PRISMBODY: A Synesthetic Fusion of Music and Light at The Met
A groundbreaking project merging music and visual art, named PRISMBODY, was unveiled at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This innovative endeavor, spearheaded by violinist Audrey Wright, her creative collaborator Geoff Robertson, and composer Stephanie Ann Boyd, seeks to transform Boyd’s unique synesthetic perception of music into a public, multisensory experience. The core of the performance involves Wright, adorned with an electronic garment, playing the violin while Robertson manipulates visual programs that project light patterns across her wearable display. This fusion of sound and sight aims to bridge the gap between an individual's internal sensory experience and a collective artistic interpretation, offering audiences a novel way to engage with musical compositions. The project represents a significant step in exploring the intersections of technology, art, and human perception, pushing the boundaries of traditional musical performance by making the ephemeral nature of synesthesia tangible and observable.
The creative team behind PRISMBODY is continuously refining their technology to enhance the immersive experience. Robertson, who engineered the initial version of the wearable garment, is now developing "Garment 2.0" with advanced RGB LEDs. This upgrade will allow for a broader spectrum of colors, more accurately reflecting the nuanced hues Boyd associates with specific sounds. The vision extends to a fully wraparound, transparent display that will envelop Wright, creating a seamless, 360-degree visual surface. This evolution from multisensory to multimodal aims for precise chromatic accuracy, allowing Boyd to recognize her internal perceptions manifest visually on stage. The project not only showcases the artistic interpretation of synesthesia but also highlights the potential of wearable technology to create truly interactive and transformative artistic expressions, inviting the audience to see, as well as hear, the music.
Translating Sound into Visuals: The Synesthetic Garment
The PRISMBODY project introduces an innovative approach to musical performance by translating the composer's synesthetic experiences into dynamic light displays. Violinist Audrey Wright wears a specially designed garment embedded with sophisticated electronics, enabling visual interpretations of the music she performs. Geoff Robertson, her creative partner, controls these visual elements through a tablet, synchronizing light patterns with Wright's violin playing. This setup allows the audience to 'see' the music as an extension of the sound, making the abstract concept of synesthesia accessible to a broader public. The intricate interplay between live music and responsive light aims to deepen the audience's engagement, offering a richer, more immersive sensory experience that transcends conventional auditory engagement.
The concept behind PRISMBODY originates from composer Stephanie Ann Boyd's intrinsic ability to perceive music in colors. Robertson aptly describes the light display as 'subtitles' for the audio, conveying information derived from Boyd’s unique sound-to-color associations. The garment, acting as a visual instrument, processes the violinist's performance and projects corresponding color fields. This integration ensures that Boyd's personal, internal experience of music as a blend of sound and color is externalized and shared with the audience. The initial design of the garment featured 46 display panels and over 3,000 LEDs, generating its own Wi-Fi network for real-time visual programming. An integrated microphone captures Wright's playing, feeding audio data into the visual effects, which run at approximately 30 frames per second, ensuring a fluid and dynamic visual accompaniment to the musical score. This technological orchestration transforms a deeply personal phenomenon into a communal artistic spectacle, challenging traditional notions of musical presentation.
The Evolution of the Wearable Instrument and its Multisensory Impact
Geoff Robertson's innovative design and engineering skills were crucial in developing the first iteration of the PRISMBODY garment, transforming it into a wearable musical instrument. He meticulously constructed the device, learning electrical engineering and programming to integrate 46 display panels and over 3,000 LEDs onto Wright's body. This advanced system includes 47 batteries and its own Wi-Fi network, allowing Robertson to orchestrate various visual programs in real time during performances via a tablet. An embedded microphone captures Wright's violin melodies, which then influence the visual effects, creating a seamless interaction between sound and light. This technological marvel operates at approximately 30 frames per second, providing a vibrant and continuous visual narrative that complements the musical composition.
The project is pushing technological boundaries with the development of "Garment 2.0," which aims to significantly broaden the visual palette. This updated version will feature RGB LEDs, capable of producing a much wider array of colors compared to the previous model's five fixed hues, allowing for a more nuanced and accurate representation of Boyd's synesthetic perceptions. Robertson is also innovating with transparent display panels designed to fully encircle Wright, replacing the earlier front-and-back setup with a continuous, 360-degree visual surface. This will include individually controlled white LEDs alongside the RGB layer and additional lights that project color inwards onto Wright as she performs. The external spotlights are also being redesigned to be sculptural extensions of the wearable display, casting the visual experience further into the performance space. This ambitious evolution moves the garment from a multisensory device to a truly multimodal instrument, enhancing both the precision of the visual translation and the immersive quality of the audience's experience. The ultimate goal is to create a fully enveloping spectacle where the visual and auditory elements are indistinguishable, allowing the audience to profoundly connect with the music in a holistic sensory manner.