Sound and Science: Exploring White Vinyl’s Digital World
Between creating digital projects for groups like the Gates Foundation (yeah, that Gates Foundation), his career as a singer/songwriter, and his hobby of making indie video games, it’s amazing Luke Twyman has time for his main project: White Vinyl. A combination of HTML, refined digital art, electronic music experiments, and dreamily innovative ideas, Twyman’s White Vinyl is a combination of beauty, science and sound. To get a better understanding of Twyman’s lofty creations, we spoke to him about his inspirations and unique style, and we even had him walk us through some of his amazing interactive creations.
“My goal is to make interactive experiences, which generate thought and emotion, and the music is a big part of that.”
Where did you develop your visual style?
I actually grew up in Margate, UK, a seaside town which didn’t offer much to do, beyond going to local DIY gigs. After struggling at school and eventually dropping out, I went and studied music at the local college and university. Around then, I started making home-brew video games as a hobby. I had no idea what I wanted to do until I realized I could combine the bit of programming experience I’d gained from game making with my interest in creating visuals.
That became White Vinyl, then? How did you develop your style once you knew what you wanted to do?
Yeah, that’s how it went down. In terms of style, I’ve been described as creatively fickle, which is fair! Mainly, though, I think it’s that I rarely start out a project knowing what form it’s going to take. I like mulling over those kind of fuzzy half-ideas and seeing what happens.
I get that. The music you put in your pieces sort of sounds contemplative like that. What are you hoping to evoke with the atmospheric electronic music in your art?
With any of the interactive pieces, I think the mood is a big focus for me. That even goes for the ones without music, such as Here Is Today or World Food Clock.
Generating music with code was something I started playing with very early on, originally with Solarbeat. I had no idea how it would sound—if it would be listenable or completely chaotic. It turned out that the pulsing that resulted was surprisingly pleasing, so I shaped the tone of the sounds around that. My goal is to make interactive experiences, which generate thought and emotion, and the music is a big part of that.
Who are some musicians that inspire you to create your pieces?
It’s a mix of stuff, really. I think most of the music projects have started more with a concept than a musical style, but I’m a big Björk fan, and so maybe some of that seeps into projects like Flora Drift. I know I had Ryuichi Sakamoto in mind with a couple of projects as well… also, Icelandic band Múm.
Lately, I’ve been listening quite a bit to Cut Hands and thinking I want to do some generative audio work that steers away from the well-trodden, ambient end of things—some computational music which is a lot more bold and bombastic, or a lot more experimental with the types of sound created.
Sounds pretty nuts! And aside from music?
Scientific discovery and existential subjects really get me going… also, moody sci-fi, the work of Miyazaki, and there are some really cool art games by ThatGameCompany.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
A couple of modern illustrators I love are Victo Ngai and Matthew Lyons—especially his personal projects. Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, who did these incredible astronomical illustrations in the late 19th Century (see: this and this). Lawren Harris, who painted amazing stylized landscapes in the early 20th century (The Group of Seven: Lawren Harris).
Right now, there’s a whole bunch of people doing weirdo generative art and concept video games—which is something I’m only just starting to tap into, but I’m finding that really exciting.
You also make your own personal music, right?
Yeah, I spent some years with a project called Neverest Songs. I put out an album and a seven-inch and played a load of shows. It was a bit folky, a bit ambient/dreamy—melodramatic songwriter stuff. Since moving to Brighton, I’ve started again with a new project called Whitehawk, which is still very dreamy, but more fuzzy and synth-based. I’ll be releasing the first two tracks soon!
There is also an educational aspect to a lot of your work. Can you tell us how you hope viewers will respond?
The educational aspect was again something I originally happened on with Solarbeat and realized I wanted to maintain with future projects. I’ve already been blown away by how people have responded to them. I know several of my projects are being used in schools, universities and museums around the world. And I always love it when teachers let me know they’re using one.
What’s best is the huge emotional responses I’ve had. People write to tell me how much they’ve appreciated my work, or even that they were moved to tears. It’s really touching. I really couldn’t ask for a better response.
I bet you will get some similarly inspired responses from our readers. Why don’t you take us through some of your pieces?
Arlington Electro-Harp
Arlington Electro-Harp was originally created as part of a performance set. I’d filmed four video loops, each with their own piece of music. Half I performed live with guitar & synths, and half were generated with code. This particular scene felt like it would best translate into a standalone piece for the web, so I converted it to be a little more interactive. It gets its name from the building used—Arlington House, which is a prominent brutalism landmark on the Margate seafront.
For Nihon
I made For Nihon to promote a tsunami benefit compilation album of ambient artists put together by Unseen Music. I think this was my first released project where the music was both fully generated with code and intended to sound vaguely song-like. It’s essentially determined like a bunch of random dice rolls. Roll a one, and the rhythm might pause; roll a two, and it might play two notes in quick succession; etc.
Solarbeat
Solarbeat had me researching the time it takes each body of our solar system to complete an orbit. Once I heard for the first time the extreme difference between Mercury and Pluto, I decided to give most of the planets a soft pulse sound, but to turn Mercury more into a continuous drone. The sounds were created in a software synth, then imported as audio. Mercury also has a stretched sample from a music box blended into it, which gives it those whirring harmonics. As far as I know, the song never repeats in a human lifetime.
Chorus Age
Chorus Age was based on an idea I’d played with before: the simulation of an ecosystem. Complex AI is a very deep subject that usually goes way over my head. But I find playing with very simple AI really fascinating. I love the idea of these autonomous events being what triggers the generation of sound and music. I went for quite an abstract, game-like style for this one, and while I’m really pleased with how it came out, I’ve learned a lot since. So I plan to revisit it as a much larger, more stable remake at some point.
Flora Drift
The music in Flora Drift is generated on the fly with a relatively complex (well, at least for me) algorithm, intended to make it sound like a pleasing song. Visually, it generates a whole jungle scene every couple of bars. On top of that, there are three interactive instruments built in. You can drag over the background to create a filtered sound that plays in harmony with the bass, and there’s (what I’d named just for my own purposes) the Space-Pan and Lazer-Harp. You can also mess with the whole tempo and blend in a synth drum track. It’s probably my favorite project that I have created, as it combines a number of my different interests, and I’m really pleased everything turned out just as I wanted.
Do you have any other inspiring projects coming down the chute?
I have so many things in progress at the moment, but one of my main focuses is a collaborative project called BlokDust I’m making with two other locals—Luke Phillips and Ed Silverton.
It’s a web-based app in which you can create your own music, synths and sound art in a way which is very visual, tactile and fun, but also pretty powerful. It’s all based around being able to drag and drop blocks on the screen, and when close together, blocks will automatically connect and interact to create or alter sound. There’s also the possibility to create environments which are self-playing, creating chain reactions and loops. When you make something cool with it, you’ll be able to generate a unique link and share it with others. The aim at the moment is to make it fun and simple enough that anyone can make something with it, but with enough scope that users can also potentially make very complex creations.
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