Eno - Electrical circuit Tests and Failures

The above animations are tests into moving through a electrical circuit landscape.

In all honesty I'm not to happy with it all. It has the 'After effects look' to it (panning cameras and visuals that look like postcards), something i think i should try to avoid.

The soundtrack is also a problem, I've used "1/1" from music for airports as i've been told its a "trademark track" of Eno and i want to animated my title sequences to familiar pieces by the artists featured. But its very slow boring and quite uninspiring to animated to. Another problem is that I want to hit the 20second mark dead on with each animation and with such a minimalist piece i think it will prove difficult to create a pace throughout the animation (even though minimalist pieces are Enos forte).

tj -x-

Eno - Electrical circuits

The Album Discreet music was famous for Eno early experiments in Generative music, the method of recording is explained;

"liner notes contain a diagram of how this piece was created. It begins with two melodic phrases of different lengths played back from a synthesizer's digital recall system (the equipment used in this case was an EMS Synthi AKS, which had a then-exotic, built-in digital sequencer). This signal is then run through a graphic equalizer to occasionally change its timbre. It is then run through an echo unit before being recorded onto a tape machine. The tape runs to the take-up reel of a second machine. The output of that machine is fed back into the first tape machine which records the overlapped signals."

See Diagrams





... and a stylised version of the diagram.



With this in mind i'm going to create an animation than moves through a landscape of circuit diagrams much like the animation below moves through a painted landscape.



tj -x-

Tan Dun - Origami animation research

To represent Tan Dun I want to animated origami. I'm not sure what i'll animate yet, either a lotus flower, or a crane are options right up there as they represent the oriental vibe i'm going. The animations below are examples of what i'm hoping to achive.





tj -x-

Tan Dun - Visuals and concepts

A brief synopsis of Tan Dun.
Tan Dun's Website.

Tan Dun is most recognised for His work on the Hero and Crouching tiger hidden dragon soundtracks.



But what really captures my imagination is his Concertos, Water and Paper.
Water uses Various Bowls of water to creat the sound whereas Paper uses... yup paper to create sounds (rolf harris may spring to mind but i think the picture demonstrates they're worlds apart).


A brief synopsis of Tan Dun.
Tan Dun's Website.

I have my animation left to do so a stop motion of paper folding springs to mind, as it originated in china.

tj -x-

John Cage - visuals and concepts

Brief synopsis of
John Cage.

I've decided to explore John cage because My tutor mentioned him in a tutorial and it threw me back to my foundation year when i used his 4.33 as the basis for one of my pieces. 4.33 is basically 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence where audience is ment to not here the music but the sounds around the music. An example can be seen here.



So the concept behind this title sequence will be a series of images related to John cages life (filmed) to the track 4.33.

Another source of visual material is Prepared piano, where objects were placed on a piano to change the sound, this could be quite entertaining to film, i just need to find a piano and objects to put on it, preferably with connections to John Cage.

But all in all, like Eno, Cage explored the concept of chance in music, a good example of that is Imaginary Landscape No. 4 where radios were used to create music using volume and frenquency but couldn't control what came out of the broadcast. Also I'll note that Cage was interested in In Ching (Chinese “Book of Changes”), which tenuiously links him to the Chineese Composer Tan Dun.

I'd also like to get the quote "I have nothing to say and I'm saying it..." into the piece.

Aesthetically I want the piece to be mirrored by Robert Rauschenbergs white paintings which were in turn influenced by 4.33.



I'm not talking about having 20seconds of white space and silence, (although i may try it), but instead upthe contrasts and brightness and film everything in black and white with a slight gausian blur to soften the edges, this will create a very white sequence, infact i could use this scheme across the 3 sequences to tie them together, whith only flashes of bright colour to break up the monochrome.

This will be my filmed piece.

tj -x-

Brian Eno - Visual and conceptual ideas

Brian Eno coined the phrase "ambient music" with his album Discreet music. A synopsis of his life can be found here.

His work is very diverse working first with roxy music and then branchinh out into solo work, and colaborations as well as commissions for sound tracks and even the windows 95 startup chime (which insidently was produced on a mac). His work is heavly experimental and conceptual in nature, so choosing a difiniative piece to work with is going to be a challenge.

