Further development

Digital Process

Given the nature of electronic music I was keen to see how I could start bringing in digital processes to try and help with my visualisations. I was also keen to see how I could challenge the way in which I currently use digital media and process given that it makes up such a large part of my practice. However, I was keen to try and still work in a loose and intuitive manner on screen that would try and capture the visceral feel of the work I had already created. This is because I feel that quite often I spend ages cleaning up images digitally and often end up taking away from the initial impact of the drawing/material in question.

With this in mind I started creating a series of ‘noises’ based around the idea of wave form and distortion. These were created by making simple marks on paper and then placing them on a scanner and moving around at different intervals. I thought this was a good way to take the visceral and energetic approach I had previously achieve with paint and ink digitally as it allowed for me to create images directly in response to sound. This is because I could move the paper in time to the rhythms or use different types of movements (ie smooth, rigid etc) to represent different types of sound. Furthermore, much like with dragging of paint, there is a certain element of unpredictability to it with little details and lines only become apparent once the image has been rendered.

Digital development

Although I liked this approach and found it to be a really good way to take the visceral nature of my paintings into my digital practice I felt more could be done to capture the overall feel of the music. For example, I feel that all my work up to this point has lacked a more structured nature that I feel captures the rhythms and structures of the dance side of electronic music.

Therefore, I began experimenting with combing repeated shapes and lines, created with adobe illustrator with the ‘noise’ scans as well as with scans of analogue textures I had made. This was so as to bring the desired structure that I felt represented the bold structures of electronic dance music without taking away from the freer more intuitive way of working that I had found to be so successful in initially visualising sound.

I also begun to play with the idea of visually exploring the process of audio sampling that is so prevalent within electronic music. To achieve this I took photographs that I had taken and began distorting and chopping them up with my compositions. I think this helped add a certain depths and intrigue to my compositions without taking away from the abstract nature of them.

Initial screen prints

I felt these images had been the most successful so far in the visualisation of electronic music. I think this is mainly due to how they have managed to successfully combine each of the different elements and approaches I have already explored. Given this success I decided to see how they would translate into print. I was particularly keen to try these images out as, up until now, I have only screen printed traditional scenic images. Therefore, I was wanted to see how the different line and marks would transfer into print.

I was really surprised and happy with just how clear the images came out with even the smallest lines and dots I had created on adobe illustrator coming through. Although I tried colour separation with both images, I think it was only really successful with the second image. In particularly I like how the fact that I have slightly offset the screens has given the intricate line a feeling similar to red/blue 3d images.

Reflection

Much of the feedback within the crits praised the overall feel of the screen prints with the monotone version of the first print being highlighted as particularly successful. However, some feedback suggested that the colours present within my analogue images were more successful than the use of red and blue within my screens.

This is because it was suggested there was a greater sense of tension and energy with, for example, black and yellow that was indicative of the music in question. Furthermore, although the inclusion of motifs was praised and was highlighted as something I should further develop, it was suggested that the use of a computer board in the second was too cliché. Therefore, I think I need to evaluate how I can bring in visual motifs in a way that still relates to and helps visualise the music without falling into cliché.