Painting with sound — Nebulosa Picante

AboutI had been exploring Processing for a few months in my free time, transforming and creating graphics from the Give it a shape section. However, I didn't feel satisfied because I wanted to achieve something different; I aimed to step out of my comfort zone while maintaining my style. I took advantage of the course I attended with Joshua Davis, "Painting with Sound," to go the extra mile and create dynamic graphic pieces built from music.

The artist I chose one of my favorite artists, "The Piano King" Sofiane Pamart, and more specifically, his album Noche (Night), which has been very special to me during some dark times.

Concept: Finding beauty in the darkness In these graphic pieces, I wanted to show the contrast and the interplay between light and darkness, illustrating how these energies converse and create harmony in our lives. This is a topic I am passionate about, and I realized I have other influences (some conscious, others not so much) that have emerged in my work, such as "L'ombra della Luce" by Franco Battiato and, more recently, "King Lear" by Jerskin Fendrix.

I feel that an x-ray is a perfect representation of revealing what is hidden, in this case, revealing light in the darkness—a scan of emotions that are present but perhaps locked away or imperceptible to others.

Challenge I set out to use the Chladni patterns (image in the left) without resorting to archetypal constructions to create striking graphics that evoke ethereal worlds. I also had a personal motivation to ensure that even when the pieces were created with code, they retained an analog feel, giving them a more contemplative and nostalgic touch.

Process To create the pieces, I used my favorite song from the album, Miedo, and mapped the music's loudness and frequency to the speed and vibration of the particles. Also, I made some transformations to the Chladni patterns and used layers of two colors to create more complex overlays and compositions.

Then, I spent hours and hours trying to notice some good patterns that could be combined, et voilá, I’m so happy with the result!

Images

2:07s.
cos( π * x ) * cos(m *π * y / n) - cos(π * y / n);
cos(n * π * x ) * cos(m * π * y);

0:18s.
cos(n * m * x * y * π) * cos(m * π) * cos(n * π);
cos( π * x ) * cos(m * π * y / n) - cos( π * y );

0:12s.
cos(n * m * x * y * π) * cos(m * π) * cos(n * π);
cos( π * x ) * cos(m * π * y / n) - cos( π * y );

0:34s.
cos( π * x ) * cos(m *π * y / n) - cos(π * y / n);
cos( π * x ) * cos(m * π * y / n) - cos( π * y );

0:04s.
cos(n * m * x * y * π) * cos(m * π) * cos(n * π);

Animations

Video
Left: Particles painting. Right: Particles vibrating.

I also made some posters :) Riso printing A3 (29.7 x 42cm)
Say hola@nebulosapicante.com if you want a print :)

Projects

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