Surface Tension is an audio-visual
performance in which live music is translated into visual images.
Pianist Eve Egoyan improvises on a grand piano and each note she plays
is presented visually on a large projection screen rising out of the
piano. In one section of the piece, each note disturbs the surface of a
virtual pool of water. In another, Eve builds a 3-dimensional tower with
her performance. In yet another, she uses the keys and sustain pedal
to draw out the trajectories of snowflakes captured in video. The
software, written by interactive artist David Rokeby, is designed to
pick up and represent a variety of performance features like dynamics,
pitch, harmonic relationships, durations of notes and pedaling. The
result is a entrancing work in which music and image are intertwined in
an extraordinary way, with neither element dominating.
