77 Million Paintings: components

Viewing guide

Before

Think about a piece of music which has conveyed a certain atmosphere. How would you describe the atmosphere? What musical concepts were used to achieve this atmosphere?
Can you think of some genres of music or examples of songs that are concerned with creating a message, and others that are more concerned with creating an atmosphere?
Brainstorm some possible differences between music that aims to create an atmosphere and music that aims to convey a message.

During

Using the information in this interview, and your own imagination, describe how the audio works in 77 Million Paintings.
Robertson says the visual and aural components are, “…creating an atmosphere within a space”. What atmosphere is created by the soundscape?
How is this atmosphere achieved? Refer to aspects of the concepts of music (duration, pitch, dynamics and expressive techniques, tone colour, texture, structure).
Do you think the atmosphere created by the aural component complements the atmosphere created by the visual component? Give reasons for your response.

After

Robertson says that the visuals and soundscape are not conveying a message, but instead are creating an atmosphere within a space.

Do you think creating an atmosphere is more important, or conveying a message? Why?
If you were going to create an installation combining audio and images, what kind of atmosphere would you try to create? What musical concepts would you use to achieve this?

Transcript

Interviewer: What is the relationship or connection between the aural and visual components of 77 Million Paintings?

Nick Robertson: They really were developed alongside each other. Just to explain how the audio works, it works in exactly the same way actually as the paintings except it’s not software led; it is digital but it’s not software. The audio are basically layers of sound that overlap each other at different speeds that are also on random setting, so what you’re listening to you won’t hear exactly the same thing twice; it’s not a notated bit of music. It’s a spatial piece of music as well so each layer is different, it’s doing a different thing, and each layer is in a different part of the room so it feels like it’s surrounding you, it feels like an object. So, in that way, that idea of making music, generative music, was exactly the same thinking as making generative visuals. So, the relationship is that they behave in the same way, they’re both abstract, they’re not conveying a message, they’re creating an atmosphere within a space.