Composition musicale : Gordon Fitzell
Conception vidéo : Myriam Boucher
pour le duo D’Entre-D’eux : Tommy Davis et Nick Zoulek

For soloist or ensemble on any instrument(s), with audio and video electronics.

data_scape is built around the idea of repurposing digital data. The first step in this process is the sonification of raw data files. Beginning with a commonplace source file such as a text or image document—a file whose structure was intended for another purpose—various software programs are employed to map aspects of the data onto basic parameters of music and sound (pitch, rhythm, amplitude, waveform, etc.). In this way, the structure inherent in the data is repurposed in service of an auditory expression of the file.

Using these resultant sound files as building blocks, a digital soundscape is created—essentially a pastiche of sonified raw data files. Next the structure of this soundscape is itself repurposed through processes like audio-to-MIDI conversion (a type of data extraction) and temporal quantization (a type of rhythmic alignment). Perhaps most importantly, certain elements are converted into staves of open music notation which are available for interpretation and selective performance in real time by the musicians, alongside the audio soundscape. In this way, all sound components of the piece derive from a series of transformations, with the original source being raw data files.

In one last act of repurposing, the composite structure of this entire sonic array, including all its constituent parts, is then applied to visual parameters by video artist Myriam Boucher. The resulting video, which is presented together with the musical performance, offers yet another expression of recycled, integrally linked data.

data_scape is dedicated to Duo d’Entre Deux, who commissioned the work with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.