Hurdy Gurdy
February 2012

Hurdy Gurdy is a Visual Music installation. It consists of a room in which three record players that have been converted into projectors and sound generators each standing on their own pedestal. The three units interact to generate a sound and image composition that in an extended sense is algorithmic, and that is projected onto the wall via magnifying glasses and amplified by means of loudspeakers. The synchronicity of sounds and movements links the image and sound, while the asynchronicity of the three units relative to each other means that the composition is in a state of constant change. Visual complexity is achieved through the continuous overlapping of the projections. The objective of the project was to develop an automated device that uses mechanical processes to generate light movements and sounds, and in this manner plays an endless audiovisual concert. Using the readily comprehensible simplicity of the design and the visibility of the processes producing the sounds and images, the aim was to create an impression of presence and immediacy.

Supervised Hurdy Gurdy in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

Darwin'sche Finken suchen [Searching for Darwin's finches]
February 2012

Darwin'sche Finken suchen [Searching for Darwin's finches] is a form of applied artistic research. It consists of various experiments with different cameras, with the picture's time and space and with Katharina Hauke herself as a part of the recording session, of the camera, of the picture etc. The question in focus is whether and how it is possible to search beyond one's own boundaries, whether they are structural/conceptual/methodological or based or based on the fact that one is a body and is thus vulnerable and occupies a certain space and time. The method is rather a non-method, first broadly documented in written form and applied by Charles Darwin on his circumnavigation. It is based on curiosity (= being interested and confident in advance) in whatever lies on the way and therefore concepts or preferences are figured out as you go along. At best they are not easy to grasp or put into words.
The videos (finches and non-finsches) are pooled, structured by relatedness, on the project's website. They are accompanied by Katharina Hauke's theoretical work.

Darwin'sche Finken suchen is the diploma thesis of Katharina Hauke at the Design faculty of the University of Applied Sciences supervised by Prof. Anja Vormann and me.

Visual Music projects by IMM students on TV
December 2011

In the night from Friday to Saturday, on 3 December at 12:30 am, German TV channel BR-alpha will be broadcasting a Phase 3 Video.Kunst.Zeit special edition about IMM – Institute For Music And Media presenting a total of 16 works of Visual Music by my IMM students.
Amongst others, the show will feature the projects Light Orchestra by Lukas Vogel, Particles by Felix Rösch and telephone helicopter applause gunshot by Anne Lucht. The complete playlist is available here.

All works were produced under the supervision of IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski and me.
The programme was put together by Maximilian Joseph, Bayerischer Rundfunk Filmmusik.

telephone helicopter applause gunshot
October 2011

Pixel monsters are very musical. In the city of Kraftwerk and Neu!, they dance to their own sound. Telephone Helicopter Applause Gunshot is a Visual Music piece by Anne Lucht, created for the song of the same name by Lorenz Rhode. In addition, an App was produced in which new audio-visual arrangements of the song can be made.
Supervised Telephone Helicopter Applause Gunshot in my Visual Music together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

Vier Türme [Four towers]
February 2011

Vier Türme [Four towers] is a visual music project by Felix Herzog. Based on a watercolour by Paul Klee, it investigates the interaction of overlaying, transparent colour fields. The project is loop-based and intended for non-linear improvisation, the present clip should therefore be regarded as a snapshot. On a musical level, similarly to the colour fields, audio loops of different time bases are layered which allow diverse patterns to be produced depending on the combination. In the production of this project both video and audio were transposed several times between the digital and analogue mechanical world.
Supervised Vier Türme [Four towers] in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

fear:love
February 2011

fear:love is an audiovisual installation by Gerrit Kress, which deals with the two emotions of fear and love. It reveals the human emotional centre: an inner core that houses the respective emotion, intergrown with a system consisting of sending and receiving arms which facilitate communication between body and soul. By means of projecting moving images onto a 3-dimensional object, light design and 4.1 surround sound, the viewer of fear:love experiences a new perspective on emotions.
fear:love was exhibited in the tanzhaus nrw (NRW dance house) as well as in the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media in Düsseldorf.
Supervised fear:love in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

MadVeH7
February 2011

MadVeH7 is a visual music project by Tom Vermaaten. Music from the forecourt of hell - noise from our non-natural environment in complicated 7/4 time. Visualised by images of hecticness and imbalance and stylised by a single major crescendo. This scenario is set in a city which a fundamentalist priest once named the forecourt to hell.
Supervised MadVeH7 in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

Hemisphere
February 2011

Hemisphere is a Visual Music clip by Stephan Telaar. The video reflects the conflict between emotions and logical reasoning. Central for the visual composition was the golden ratio. The music was created in collaboration with Lukas Truniger. Hemisphere was produced for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media under the supervision of assistant professor Andreas Kolinski and me.

