Vila-Real, 1980.
Santi Vilanova
License in graphic design and passion for sound art, Santi Vilanova has known how to combine these two disciplines through the catalyst of “creative technologies”, of which he is a self-taught developer.
(de)Format the rave scene of the early 2000s, his sonorous work has evolved to integrate this underground influence into our territories. The latest research combines digital algorithms or sonification engines with classical staves and acoustic ensembles, focusing on the idea of visual music.
He is the founder, with Eloi Maduell, of the audiovisual research studio Playmodes, developing projects in the interest of design, art and music. science.
Interests related to acoustics, mathematics, the psychology of perception or crystal lighting phenomena are available in the Playmodes brand. Their projects, of eclectic character – from the final operatic scenography to the immersive installations – always have as a common element the creativity of digital images and the search for a unified audiovisual language.
In this collective lectiu, the six works have been exhibited in llum festivals (Fête des Lumieres, Signal, LlumBCN, Mapping Festival, LIT Bogotá, Chartres a Lumière…), in electronic music events (Sònar, Mira, LEV, DGTL, D4N Houston…), at contemporary art or stage arts institutions (ZKM, Macau Arts Festival, In Between Time, Òpera de Copenhagen), and has received international distinctions in the field of our mitjans (Menció d’Honor Ars Electronica, LAUS, Visual Music Awards or LAMP awards).
Currently he is also a university professor at the EINA school (Autonomous University of Barcelona), UOC and BAU (Universitat de Vic), teaching new generations of multimedia creators.
Treball a la col·lecció: Forms – Screen Ensemble
http://www.playmodes.com
Formes -Screen Ensemble, 2020
Forms – Screen Ensemble is a generative visual music jukebox. Driven by chance and probability, this automat creates endless and unrepeatable graphic scores that are immediately transformed into its mitjançant sonification algorithms. The images are converted into specters of theirs, it is possible -literally- to escort the one you see. Kandinsky’s somni.
Each screen of this piece contains a particular instrumental role: Rhythm, Harmony or Texture.
Performed by this trio of musicians, a symphony of visual music evolves over time into unique soundscapes that will not be repeated again: from tonal ambient music to furious rhythms, surreal electronic passages or ball court rhythms.
Forms – Screen Ensemble is going to present at the 2020 edition of the Ars Electronica festival in Barcelona, thanks to a scholarship awarded by NewArtFoundation, Institut Ramón Llull and Hangar.org.
Disseny
Es Think that Forms is a flexible instrument in terms of formats and aspects. Since the natural and phonological nature is based on visual music algorithms rather than on a specific physics of the matter, it can adopt many different forms. To the extent that the Screen Ensemble takes the form of an automaton of caixes containing screens and altarpieces, they work in multiple derivatives that transcend this format: a live performance with a string quartet interprets the generated scores in real time; an immersive installation based on multichannel video-projection and audio; a program for live music on a computer or a streaming bot on the Internet.
Enginyeria
Forms is designed with 2 main processes:
-A program of generated graphics coded in Processing (javascript)
-A sonification algorithm developed in Max/MSP
In the vessant graphics, there is a deep mathematical research in order to encode coherent graphics timbrally and musically that create attractive rhythms, harmonies or textures.
In the sonorous version, a series of ideas from the field of spectral synthesis and FFT are displayed.
In addition, a set of control routines The evolution of compositions over time combines probabilities, weights, Markov chains and random algorithms.
Music
The main feature of Forms is the visual musical nature. Create music that can be seen in an attractive but scientifically coherent way.
It is also an endavant cap to a way of presenting and monitoring algorithmic compositions. It is a totally new way of creating music, based on visual compositions rather than on staves or piano-rolls.
The natural generative system offers endless, unique, unrepeatable and rich music, detached from the limitations of traditional language. Forms embraces the expression of drawn gestures and microtones, unifying the visual and auditory experience.
Forms – Screen Ensemble has been funded by a production and exhibition grant from the Ramon Llull Institute, NewArtFoundation and Hangar for the Ars Electronica Garden Barcelona 2020.