sonotechture

cyclo. is a collaborative research project by Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai which focuses on the visualisation of sound, and seeks to create a new hybrid of visual art and music. 

Since their collaboration began in 1999, cyclo.'s work–live performances, CDs, books, and on going research – has focused on their shared interest in the visualisation of sound. Ikeda and Nicolai have developed a database of sounds composed to produce visual responses when analysed in real time with the help of stereo image monitoring equipment. Phase and amplitude of steroids signals can be illustrated graphically: the audio elements constructed through the minute editing of frequencies (often beyond the range of human hearing) and selected by the artists for their visual characteristics when analysed. Through processes of composition, editing and experimentation, cyclo. is amassing an ‘infinity index’ of sound fragments.

In building this archive, Ikea and Nicolai transcend the usual dynamic of image acting as a functional accompaniment to sound. Instead, the audio element of the process is subservient to the desire and appetite of the image.