Was Liebe Sei
January 2011

Was Liebe Sei is a short film by Tobias Gallé based on an interpretation of text passages by Hermann Hesse. The film visualizes the feelings and thoughts of the protagonist, who is controlled by his inner emotional and rational self.
Was Liebe Sei is Tobias Gallé's diploma project in the post-graduate Motion Design program at Baden-Württemberg Film Academy.

Synse
January 2011

Synse is an iPhone App which combines music and sound-related visuals to make an interactive, audiovisual experience. It was designed and implemented by Christian Sander as part of his Video 2 exam. Supervised by assistant professors Tristan Thönnissen, Maximilian Marcoll and me at the Institute For Music And Media.
Synse has won competitions including kurzundschön in 2009 in the Mobile Miniatures category. Christian Sander also presented this concept at the c'n'b convention 2009 as part of Campus Spotlight.
Synse is available from iTunes and includes three audiovisual sets. The set FLUID is based on a visual music clip by IMM student Gerrit Kress.

seasons
January 2010

The short clip seasons was created in close collaboration between Motion Design student Christian Schwarzendahl and Film Music student Christian Barth during the annual Visual Music workshop supervised by Prof. Matthias Raue and me at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
It illustrates the cycle of one year in an abstract way. The entire visual action is reduced to one tree and its environments. The visual structures interact with different parts of the sound. In such a way that it became possible to let the visuals react to the sounds and vice versa.

beautiful world
July 2009

When I asked Martin Mercer for a few lines on his Visual Music project beautiful world, he sent me this quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Flowers are the beautiful words and hieroglyphs of Nature with which she tells us how much she loves us".
Supervised beautiful world in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

The Clock
July 2009

Sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, four weeks in a month, twelve month in a year, many years in a life.
Supervised The Clock in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

A Swing Thing
July 2009

IMM student Fabian Greb created this Visual Music clip, which he calls: A Swing Thing.
Supervised A Swing Thing in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

congruence
April 2009

The final exam Multimedia & Multimodalität (PDF in German) by Christoph Eggener cites a number of early studies in the cognitive sciences which explore perceptual interactions between the senses of seeing and hearing, and analyses them towards their relevance for audiovisual media. It thereby focuses on early stages of perception, and tries to evaluate whether there are connections between stimulus dimensions such as brightness and volume, or colour and pitch.
The visual music clip congruence, which is the practical part of Christoph Eggener's diploma thesis, takes up some of the theoretical results and transforms them into audiovisual design in the form of correlations between music and visual animation. In this way a form of perceptual aesthetics should be revealed which refers to cultural codes as little as possible, but rather to early stages of perception. Music by Fabian Schulz.
Christoph Eggener's final exam/ diploma was supervised by Prof. Dr. Karin Welkert-Schmitt and me for the media faculty at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf.
Christoph has landed one of the top five places in the Visual Music Award 2009.

Light Orchestra
February 2009

Lukas Vogel did an amazing job on live action, blue screen and post production. Filmed at a dark, industrial location, he later combined that video footage with abstract projections and a dancer - all shot separately. The movement translates into music and the music into light, thus Lukas Vogel called his film Light Orchestra.
Supervised Light Orchestra in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

artificial_neural_network
February 2009

A neural network is more than the sum of its parts. The Visual Music clip artificial_neural_network by IMM student Michael Eßer was composed in ASCII art style.
Supervised artificial_neural_network in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.
Michael has landed one of the top five places in the Visual Music Award 2009.

blzn_903
February 2009

The idea for blzn_903 emerged in the annual Visual Music workshop supervised by Prof. Matthias Raue and me in the Motion Design program at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
The intense cooperation between composer Christophe Kalkau and motion designer Tobias Gallé resulted in an energetic and aggressive clip. The intention was to create an operating and dancing mechanical organism representing a strong connection between sounds and visuals. The project was inspired by Autechre's Gantz Graf video.

gut.
December 2008

As part of his Video 2 exam, IMM student Norbert Krause, along with Eva Pauli, designed the artwork for Norbert Transport's debut CD called gut.. This special edition version of the album has been limited to 100 CDs. The packaging concept is a conscious step-away from more traditional formats such as the well known jewel-case, and each CD package has been completely hand-crafted. Included in the artwork are ten postcards, which offer a visual representation of each of the songs. Norbert - singer and guitar player of Norbert Transport - has written the songs and lyrics, and has also been producing the album.
The project was supervised by assistant professor Mariko Takagi and me.

