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AUDIOQUATROSCOPY   

An Audioquatroscopy is a new type of moving graphic design, whose rhythm is linked to a well-known classical music piece. A quatroscope is a four-sided mirror tunnel, similar to a kaleidoscope, but built of four, rather than three mirrors. A square image placed at one end - when observed from the other end of the tunnel - is reflected repeatedly in four directions, leading to unexpected and fascinating patterns, which change, when the central image is moved.

Audioquatroscopies are videos in which quadratic images of interesting objects are mirrored repeatedly and moved to the rhythms of well-known pieces of the classical music repertoire. They thus synthesize  optical with accustical signals to a new and gratifying experience.

The audioquatroscopy, that best illustrates some basics about the optical behaviour of a single square image is: Gershwin and Love.

An optical peculiarity is: When a square is rotated, empty spaces at the corners emerge. In my quatroscopies these spaces are filled by mirroring the image along the boundaries of the square. 

Audioquatroscopies can be produced with any number of classical music pieces and a large selection of images. Below I provide a list of my production so far, grouped into image themes (i.e. paintings, nature, landmarks and human artefacts). All can be examined on: www.youtube.com/@audioquatroscopy. 

Fine Arts

Nature

Satie and Butterfly                                     https://youtu.be/z6IPnvnR4KI
Charpentier and Matterhorn                   https://youtu.be/epaVJ9NHnfc           
Vivaldi and Gobal Warming                     https://youtu.be/sCmB5Bzwr3s
Mahler and Stellar Nursery                     https://youtu.be/xL7az2l-J_s
Vivaldi and Plankton Bloom                    https://youtu.be/6jCnN_nSGlY

Saint-Saëns und Aquarium                      https://youtu.be/e0RjHKYuc7A

Landmarks found in Google World

Bach and Zürich Old Town                        https://www.youtu.be/v=b-wj0r5-a7c
Händel and Westminster Abbey             https://www.youtu.be/iiDglw_2SmI
Mozart in Vienna                                         https://www.youtu.be/bqM3r5SWoc4
Beethoven in Gruyères                              https://youtu.be/ITsQbOBwC6Q
Chopin and Arc de Triomphe                   https://youtu.be/Cn12_-emaJw
Scarlatti and Venice                                  https://youtu.be/Uf28x9PPAAU
Händel and Zürich Oldtown                    https://youtu.be/b-wj0r5-a7c
Bach and St. Thomas Church                  https://youtu.be/5Sm2jbN2WvQ

Bartok and Basler Münster                      https://youtu.be/l11g6XakV0o

Artefacts

Gershwin and LOVE                                    https://youtu.be/al9LYKGIIXw
Schuhmann and Grandma's Blanket     https://youtu.be/O4haqVqYvxM      
Saint-Saëns and Aquarium                      https://youtu.be/e0RjHKYuc7A
Vivaldi and Ocean Drop                             https://youtu.be/zezDxhaokiU

How I got to producing audioquatroscopies
Audioquatroscopy evolved from my previous work on quatroscopes. In a quatroscopy a single square image is repeatedly reflected  in four directions, leading to a mosaic-like pattern. In reality, a quatroscope is a long mirror tunnel, consisting of four rather then three elongated mirrors, such as in most traditional kaleidoscopes. My first quatroscopies were produced in 2014 using a 5x5 cm square, 33 cm long mirror tunnel, placed in front of a computer-screen. Images were moved on that screen until an aesthetically pleasing pattern emerged, that could be recorded with a camera. 
The quality of the pictures taken with a camera was, however rather poor. Consequently quatroscopies were produced digitally from input images using Photoshop, such as this quatroscopy of Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana:
From 2017 to 2022 I have produced many digital quatroscopies with square images of many themes, which were mounted on a thin aluminum board and shown at several exhibitions. Some quatroscopic patterns have been used on clothes, bags, shawls etc. (see www.quatroscopy.com).
During the initial explorations with the camera, however, the observed pattern changes remained a fond memory until 2021. Then I found a computer specialist, who agreed to build an algorithm that would allow to build a quatroscopic matrix based on the input of a single square image, and then move the input image and to the rhythm of a musical tune and show the separate movements of the 49 squares as a video. I called these videos audioquatroscopies.
 
My vision for Audioquatroscopy could be realized thanks to Nik Hidber, Sandro Ducceschi, Apple, Google, and Adobe.
For earlier projects, please tap on "Earlier Projects" on top panel. 
 
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