My final project is an interactive sound visualization of Louis Armstrong's West End Blues. I chose this piece because it marks an important moment in jazz when Armstrong reinterprets a piece by his mentor King Oliver, giving it an energy and musical expressiveness that was not heard of before. The visualization takes the form of colorful circles that start from a center point that follows the position of the mouse pointer. Depending on the amplitude, the shape and size of the circles change, creating an organic, spontaneous and slightly chaotic feeling. This is one of the myriad ways jazz can "look". I am not concerned with achieving a translation of the sound into the visual, because the visual is based on the sound. Rather, the visual image is my own interpretation of the feeling of the music, and one that emphasizes the playful and energetic aspects.
For the background layer of the visual, I chose Jean-Michel Basquiat's "King Zulu" from 1986. Jazz had a significant influence on the art world, which is exemplified by this painting, which alludes to Charlie Parker and his coronation as "King Zulu" at the 1949 Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans. At that ceremony he wore blackface, which was criticized as a continuation of minstrelsy. I found this interesting in light of the discussion we had about Armstrong's image as too pleasing to a white audience, in contrast to the strong political statement he made by canceling his ambassadorial tour as a form of protest against the injustices in Little Rock.
In our first lesson, we learned about palimpsets, and in a way, my audiovisual work is also multi-layered, both in meaning and form. Layer one is Basquiat's painting, layer two is the circular form, and layer zero is the music. And in a sense, this is also the chronological order of influences: Armstrong's music and persona inspired Basquiat's painting, and then my final project for "Jazz in New York."
I built in an interaction between the user and the output (by making the center of the circles match the cursor), just as there is always some interaction between the audience and the performance in live jazz performances.