Accretion flows is the second in a series of works exploring audiovisual composition.

Accretion Flows

Audiovisual

I was interested in creating an underlying system to drive both visual and musical material in the piece. I imagined a data stream from which different modalities could grow, creating an ecosystem of experiential results that were grounded in the invisible.

The system I used for this piece was an emulation of a black hole. Working with this system, I could release some number of particles into the space with some velocity and other relevant characteristics. Additionally, I could shift where the gravitatioal field was located and change the power of the gravitational system. Particles create orbits around the gravitational field of the black hole, and evenutally get sucked into it and stop existing.

This system was visualized and sonified simultaneously. The result is a tight coupling of the audio and visual components. Compositionally, this was a challenging affair due to the inseparability of the two modalities and the need to work directly with a system that was neither visual or sonic, but rather simply a system of particles and gravitational forces.

Accretion flows was written for 8-channel sound. The location of the particles in the spatial field is directly related to their position in the virtual space.

The end result is a composition that organizes patterns and orbits through sequencing and layering.