With recordings from radiators, ancient theories on the cosmos and a lot of rather clever programming, Paul Prudence makes ethereal, one-of-a-kind projections.
[partner id="wireduk"]The images seen in this video and in Wired UK's gallery linked below are from Prudence's latest project, Rynth. They are created through a combination of coding and algorithms based on math and geometry to turn sound data into images in real time.
Although capturing shots of Prudence's performances make for inspiring viewing alone, it is seeing it in action – when sound, vision and technology collide – that is the best way to experience his work. Prudence says: "All my work is intended to be live performance. The visuals produced are different each time. Because of how the algorithm works, each performance is unique: Different sounds change the output."
Prudence's algorithm dictates the shape and style of the image by interpreting sound data. Explaining the workings behind Rynth's mesmerizing images, he says: "The high frequencies – for example, the clicking sounds – modulate the small squares which cover the surface of the image. The deeper drone sounds trigger the changes in the image's structure."
Some sounds work better than others, however. "Sound analysis is a fine art in itself," explains Prudence. Too many competing sounds results in a jumbled mess of frequencies and noise, which don't create good visual results, while "beat-orientated music will react differently to minimal ambient music."
As a result, sound and art are produced together by Prudence: "The sounds I use are informed by the way things look," he says. "What I do is I have the software running, then I feed sound into it, and if I get an interesting result I use that sound. Composition is informed by both looks as well as how it sounds."
The process is one that takes years "because [the art] is programmed from scratch, it allows you to build modules," he says. "Initially they start off very basic, but unlike a sculpture or a painting, my art can be updated with every software upgrade." In its current existence, Rynth, which consists of two 20-minute sets, has taken six years to create.
While Prudence reshapes these sounds so they produce the best possible images, they originate from the brutality of machinery. "My recordings are a combination of two main avenues," Prudence says. The first is the misnamed "field recordings" of inner-city life: "pieces of machinery, radiators, pipes, anything that has a mechanical sound." Prudence engineers other sounds digitally using synths and oscillators.
>'I tend to take ideas and apply them metaphorically to moods in my pieces.'
Prudence used to perform his work in clubs as a DJ, but claims that the audience and context of arts festivals are better suited to the philosophical and conceptual approaches of his work. "Science, nature and popular science are all reference points," he explains. "I tend to take ideas and apply them metaphorically to moods in my pieces." Rynth is inspired by antigravity, gyroscopes and the centuries-old concept of The Music of the Spheres, which understands music to be produced as a religious or mathematical concept by the sun, moon and stars.
These influences are also part of Prudence's extraordinary performances, one of which occurred in a dome in Amsterdam – "one of the best planetariums in Europe." Prudence explains: "The whole point of that performance was that the piece took up so much space that you had to turn around to have a look, so it became about machinery and the structure of the dome, rather than just a viewing."
Click through Wired UK's gallery to see Prudence's performances in action and some of the images produced by Rynth*.*
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