TraumA
Visual Designer, Director - Ryan Yuan
Developed by Max8, Processing, Adobe After Effects
A Collaborative Project
Nov 2020 - Dec 2020
Project Run-through
Live Performance
Summary
TraumA is a cooperative real-time audiovisual performance that is composed of three different sections. Each has a unique theme and musical style, the three sections each represent a stage throughout recovering from a traumatic experience. I am in charge of all the visuals while my partner is in charge of all the audio.
Intention
This work intends that instead of solely attempting to match musical elements with visual elements(e.g. amplitude with size, color with timbre), we want to bridge the two with a common theme. This is a different approach from the artists who has “Genuine Synesthesia”, but a logical way to connect perspectives when we are not born with these neurological associations. The common theme, in this case, is the mental status that one is in. Rather than connecting a pitch to color randomly but consistently, we can use visual and audio to each represent a third entity. The minor scale is associated with sadness which is associated with cold colors, while epilepsy could be portrayed as flashes and sudden movements in visuals and fast-moving arpeggios in music.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this project came from the epilepsy section of this project, I always envisioned flashing lights when hearing the song and this is heavily influenced by the nature of electronic music videos I have seen. Hard-hitting songs are paired with visually impactful images and make the music feel stronger than it already is. Even though dance music is considered commercial and lame, I feel like this is the perfect genre to portray epileptic visions.
Floating
The first component of this performance is called floating, it represents a state of relaxedness and tranquility, setting up a clear contrast for the intense section that follows.
PSE
The second section is called PSE, or photosensitive epilepsy. It is used to represent the traumatic event itself, how to express a mental state in terms of musical and visual vocabulary. The heavy-hitting music with sudden stops is translated to a color flashing chaotic visual, matching the flashing visuals that are known to trigger photosensitive epilepsy.
Afterburn
The third section is called Afterburn and the term is defined as “The period of time before a past event is assimilated” by Eric Berne. This section could be interpreted as the period of time following the traumatizing event, the time it takes to recover, and no longer having the incidents affecting your daily life.
Production
Controllable Animations
Besides using a MIDI controller to swap different visuals, I utilized the keyboard as another way of interaction. I used Processing to generate controllable animations. Instead of traditional VJ playing and mixing pre-recorded visuals, I used a plug-in called Spout to send processing animation live to Max8, so that I could play controllable animations during the performance to add more interactions with the audio and the audiences as well.
Pre-made Animations
In addition to those controllable animations, I also have recorded and created several animation clips with P5.js on the website and Adobe After Effects.
Visual Scripting
The most important part of the project is to composite everything and create interactions in Max8. With the help of visual scripting, it is clear to sort the logic between different functions. There would be compositions of various functions to achieve different visual effects such as the bloom effect, RGB separation, after-image. Also, it is important to map the key parameters with the MIDI controller, these parameters require analog inputs or digital inputs, and this results in different control methods including using a knob or a button.
