Lighting people have been trying to interpret sound for decades. Lately, they’ve been getting better at it. Visual artist Quayola, working with record producer and remixer Jamie xx, developed a software language that “translates” music into what they call Structures — computer-generated artwork, projected onto a pair of 56-inch projection screens, that modulate to the real-time music signals input to their host computers. They have been described as “a unique immersive experience.” The software, dubbed Partitura, can interpret sounds and transform them into visuals. It can also be “played” like an instrument. If it sounds like the algorithmic-based music Visualizer that accompanies iTunes on your Mac laptop, it’s at least the same concept, though Quayola asserts that Partitura is significantly more precise and detailed.
—Dan Daley, from “The Biz,” PLSN, Sept. 2011
