Stage performances are a lot more engaging with live visuals. For this project, I am combining digital media, automation, algorithmic computation, generative art and music to explore cross-media stage performances.

On stage, I use a video synthesizer - a machine that generates a variety of visual materials. It's compact, runs on python, and I can control it with a footswitch - since my hands are usually on the bass.

After a creative coding class, I was desperate to get past the factory settings of the video synthesizer. In this example, I trigger the video synthesizer with the bass notes. When there is an audio input, a shape is generated and drawn randomly on the screen. The low frequency oscillators used to further animate the ghostly image are based on an original LFO mode from Critter & Guitari. I thought it was ingenious to imitate a modular synthesizer such as a moog from the 1960s to modulate visuals instead of sound. In essence, the drawn shape gets mirrored and is rendered with less transparency. The two LFOs control the size and transparency of the image.

Once I have tested my code, I then created and stored some scenes that I can flip through with my foot controller, programmed a 32-step beat, a harpsicord melody, jammed with my partner on guitar and still made up the bassline as I recorded this video. It is an early experiment and I hope to do a lot more with it.

Hope you enjoy!