Data and composition
For the “VLBI Music” sound installation, I’ve chosen to use a combination of sonification and free association as compositional methods. The sonification represents a more or less direct translation of features found in the data itself or the methods and techniques used for processing it. It should be clear that I don’t view this as a scientifically “true” or correct method of translation, as the interpretation I make of the data strongly affects what is represented and how it is represented.
Furthermore, when I say I use compositional methods of free association, I mean that I try to construct musical structures that may behave in a similar manner as the data or the processing methods applied to the data in the VLBI system.
In the following, I’ll go into some more detail on the aspects of the VLBI system that I’ve used in the composition of sound.