Digest: The Sound of Fountain, 9 Fountains in New York City 07:00
please use earphones or speakers for good sounds.


Techno Synesthesia: Show Japanese | 日本語

「テクノ共感覚(Techno Synesthesia)」は、小島健治が2007年から進めている視覚と聴覚の境界を越えようとするアートのシリーズです。視覚と聴覚は私たちの感覚器官では別ですが、私にはどこかに繋がりがあるように感じられます。テクノ共感覚シリーズの始めは、静止画の色彩データをアルゴリズムで音階に変換して演奏し、その音楽データを再び画像にも戻せるアプリの「RGB MusicLab」が作り出すソフトウエア作品でした。このページのビデオ作品はその発展上にあり、ビデオ素材の膨大なデータをフレームのグリッドに分け、約1秒ごとの明暗の差上位3位の色彩データに整理して音楽を作りだしています。ある色を見るとある特定の音が聞こえる知覚を持っている人達がいるそうです。しかし真偽は不確かです。「テクノ共感覚」はコンピュータ・テクノロジーを使い、感覚によらない確かなデータの扱いで、視覚から聴覚に踏み込んでみようとするアートのささやかな試みです。19世紀末から20世紀初頭の作曲家アレクサンドル・スクリャービンが、交響曲「プロメテウス」の楽譜にLuce(イタリア語で光)のパートを書いた要因や、20世紀初期のマルセル・デュシャンの「網膜的でない絵画」は、21世紀にはテクノロジーに結びついて実現される方向に向かっています。「The Sound of Fountain(ファウンテンの音楽)」は、ニューヨーク市の9つの噴水の動画、画像データから作られた音楽と、環境音で構成した共感覚へのアプローチを、ビデオ媒体で表現した作品です。このページの始めにあるビデオは、9作品を7分にまとめたダイジェストです。それぞれの本編はページ1/3ほどから下にあります。
シナステージア(共感覚)のアートについて 日本語で詳しく

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The video series "The Sound of Fountain" are Kenji Kojima's Techno Synesthesia Art Works. They realize the Art of Synesthesia by computer technology using algorithmic composition. “Synesthesia” is the perception phenomenon that can feel a certain sense of other senses. An ordinary human being cannot see sounds. We can only see a sight and listen a sound of our surroundings. I believe no boundaries between audio and visual. I would like to try Synesthesia by computer science for the art. The project is experimenting with the relationship between sound and visual. “The Sound of Fountain" is not pursuing visual stimulations nor illusions. The video plays the sounds of 9 fountains in New York City. It does not play only sounds of spouted water and fountain sights with environmental noises. But the music was created from the video image data by the algorithm of the artist's programming. The music is not a composer's impression, it is composed of certain visual data by the computer algorithm.

The algorithm refers the method of our sensibilities. But this is not a science, it is an art project. A video frame contains a huge amount of visual data. The program can not convert all the data of the video images to musical notes. Our sensibilities select instinctively appropriate data from an enormous amount of information on passing the time. The visual data are suppressed and arranged by the algorithm. The project uses comparing the brightness on the timeline. The program reads RGB color data from divided 84 grids of a video frame and compares the brightness of each grid and chooses two largest different values than a second before, then converts the color values to musical notes. You can see the binary and the positions of musical notes in white line squares on the video. The program converts the color value 120 to the middle C of the scale. Higher value added note steps on a scale. The program can set some variations by parameters. Finally, it plays midi instruments. The technical methods of the project based on Kenji Kojima’s RGB MusicLab.

Contemporary visual art is not only visual matters. It uses methods of science and technology and going to more like an alchemy. The technical methods based on Kenji Kojima’s RGB MusicLab. “PROJECT: The Sound of Fountain” was inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”. The edition "Public 1280x720" is under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).


Kenji Kojima's Biography:
Kenji Kojima has been experimenting with the relationships between perception and cognition, technology, music and visual art since early 90’s. He was born in Japan. He moved to New York City in 1980. He painted egg tempera paintings that were medieval art materials and techniques for the first 10 years. His paintings were collected by Citibank, Hess Oil, and others. A personal computer was improved rapidly during the 80's. He felt more comfortable with the computer art than paintings. It was clean and less contaminated on the Earth. He switches his artwork to digital. His early digital works were archived in the New Museum - Rhizome, New York. He developed Techno Synesthesia computer software "RGB MusicLab" in 2007. It created an interdisciplinary work exploring the relation between images and music. His digital art series "Techno Synesthesia" has exhibited in New York, media art festivals worldwide, including Europe, Brazil, and the online exhibitions by ACM SIGGRAPH and FILE(Electronic Language International Festival). Kenji Kojima's Resume



"The Sound of Fountain / New York City" compilation 45:04
Individuals
1. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 02:52
2. Lincoln Center, New York 06:20
3. 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York 05:21
4. Bryant Park, New York City 06:00
5. Untermeyer Fountain, Central Park, New York 03:25
6. Conservatory Garden, Central Park, New York 05:30
7. Washington Square Park, New York City 06:04
8. Columbus Circle, New York City 04:20
9. Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, New York City 05:43




December 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, New York City
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Columbus Circle, New York City
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Washington Square Park, New York City
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Conservatory Garden, Central Park, New York
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Untermeyer Fountain, Central Park, New York
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Bryant Park, New York City
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November 2015
The Sound of Fountain, 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York
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October 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Lincoln Center, New York
This video was selected in FILE Media Art, which will be part of FILE 2016 - Electronic Language International Festival. The exhibition is held from July to August 2016 at Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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July 2015
The Sound of Fountain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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email: index@kenjikojima.com