Construction 76 is a generative audiovisual collaboration between LIA and the experimental music collective @c (Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela). The work is based on a five-minute excerpt from @c’s composition “76.”
The software analyzes the audio to generate intricate linear structures and graphic elements. These forms construct and deconstruct in real-time synchronization with the soundscape. The visual palette shifts dynamically, beginning with saturated hues of orange and red, transitioning into a stark monochrome phase, and concluding with a return to the original intense colors. The work explores the direct translation of sonic data into visual architecture.
In 2009, the piece was selected for the landmark exhibition ‘See This Sound – Promises in Sound and Vision’ at the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, a comprehensive survey of the relationship between image and sound in art, media, and perception.
Construction 76 (2008), generative audiovisual work. Curated excerpt.
Selected generative outputs.
Exhibition at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz (2009)
Installation views from ‘See This Sound’.
The Concept
Construction 76 by video artist LIA was created in collaboration with the musicians collective @c. A five-minute sound track was taken from @c’s 55-minute track “76” and synchronized with visuals. […] The computer-programmed video features arabesque-like shapes and simple graphic elements that arise against a cosmic, black and red background, multiply and vanish again. Formally, the video brings to mind the seeing-sound films and experiments by Mary Ellen Bute or John and James Whitney. Like these, Construction 76 also tries to translate sound into abstract forms.
Excerpt from the ‘See This Sound’ Exhibition Catalogue
Project Details
Year Created: 2008
Medium: Generative Audiovisual Work / Single-Channel Video
Duration: 4’46”
Format: 1280 x 720
Creative Collaboration
Sound: @c (Miguel Carvalhais & Pedro Tudela)
Museum Exhibitions
Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria (‘See This Sound – Promises in Sound and Vision’, August 28, 2009 – January 10, 2010)
Curator: Cosima Rainer
Related Publication
“Audiovisual Parameter Mapping in Music Visualizations”
Theoretical text by LIA & Tina Frank, published in the exhibition catalogue See This Sound – Audiovisuology Compendium (Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010).
‘See This Sound’ Exhibited Artists: John Cage, Nam June Paik, Oskar Fischinger, Valie Export, Gary Hill, Steina Vasulka, LIA, Carsten Nicolai, and others.
Distribution & Selected Screenings
Distributed by: Sixpackfilm
Animafest – World Festival of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia (‘Festival Screening’, May 29 – June 3, 2012)
Animateka, International Animated Film Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia (‘Festival Screening’, December 6 – 12, 2011)
DOK Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (‘Festival for Documentary and Animated Film’, October 17 – 23, 2011)
LIAF – London International Animation Festival, London, UK (‘Festival Screening’, August 27 – September 5, 2011)
Anima Mundi, Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo, Brazil (‘International Animation Festival of Brazil’, July 15 – 31, 2011)
MIAF – Melbourne International Animation Festival, Melbourne, Australia (‘Festival Screening’, June 19 – 26, 2011)
WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław, Poland (‘WRO Art Center’, May 10 – 15, 2011)
Diagonale, Graz, Austria (‘Festival of Austrian Film’, March 17 – 22, 2009)
