Ascendance

Ascendance is an abstract animation project, in VR 360 video (monoscopic) format with spatialized audio. It is best viewed in a Head Mounted Display (i.e. Quest, Vive, Rift etc) rather than via YouTube in a browser window, but if you wear decent headphones the browser experience is at least able to represent the spatialized sound (when you use the  mouse to navigate the 360 viewing space, the audio direction shifts according to where you are looking.

The intention behind the creation of this film was to re-imagine, using modern software tools, the ‘Visual Music’ or ‘Colour Music’ abstract animation forms that were conceived by the pioneering artists of this field in the early/mid 20th century. Visual practitioners such as Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Mary Ellen Bute, John Whitney, Jordan Belson, Len Lye et al. explored this territory using the analogue tools that were available at the time. Today, we can revisit the themes and questions that those artists investigated, creating visuals and sound using the sophisticated digital audio workstations, 3D software and compositing tools that are now available to us. We can generate immersive viewing and listening experiences in VR Head Mounted Displays, in our own homes. We wanted to see what was possible, and discover what it means to be a Visual Music practitioner today.  Read More