Computer Music Video: A Composer's Perspective

Computer music and video can be combined and made interdependent in works of art in a multitude of ways. Works may either contain pre-rendered imagery, be generated on the fly from a set of rules, be passively dependent on external events, or actively seek interaction, requiring specific user activity for realization. Video imagery can be developed as digital models that change according to spatial or timbral relationships in the music, for example, and audio can be developed by mapping pixel values from a static or moving image to parameter values for synthesis and sound processing. This article gives a brief overview of some issues in music representation and mapping, and it discusses the artistic strategies that I have employed in the cross-media approach to When Timbre Comes Apart (1992–95), Concrete Net (1996), Planet (Terra) (1988, 1996), and Construction Drive (2005)