Hearing Images and Seeing Sound: The Creation of Sonic Information Through Image Interpolation

This dissertation focuses on the compositional use of spectra, from the inception of this approach in the focus on acoustic characteristics of sound to my own approach, using images and raw data as spectral generators. I create these spectra using image interpolation and processing, and map them from the visual to the auditory domain. I situate my work in relation to the French and Romanian spectralists, the German Feedback Group, and other offshoots whose starting point is timbre-based composition. My own suite of software translates images into sound, allows for the creation and deletion of images, thus altering the sound, and supports analysis of the resultant spectra. Finally, the application of my software and techniques is illustrated in three of my compositions: Establish, Corrupt, Broken for 8-channel fixed media, Laniakea Elegant Beauty for Chamber Ensemble, and Invisible Signals for open instrumentation.