My final project revolves around my personal interest of visual communication and tonal music.

Baudelaire’s idea of transposition d’art inspired me to transcribe music from an aural happening to a spatial experience; Dmitri Tymoczko’s theory on tonal harmony and geometry introduced me a new way to comprehend the musical logic. With the aforementioned influences, I went on to devise a spatial experience based on music, hoping to illustrate the musical logic and express the emotional aspect of the piece at the same time.

Chopin’s Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27 no. 2,

recorded by Ivan Moravec

In order to find a piece that is suitable for an immersive experience, the music should match the following criteria:

• tempo fits walking pace

• between 5 to 10 mins long

• relatively popular so that the audience may have heard of

• has exquisite harmony

After listening to many wonderful recordings including Rubinstein’s and Richter’s etc, I landed on Ivan Moravec’s interpretation of Chopin’s no.8 nocturne. Moravec’s interpretation offers a slow but flowy, walkable tempo; and it is one of the most delicate and dreamy versions of the Op.27 no.2.

A thorough harmony analysis of Op.27 no.2

Two approaches

It seems that we come across expressions of shape everywhere in music related context.

…[M]usic unfolds in time, and so shape by definition is something that we overview or ‘have in the field of vision’ as an ‘all-at-once’ experience […] (Godoy 2017)

In my project, there are two ways to represent music in terms of shapes: shapes that honour the temporal aspect and flow along the transient music, and shapes that capture the music progression and present as an end-result, or a crystallization that formed overtime. I named the first approach as the temporal, and the second the atemporal.

The route for the experience

Quick links to:

Technically, the structure of the D-flat major nocturne contains 4 parts:
A (mm.1-mm.25),
B (mm.26-mm.45),
A’ (mm.46-mm.62),
and the ending (mm.62-mm.77).

However, I divided the sections slightly different to better fit the mood changes in the music. Now I have 5 sections:
Temporal 1 (mm.1-mm.25); [0:00-2:19]
Atemporal 1 (mm.26-mm.32); [2:19-3:04]
Temporal 2 (mm.33 - mm.49); [3:04-4:17]
Atemporal 2 (mm.50-mm.62); [4:17-5:26]
Temporal 3 (mm.63-mm.77); [5:26-7:16].

Defined by the duration (number of beats/steps), the ratios of the sections look like the following diagram:

Based on the ratio of the sections and the distance one can travel based on the tempo, my final design for the journey is:

Music:
The music will come out from speakers. The audience can walk along the beats.

Lighting:
Lighting works as the guide for the journey. Audience may lose the beats when it comes to rubato; and it will be difficult for some to grasp the rhythm. As a solution, the lighting will move forward as a hint to where the music is. The rest of the space remains dark. One can simply follow the light to explore the space.
Lighting is related to modulations.
Lighting colors will shift slightly according to the modulations.

Floor:
The slopes are related to dynamics.
There are slopes based on the change in dynamics in the music. The floor rises up when it comes to crescendo, and the slope declines when it comes to decrescendo.