SONIC APPARITIONS by Sebastian Zamet

*THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS AUDIOVISUAL ALBUM CAN BE FOUND HERE: (https://youtu.be/GhlhEqdruHM)

‘Sonic Apparitions’ is a collection of fifteen audiovisual objects and sound sculptures, created by means of sound design and visualised on an oscilloscope. In 2024, I became interested in the possibilities and trend of creating art using oscilloscopes as a medium, where precise sound design is created such that, when that stereo sound is displayed on the X and Y axis of an oscilloscope, interesting and often unexpected shapes, patterns, symmetries and gestures appear. For this project I used publicly available software oscilloscopes.

The process of exploring this idea was an investigation into how changes in various sonic parameters impacted the visual. On a less technical level, I was intrigued by the highly technological and electronic aesthetic of the oscilloscope display - the vectored lines (blue was a deliberate choice) are reminiscent of electrical arcs. However, the frequently fluid nature of the shapes and gestures themselves felt, to me, to jar with this aesthetic, creating a somewhat sublime sense of ambiguity: as if digital rigidness had been subverted, or organic irregularity had somehow been forcibly compressed into a digital domain. As such, the blue objects could signify both water and electricity, and the orange ones could signify fire in both a natural and an industrial context. I felt that this dynamic could best be conveyed through relatively ‘static’ objects or sculptures, as opposed to extended sequences, because such stasis encourages a greater focus on the quality of the medium itself instead of on the development of the work over time.

One other aspect of this work is the difference in experience depending on whether one chooses to listen to the audio alone, watch the visual alone, or take both together (different formats are available). These audiovisual ‘objects’ were made with a visual in mind. Yet, the audio contains all of the encoded information such that if it were fed into an oscilloscope, the visual object would be summoned once again. I like this dynamic where visual is in a sense ‘translated’ into sound, where it exists in a dormant, ethereal state. This idea may not play a major role in the actual listening experience, but the concept of ‘sight in sound-form’ is one that I would like to explore further in the future.

Sebastian Zamet, 2025.