Sonic Abstractions
Tl:dr
Sonic Abstractions explores the relationship between sound, image, and audience.
The work began with field recordings made at the Hellfire Club — a site defined by dualities of good and evil, ancient and modern, ritual and decay. These recordings were transformed into abstract sonic textures that guided the creation of a painting. As the painting evolved, it began to influence new layers of sound, forming a continuous exchange between the two mediums.
A custom handheld controller allowed visitors to scan the painting’s colours, each scan generating a unique soundscape through a probability-based system in Max/MSP.
Every interaction produced a new composition — completing the circle between sound, image, and audience.
If You’re Still Reading…
Concept
Sonic Abstractions explores the relationship between sound, image, and audience — a way of working where the sonic and the visual continually influence one another.
The project began with a single idea: to create a collaborative methodology between painters and sonic artists, where both mediums evolve together rather than one illustrating the other.
The first iteration centred on the Hellfire Club in the Dublin Mountains. The site’s atmosphere and history became the foundation — a place layered with contradiction: good and evil, ancient and modern, ritual and decay. These dualities shaped both the mood and the structure of the piece, guiding how sound and image were formed and re-formed in response to one another.
The work also explored ideas of extended cognition and audience agency — questioning how meaning shifts when control is shared with the viewer, and whether this leads to a more engaging and democratic experience of art.
Process
The project began with field recordings made at the Hellfire Club using a Tascam X8 recorder and LOM Uši microphones. Every sound — the wind, the stone surfaces, the movement of air — was treated as material.
An impulse response was captured inside the building to simulate its acoustic signature, later used in convolution reverb to recreate the sense of being inside that space.
Back in the studio, the recordings were analysed and transformed using spectral analysis, granular synthesis, and extensive filtering and processing. These manipulations generated new sonic materials — drones, rhythms, and textures — each abstracted from the original environment but still carrying its presence.
As the sounds evolved, they became the backdrop for the painting process. The painter worked while listening to these sonic layers, allowing tone, texture, and rhythm to guide colour and gesture. The process then reversed: as the visual composition developed, its structure began to influence new sonic decisions.
To visualise this relationship, a spectral painting was also created — a translation of the sound’s frequency spectrum into visual form. Together, these elements completed a circular exchange where neither sound nor image was fixed; each existed in constant dialogue with the other.
Technical System
Hardware
At the centre of the installation was a custom-built handheld controller, designed and 3D-printed specifically for the project.
It combined an Arduino microcontroller, camera, and RGB colour sensor, allowing the audience to scan the surface of the painting and send that data to the audio system in real time.
Max/MSP System
The colour data — representing the first, last, and average of each scan — was processed in Max/MSP.
A probability matrix then generated a unique soundscape based on these readings. Even when scanning the same colours repeatedly, the system produced different results each time, echoing the idea that perception changes from one encounter to the next.
Audio Environment
The Max patch drew from a library of processed field recordings — the same drones, tones, and textures created earlier in the project.
Each interaction combined these elements into a new composition, meaning every participant heard something that had never existed before — a sonic reflection of their own path across the painting.
Audience Experience
Sonic Abstractions was first exhibited at the MPhil in Music and Media Technologies Graduate Showcase at Trinity College Dublin.
Visitors were invited to pick up the handheld controller and scan the painting. With each movement, the system generated a new soundscape, combining colour and sound into a shared experience that existed only for that moment.
Audience responses were curious and reflective. Many described the experience as meditative, surprising, and deeply personal. For others, it highlighted how their actions shaped the work — completing the circle between artist, artwork, and audience.
Sonic Abstractions marked the first step in an ongoing exploration of collaborative creation, interactivity, and audience agency — a process where sound, image, and human perception continually shape one another.