Back To The Cross-Modal Object: A Look Back At Early Audiovisual Performance Through The Lens Of Objecthood

Abstract

This paper looks at 2 early digital audiovisual performance works, solo work Overbow and the group Sensors_Sonics_Sights (S.S.S) and describes the compositional and performance strategies behind each one. We draw upon the concept of audiovisual objecthood proposed by Kubovy and Schutz to think about the different ways in which linkages between vision and audition can be established, and how audio-visual objects can be composed from the specific attributes of auditory and visual perception. The model is used as a means to analyze these live audio-visual works performed using sensor-based instruments. The fact that gesture is not the only visual component in these performances, and is the common source articulating sound and visual output, extends the classical 2-way audiovisual object into a three-way relationship between gesture, sound, and image, fulfilling a potential of cross-modal objects.