MBF music videos
October 2008

The visual concept of all MBF music videos was developed by Severin Schultze. MBF is a Cologne based techno label run by well-known Techno DJ Riley Reinhold. The videos are short VJ-performances and can be viewed on MBF's YouTube channel as well as live visuals in clubs.
Supervised those MBF music videos in my Visual Music class at the Institute For Music And Media.

Projekt O
October 2008

On October 29th and 30th 2008, classical music and video-projections were joint live on stage. Projekt O was the joint joy of audio and visuals, as well as interaction between the analog musical instrument and the computer. The wide-ranged program was played by students of the Robert Schumann University of Music and Media Düsseldorf, under the musical direction of Prof. Thomas Leander: 14 descriptions of rain by Hanns Eisler, the 5th sonata by Alexander Skrjabin and Raintree Sketch I and II by Toru Takemitsu, as well as piano pieces by Franz Liszt and Maurice Ravel.
IMM students Caroline Bergmann and You-Jin Chang morphed into the ensemble, by sharing the stage with the musicians. Different methods of visualizing music were used - always based on quotations or background details on the composers and their music.
The live-visuals for Projekt O were part of Caroline Bergmann and You-Jin Chang's final thesis/ diploma, supervised by assistant professor Ulla Barthold and me.

creationcopychaos.com
August 2008

In his diploma thesis creationcopychaos.com, IMM student Felix Nölken investigates into the range of impacts of digitalisation and interconnectedness on production, distribution and consumption of media content with a focus on music. Based on the conclusions drawn, an internet business model concerned with collaboratively structuring music online is developed in the second part of the work.
Felix Nölken's diploma thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klinkenberg and me for the media faculty at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf.

Dancing with Fire
March 2008

The idea for Dancing with Fire emerged in the annual Visual Music workshop supervised by Prof. Matthias Raue and me in the Motion Design program at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
Fire is Erekle Inashvili's favorite visual element since childhood and in this project he tried to show hypnotic aesthetics through the rhythm of fire.
Produced in intense collaboration with the composer Özgür Akgül.

monokompatibel
February 2008

monokompatibel, a project by Severin Schultze und Michael Wirtz, is online. The site represents both fields of monokompatibel's interest - art and business - visualized through a unique graphic concept.
Supervised concept and production of this portfolio website as part of Michael Wirtz' Video 2 exam at the Institute For Music And Media.

Licht|Geschwindigkeit [light|speed]
October 2007

Maurice Braun won the Visual Music Award 2007 for his sound- and video composition Licht|Geschwindigkeit [light|speed]. The 1st prize was endowed with a mobile phone and a flat-screen.
Supervised Licht|Geschwindigkeit in my Visual Music class together with IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski at the Institute For Music And Media.

audicted
August 2007

Sebastian Krüger's portfolio website audicted was highly recommended in two internet forums: On July 17th, 2007 at Visueller Orgasmus and on August 7th, 2007 at Strange Fruits. Additionally, the website won the "Mowsnet Silver Award ". Sebastian collaborated with designer Jan Weiss.
Supervised concept and production of this site as a Video 2 exam at the Institute For Music And Media.

mission 70+
July 2007

Nike's mission 70+, a student project by Aleksander Bach (director) and Justin Kruse (art direction), was nominated for the VDW-AWARD 2007 and won the SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL 2008 bronze award. The documentary commercial portrays a 72 years old fancy diver.
Supervised Justin Kruse's motion graphics and color grading as part the Motion Design (formerly: Film & TV Design) program at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy.

Online portfolio
August 2006

Lorenz Rhode finished his homepage. He publishes funk- and synthesizer-heavy house productions and remixes. His last publication was a Realbase Recordings remix The Rhythm Slaves-Shine on too.
Supervised concept and production of this site as a Video 2 exam at the Institute For Music And Media.

RAIL4ROCK
July 2006

Claudia Kanther developed a communication strategy which sends instead of musicians the audience on tour for festivals.
Supervised RAIL4ROCK, the diploma thesis of graduating student Claudia Kanther, at the design faculty of the University of Applied Sciences Duesseldorf. The thesis was graded A+.

Fernsehschoner
February 2006

Gregor Kuschmirz graduated at Baden-Württemberg Filmacademy with the unmistakable project Fernsehschoner. Later that year he developed and directed the Stock Exchange of Visions for Centre Pompidou and Benetton's research-centre Fabrica.
Supervised this final exam/ diploma in the Motion Design (formerly: Film & TV Design) program together with Prof. Manfred Becker.

Right Time
February 2005

Right Time was the first elective project Felix Koziol directed and produced as a student. In collaboration with Peter Matjasko (DOP) he also developed the look and motion graphics for this video clip.
Supervised Right Time in the Motion Design (formerly: Film & TV Design) program at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy.