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza published in the Air Piece essay (ISBN 978 0244 56039 3, cited by the Isabella Scelsi Foundation).

Real-time spectral analysis maps frequencies to colour along the Bark scale, documented in the project's Max/MSP pipeline; a variable-order Markov text generator (1-4) fragments and recomposes texts; the webcam tracks the performer's movement, modulating visuals and generation; a dynamic score produces real-time instructions (EXPLORE SILENCE, WIDE VIBRATO).

The PWA also hosts the Air Piece documentation and an analytical apparatus of 17 annotated spectrograms. A collaboration with the Master in Sonic Arts of the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

Features

Bark-scale spectral analysisOrder 1-4 Markov chainsWebcam computer visionReal-time dynamic score17 annotated analysis spectrogramsHosts the Air Piece documentation

Tech Stack

JavaScriptWeb Audio APICanvas 2DMediaDevices APIPWA

Collaborations & commissions

ResearchUniversità di Roma Tor Vergata, Master Sonic Arts

Collaborations & research

If this work is relevant to your research, get in touch to explore possible collaborations.

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