Date:2025-05-23
/Update:2025-05-31
Listen to Color / Wassily Kandinsky – Francesco Tristano
“To a sensitive soul, the effect of colors is deeper and intensely moving.” — Wassily Kandinsky.
“Kosmos Kandinsky” an exhibition held at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany, featured the work of Wassily Kandinsky, known as a pioneer of abstract painting.
Together with pianist and composer Francesco Tristano, we selected works from the exhibition—including pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, Liubov Popova, Iván Kliun, and Aleksandra Ekster—and approached them from the perspective of geometric abstraction through color. By deconstructing and reconstructing these works, we explored their worlds from a new angle. (Concerts were held at Nikolaisaal Potsdam in Germany and Fundación Juan March in Madrid, Spain.)
Sound visualization
The Sphere of Sound and Light
“The Sphere of Sound” captures the moment when light bursts like sound through code. With each press of a piano key, particles of light are created. The design is inspired by Ivan Kliun’s “Red Light.”
Fragments of Cubism
“Fragments of Cubism” deconstructs and reimagines Alexandra Exter’s ”Farbige Konstruktion”, visualizing its color fragments as shimmering waves of sound. By tracing the flowing lines created by the sound, viewers can experience a composition of various colors.
The Sound Wave Architectonics
Ripples on the surface of water are among the most graceful and beautiful patterns in nature. Like those ripples, sound travels through the air in three dimensions, expanding outward in geometric forms. “The Sound Wave Architectonics” captures this phenomenon by translating the flow of sound into architectural structures, allowing us to sense the delicate movement of sound waves as if they were visible forms.
Non-Objective Sphere Lights / additive – subtractive
“Non-Objective Sphere Lights” are created based on the elements of light and color, using the principles of additive color mixing (the three primary colors of light) and subtractive color mixing (the three primary colors of pigments). The afterimages change in response to the root note and volume of the sound. This design is inspired by Spherical Non-Objective Composition by Ivan Kliun.
Rectangular Composition
The forms composed of rectangles transform freely while maintaining a certain sense of order. The result is a complex structure—like a bird’s nest with its own distinctive balance and shape.
Moiré Vision 88
Moiré patterns emerge when regular structures overlap, resulting from the interaction of their periodicities. Although often regarded as unwanted artifacts in video and print, they possess a unique and inherent beauty.
“Moiré Vision” is a sound visualization that translates the elegant visual effects of these interference patterns into the temporal dimension of sound.
It is designed in correspondence with the frequency range of the 88 keys of the piano.
白 shiro – 黒 kuro
“白 shiro – 黒kuro” is a work centered around the colors white and black. White reflects all colors, while black absorbs them entirely. Though opposites, these two are unique among all colors. The form—a sphere generated from a Fermat spiral, a pattern often found in nature such as in seed arrangements and the formation of flowers—reacts dynamically to sound. Just as white and black sit at the extremes of the color spectrum, the spiral form bridges contrast and harmony, weaving sound, color, and shape into a unified expression.
Sound Visualization for Art
“Sound Visualization for Art” is a visual work generated by code that decomposes a painting into its color components and redraws it using an original algorithm and sound data. The image continuously evolves over time, guided by live sound.
Francesco Tristano
After completing his studies at Juilliard School in New York, Francesco Tristano—hailed as a “Rising Star”—has performed in many prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Wiener Musikverein. His concert work has brought him together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. His albums have received critical acclaim and multiple awards. Tristano’s repertoire spans Baroque, Classical, contemporary music, jazz, and club music, reflecting both his virtuosity and versatility. His interpretations are bold and unconventional, and collaborations with Chilly Gonzales and Detroit techno legend Carl Craig highlight Tristano’s boundless curiosity and openness.
Website / Francesco Tristano
BGD_SOUNDS (barbe_generative_diary SOUNDS)
barbe_generative_diary SOUNDS will start sharing and selling a variety of field recordings collected for use in my artwork “Sound Visualization” experiments. All sounds are royalty-free.
