Arrangement In Grey and Black is a short motiongraphics video I created in the second term of Digital Design at Vancouver Film School. The goal was to create a visaully captivating dream like sequence with an undertone of ‘epic’ acheived through complex digital lighting techniques.

I wanted to be certain that the audio of the piece would be in-line with my own design principles, and to accomplish this I began researching progressive musicians. After spending many hours scowering the web and countless myspace pages I came across the work of Alva Noto.

Alva Noto is a stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes. Another alias he uses is Noto. He is a member of the music groups Signal (with Frank Bretschneider, AKA Komet and Olaf Bender, AKA Byetone) and Cyclo, (with Ryoji Ikeda).

Carsten Nicolai also works as a visual artist. Using the principles of Cymatics he visualizes sound. Nicolai’s practice is formed by a convergence of sound, painting and sculpture that results in installations exploring the idea of creativity filtered through modularized systems and codes. His music features prominently in his art. Nicolai’s work exposes the limitations, and potential beauty and creativity, possible within strict logical systems.

Nicolai plays with the rules of physicality. Sound is changed and evolved into time and space and transformed by looping oscillators and tone generators. Through these processes the essence of pure electricity is made audible. He works without sequencers, but mathematically edits his work to give his compositions precise rhythmic structures. Clicks and glitches are not used as ornamental additions to the compositions but make up the essential elements of the work and these sound sources are applied to the rhythmic groove of Hip-Hop and R&B. The sounds of electronic information transmission such as fax tones, modem sounds and telephone pops and clicks are sampled and organised into loops to which Nicolai adds longer electronic tones in the background and foreground as the piece progresses.

The entire piece was created within Adobe After Effects – and the process began to unfold my priorities towards digital lighting grew stronger. The major driving force behind the construction of each scene was in technical and advanced lighting techniques in After Effects.

You can also view and comment on this video on the JesseRaeLang YouTube channel:
• Watch “Arrangement In Grey and Black” at YouTube

That’s all for now, thanks for reading.
*j