CATALOG NO. B21 2001
Wave Motion
Book with case and music CD
Specifications Edition open
6"x10-1/2 " closed, 20 pages with Mylar cover and music CD
Collections
Copies are in private collections
Permanent Collections -
Columbia University Rare book and Manuscript Library
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Wave Motion by Thomas Parker Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
SOUNDCLOUD - Complete Composition
I have used the concept of
self-similarity in nature - the fact that shapes and patterns
repeat in ever smaller or larger scales - for this book. A familiar
example of this is the similarity of the structure of an atom with the structure of our
solar system.
Wave Motion uses self-similar visual and musical
forms to reproduce the experience of a natural feature, the motion of
a wave breaking on the shore.
To produce the basic wave shape I used a series of
random numbers. The numbers determined, in sequence, whole and half
positive or negative steps that were used to create six melodies of
twenty-four notes each starting with the notes C,D,E,F,G and A.
The music was written out and the steps were graphed.
The graphs of the six melodies were arranged for the best visual
fit which yielded the actual chord progression of the composition: F,E,A,G,D,C.
The music uses the melodies at different tempos and octaves
to create the overall composition.
Visually this wave pattern is represented four ways:
as a graph of the music composition as it is played in
real time, as an ink drawing of an actual wave,
as a 3D representation of the basic wave shape
that has been copied and scaled to produce a simulation
of wave action in nature, and finally, a segment
of this wave action is reproduced by the cut shapes of the pages.
Book cover
Book page
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