Saturday, October 23, 2010

THE VISUALIZER

One of the most amazing works of electronic art that I know is the original Visualizer on iTunes. Within the limited scope of its elements, it succeeds in constantly renewing itself. It seems there is never twice the exact same image, and the elements keep creating new patterns depending on the music that is played or maybe new elements are added, for every time I watch, something is coming up that I never have seen before.
The Visualizer responds to the music and, as I listen to my music, the Visualizer takes me on a trip out in space among the stars or inside flames of fireworks or to glittering surfaces of water - on and on through shapes and patterns or just colors melting into each other.
There are two kinds of elements: the creative and the receptive – yang and yin. The creative elements are lines of light that vibrate with the music, while the patterns of the receptive elements hold the results of the creative energy for a while, until they fade away, as must all that is created.
It is really a metaphor for the whole of creation and it has an addictive quality in its relentless shifts. It is a temptation to stay on and see what the next development will be – and the next! It gives one some of the benefits of listening to live music because it engages the vision with the music and thereby intensifies the experience.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

When I bicycle home from the studio I pass a car on whose windshield is written:
MY GOD IS REAL.

May this god - if he is real - protect us from his followers!