We live in a remarkable era where recorded and constructed media (text, photo, film, sound, music, dance, architecture, sculpture and physical objects of all descriptions) can be encoded as digital information. This data can then be stored, transmitted, replicated, processed and/or augmented in myriad ways. Central to the processing of digital information is the ability to transcode one form of media into another. We have developed a number of increasingly sophisticated performances and installations that explore the aesthetic possibilities of transcoding video images and visual geometric forms into sound and music. We have done so not only to push the technological envelope but moreover to express a musical, visual and theatrical vision within a single integral form. Unlike many new media artists and researchers, who pursue novel invention for its own sake, moving from one technical demo to the next, we have pursued the creation of a digital instrument that requires a dedicated practice to master its subtleties and reveal its ever increasing potentials. As such, we blend the theoretical and aesthetic capabilities of the visual artist and filmmaker with the temporal understanding of the composer and improvisatory instincts of the jazz instrumentalist. Like the hybrid nature of digital information itself, we work at the fluid nexus between disciplines in service of creating a Chimera.
Swarm Caste is one of a series of new glass works that utilizes mathematic data (the hacking of differential equations) to produce a wide variety of sonic and visual forms. In this instance we have fabricated a graphite mold that is then used to cast hot glass. The result is a set of bio-mimetic forms that suggest visual structures found in nature. Similar to our performances the results are an evocative hybrid between the familiar and the alien. We produced Swarm Caste as Artists in Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School, where we were able to work with leading glass artists to realize an extensive body of work.
