Synaesthetic Object (Coltrane)

Synaesthetic Object (Coltrane) is a live audio-visual performance that uses computer analysis of John Coltrane's Ascension (1965) as the basis for a real-time 3D rendering of a shape. The performer manipulates the rendering throughout the performance by altering a set of improvisation parameters that control how the shape shifts and behaves. The sound in the piece is derived from a direct scan of the geometry of the shape at different frequencies, creating an ever-shifting drone. The use of a seminal free jazz album as, effectively, a noise source for generative graphics allows the performed shape and resulting music to have a nuanced vocabulary of gestures that translate into a highly expressive canvas for synaesthetic performance.