Bret Battey: Autarkeia Aggregatum

 
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Artist(s):


Title:


    Autarkeia Aggregatum

Exhibition:


Medium:


    Art animation

Size:


    9:30

Category:


Artist Statement:


    Autarkeia Aggregatum is an integrated sound-and-image composi­tion emphasizing continuous flow and transformation. There are no cuts or splices in the visual aspect of the work; it unfolds instead as a constantly evolving, massed animation of a set of over 11,000 individual points.

    When seeking a title for the piece, I turned to the Monadology, the philosopher Leibniz’s theory of fundamental particles of reality (monads). I appropriated two words from that work: autarkeia (Greek) for self-sufficiency, and aggregatum (Latin) meaning joined, aggre­gated. The terms together appropriately suggest an aggregation of the activities of autonomous entities. More subtly, a resonance with Classicism draws me to the words. The resonance is one of an inner fullness of being expressed outwardly in elegant, self-sufficient restraint.

    The animation technique involves various rotational algorithms, con­strained Brownian motion, and time blurring. I initially developed the visual effects method in Processing, the Java programming environ­ment. I then translated the algorithm into a plug-in for Apple’s Motion 2 video effects software.

    I produced the sound with the help of the synthesis languages Common Lisp Music and Common Music and my own Pitch Curve Analysis and Composition toolkit.

Technical Information:


    Hardware and Software

    Macintosh G5 Dual Processor 1.8 Ghz, Apple Motion 2 with custom filter plugin, Common Lisp Music, Common Music, PICACS, Digital Performer.