What would jazz improvisation look like if you could see it? To answer that, jazzman Herbie Hancock is collaborating with Raster Masters, a visual performance group sponsored by Silicon Graphics Inc. (see Wired, issue 2.06, page 82). Raster Masters's MIDI-reactive animation software gives Hancock the ability to create his own visual accompaniment as he performs.
Picture this: Hancock's hands are poised over his piano keyboard, but his eyes are on the video screen at the back of the stage, dark now, since he hasn't begun to play. He slides into a slow riff, and the screen lights up with a video feed of his audience that swirls around like paint stirred in time to the music.
He hits some dissonant chords and the images on the screen shatter and drift into darkness again.
"I was fascinated by how I could play notes on a keyboard and have a graphic image reshape itself," says Hancock.
"It's a whole new way to look at what we mean when we say 'interactive' or 'multimedia.'" Contact: Silicon Graphics Inc. +1 (415) 960 1980, e-mail raster-masters-request@sgi.com.
ELECTRIC WORD
Hear It With Your Eyes
