Sounds Codes Images

The collective monograph Sounds Codes Images explores the transitional zone between image and sound, particularly in the fields where visual arts and music meet and interconnect.

The first section introduces approaches to sound and experimentation in the field of fine arts from the perspective of so-called sound studies. It maps the overlaps of image of sound in Czech and Czechoslovak visual art and synaesthesia from the position of contemporary music theory. It deals with the echoes of the Fluxus movement, non-codified principles of musical notation, and graphic scores in the works of Czechoslovak musicians and artists. It studies the spatial materialization of music and presents an introduction to sound as a mathematical phenomenon. It also addresses the contemporary topic of acoustic ecology.

The second section of the book comprises an introduction to the works of several dozen Czech, Slovak, and foreign artists who, in their local contexts, experimented with sound, the sonification of images, or the visualization of sound: authors of graphic scores, abstract images, sounding or resonating objects, and instalations or works utilizing digital media.

Book review by sound artist Petr Válek