Eample of Enos Work from the album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks



So whay have i chosen Brian Eno? Well what really interests me about his work is a late ninties experiement called 'Generative music', The basic premise of generative music is the blending of several independent musical tracks, of varying sounds, length, and in some cases, silence. When each individual track concludes, it starts again mixing with the other tracks allowing the listener to hear an almost infinite combination. In one instance of generative music, Eno calculated that it would take almost 10,000 years to hear the entire possibilities of one individual piece.

he quotes on this here:

Some very basic forms of generative music have existed for a long time, but as marginal curiosities. Wind chimes are an example, but the only compositional control you have over the music they produce is in the original choice of notes that the chimes will sound. Recently, however, out of the union of synthesisers and computers, some much finer tools have evolved. Koan Software is probably the best of these systems, allowing a composer to control, not one, but one hundred and fifty, musical and sonic parameters, within which the computer then improvises (as wind improvises the wind chimes).
The works I have made with this system symbolise, to me, the beginning of a new era of music. Until a hundred years ago, every musical event was unique: music was ephemeral and unrepeatable, and even classical scoring couldn't guarantee precise duplication. Then came the gramophone record, which captured particular performances, and made it possible to hear them identically, over and over again.

But now, there are three alternatives: live music, recorded music, and generative music. Generative music enjoys some of the benefits of both its ancestors. Like live music, it is always different. Like recorded music, it is free of time-and-place limitations — you can hear it when and where you want.

I really think it is possible that our grandchildren will look at us in wonder and say: "You mean you used to listen to exactly the same thing over and over again?"

This concept parrellels with sound what i have been doing with visuals with after effects expressions. That is to say the visuals are being generated by the music to give an independent experience everytime a new track is plugged in.

Using audio generated visuals in a title sequence about Brian Eno would be relevant conceptually.

On a side Note Eno has collaborated with sound and music in 77 Million Paintings.

77 Million Paintings is a software/DVD combination by British musician Brian Eno, released in 2006.

The release consists of two discs, one containing the software that creates the randomized music and images that emulate a single screen of one of Eno's video installation pieces. The other is a DVD containing interviews with the artist.

The title is derived from the possible number of combinations of video and music which can be generated by the software, effectively ensuring that the same image/soundscape is never played twice.

An accompanying booklet includes a piece by Nick Robertson describing the intention behind the software, and an article by Brian Eno ("My Light Years") describing his experiments with light and music.

A second edition of "77 Million Paintings", featuring improved morphing and a further two layers of sound, was released on 14 January 2008.



So this is all subitbly pretentiuos, and i'm quiet happy with the concept.

Moving on tho visuals

Well at the moment i'm thinking electrical circitboard, windchimes and wave forms, ideas surrounding electronic music and random events. All Going back to seminal pieces by Mr Eno, Music for Airports was his first Album titled Ambient so maybe i should explore visual metaphors and semiotics surrounding aviation?

tj -x-

Oh and this is the pure after effects title sequence.

Subject

With all this focus on the technical aspect of my project i'm forgottent he bare bones and that thats the subject matter. I really need to decide on this. With the Vivaldi example i came to the conclusion that i would focus on classical music and do three diffrent title sequences based on three different classical composers. The wall i hit here was a lack of interesting visual material. All i see is funny wigs, sheet music and pianos in my head.







Also I have nothing i can really relate to classical, classical music. Its just not something i really listen too... apart from that stint where i managed a cable warehouse for a while and the guy i worked with insisted we listen to classical fm... but i digress.

Saying that what i can relate too is soundtracks, I have hundreds of tracks from Films and computergames i regulary listen to so why not concertrate on contempory classical composers? Why not explore composers such as:

Danny elf man


Inon Zur



Leon Willet


(An interest in video game soundtracks must be in my blood as a scandinavian, see the Play symphoney.)

Tan Dun


or John Williams


The list could go on and on. Considering my last project where i studied Sigur ros and Daft Punk I could even go as far to include Contempory popular musical 'Composers' such as:

NIN
Thom Yorke
or The cinematic Orchestra

But i think i've managed to narrow down my choices to the three contempory composers i need, based on good visual and conceptual material. These will be:

Brain eno
John Cage
& Tan Dun

tj -x-

Using the expression to create somehting useful

Here's an example of how i've used my expression to create something visually useful. Now i jsy need to work it into an animation.

[PENDING UPLOAD]

Here's the expression

[pening screen shots]

tj -x-

What should a title sequence be?

After my first tutorial we were asked what a title sequence for TV is.

Basically i'm to set the mood the the TV show, so the title sequence should reflect the content within.

Looking at some of the links below its clear that title sequences for TV should be about 20 seconds in length. If i can hit 20 seconds exactly, to the frame, it will shoulw that i can edit professionally so i'm going to go with 500 frames no more no less.

Because i'm doing title sequences for TV I need to almost brand the show. I'm going to scrap the idea of a modular title sequence as stated below so i'll have more interestign material to work with, so hopefully i'll do three different sequences using three different methods but the overall aesthetic and tone will be consistent. I'm thinking of...

one pure after effects
one animation (probaley stop motion)
and one film

tj -x-