Arcanum
03-11-2021
Arcanum is an audiovisual code derived from the symbols used for the divinatory reading of the tarot “arcana.” Created on staff paper, the code magnifies and simplifies the rich details of historic tarot cards, presenting twenty-two images which are “constructed” on a musical staff and made up of corresponding chords of three notes each, which can be listened to online in succession.
Continuing my work with alphabets and numbers, here I explore the arcane code of the tarot, transforming visual details into fundamental structures that are scaled up to fill the entire staff paper, sometimes producing Escher-like figures. For the composition, I drew inspiration not only from the divinatory art of tarot, but also from Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin and his “mystic” chord: a succession of notes conceived by the Russian composer and pianist both as a harmonic foundation and as a key to reading the Divine in the symphonic poem Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. By sampling the wind, the quintessential invisible element, I synthesized a digital instrument similar to an organ with which I performed the soundtrack.

(Alessio de Girolamo)

exibart digital gallery exibition link




original
soundtrack
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