Online Exhibition | Techno Synesthesia: Lumière by Kenji Kojima

Online Exhibition 2019-2020 / Algorithmic Art
Techno Synesthesia: Lumière
Artist Kenji Kojima

The artwork excavates hidden music in films of the Lumière brothers.
It found 2 scales of music Whole-tone and Twelve-tone.
The Lumière brothers were among the first filmmakers in history.
Original Film "Lumière (1895-1905)" is Public Domain since 2019.

Algorithm in Plain English / 作品概要 / 作者略歴

Application "Luce" programmed by Kenji Kojima created the project.

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Techno Synesthesia: Lumière

The artwork "Techno Synesthesia: Lumière" excavated music in silent films of the Lumière brothers by a computer algorithm. The Lumière brothers created moving pictures and held their first film screenings projected cinema in 1895. The artwork found two scales of music twelve-tone and whole-tone and recorded the processes and the music on videos.

The project "Techno Synesthesia" by Kenji Kojima experiments relations between visual, music and time by computer technology. It is what we listen to our sense of sight and visualize time perception through artistic and technological experimentations. The algorithm divides 84 grids of a material video image and takes out the top five differences in shade and light in every 2 - 3 seconds. The color values of the grid images are converted to musical notes. This method was based on Kenji Kojima's RGB Music technology. The program plays the music of a midi piano. At the same time, the algorithm has drawn lines from the XY location of the grids and memorizes the time for the Z-axis. The points contain the time will make 3D wireframe and it turns 360 degrees. The drawing of thought experiments visualizes the existence of spatiotemporal points.

The beginning of the 20th century, painter Kandinsky and composer Scriabin explored the common information of visual and auditory with the art of different expressions. Techno Synesthesia is an experimental art that inherits the predecessors of the 20th century and considers the fusion and compatibility of multiple sensory organs by computer technology as a new evolution in the 21st century.

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Kenji Kojima Biography

Kenji Kojima has been experimenting with the relationships between perception and cognition, technology, music and visual art since the early ’90s. He was born in Japan and moved to New York in 1980. He painted egg tempera paintings that were medieval art materials and techniques for the first 10 years in New York City. His paintings were collected by Citibank, Hess Oil, and others. A personal computer was improved rapidly during the '80s. He felt more comfortable with the computer art than paintings. He switched his artwork to digital in the early '90s. His early digital works were archived in the New Museum - Rhizome, New York. He developed computer software "RGB MusicLab" in 2007 and created an interdisciplinary work exploring the relationship between images and music. He programmed software “Luce” for the project “Techno Synesthesia” in 2014. His digital art series "Techno Synesthesia" has exhibited in New York, media art festivals worldwide, including Europe, Brazil, and the online exhibitions by ACM SIGGRAPH and FILE, etc. Anti-nuclear artwork “Composition FUKUSHIMA 2011” was collected in CTF Collective Trauma Film Collections / ArtvideoKoeln in 2015.

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In Honor of the Lumière Brothers Techno Synesthesia: Lumière / Twelve-Tone 5 minutes Digest Free Download (5 minutes Digest 1920x1080 mp4 file): Internet Archive
Techno Synesthesia: Lumière / Twelve-Tone Scale Year: 2019, Duration 18:07, Tempo: 30, Range: 47 - 106, Sequence: 2000 Factory 1 2 3, Pier, Tea Time, Blacksmith, Watering, Card Players, Train 1, Demolition , Along the Railroad, Train 2, Horsecar & Carriages, Crossroads, Flood, Trams, Pétanque Techno Synesthesia: Lumière / Whole-Tone Scale Year: 2019, Duration 15:00, Tempo: 50, Range: 35 - 117, Sequence: 3000 Factory 1 2 3, Pier, Tea Time, Blacksmith, Watering, Card Players, Train 1, Demolition , Along the Railroad, Train 2, Horsecar & Carriages, Crossroads, Flood, Trams, Pétanque, 3D Drawing Techno Synesthesia: Lumière Cat Lumière Cat: Three Languages & Three Scales Year: 2020, Duration 03:00, Tempo: 30, Range: 47 - 106, Sequence: 3000 1) Twelve-Tone Scale / English / Victoria 2) Gamme ParTons / Français / Audrey (Whole-Tone Scale / French / Audrey) 3) 神秘和音 / 日本語 / きょうこ (Mystic Chord / Japanese / Kyoko) Lumière Cat: Twelve Tone Scale + Binary Speak Year: 2020, Duration 05:00, Tempo: 40, Range: 47 - 106, Sequence: 7000 1) English Victoria 2) 日本語きょうこ / Japanese Kyoko 3) Français Audrey / French Audrey 4) 中文新吉 / Chinese Sin-ji 5) Español Paulina / Spanish Paulina

Twelve-Tone Scale with Space-Time Drawing	Whole-Tone Scale No Drawings Space-Time Drawing is the last.
Factory 1, 2, 3
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 04:57	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 02:04

Pier
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:37	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:37

Tea Time
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:41	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:37

Blacksmith
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 02:00	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:45

Watering
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:44	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:41

Card Players
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:56	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:46

Train 1
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 02:08	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:47

Demolition
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 03:58	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 01:46

Along The Railroad
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:49	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:45

Train 2
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:55	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:45

Horsecar Carriges
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:44	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:38

Crossroads
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:44	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:39

Trams
Twelve-tone scalewith Drawings Duration 01:55	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:46

Flood
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:59	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:46

Pétanque
Twelve-tone scale with Drawings Duration 01:42	Whole-tone scale No Drawings Duration 00:43

	Space-Time Drawing Whole-tone scale Duration 01:28

Project "Lumiere" Experimental Studies
	Train 1 86 Street Station B,C Duration 02:00
	Demolition Singing Bushs Duration 03:47
	Factory 1 Geese & Ducks Duration 03:00