What was your initial response to Rodriguez Jr.’s track?
I thought it was a really interesting and futuristic sounding track, there are a lot of sonic elements in there that build and work really well with creating this unique atmosphere. I was thinking about places to take the track visually almost instantly.

Could you share the process of visualizing Rodriguez Jr.’s track?
When it came to visualizing the track, I knew it had to have an atmospheric style, and I was thinking of traversing into the ‘unknown’. I work in TouchDesigner and there are a lot of surprising things that can happen when working with audio. A big part of the visuals for Rodriguez Jr.’s music is mapping certain audio elements, like the high or low end, to the movement of noise and particles across the space to make you feel like you’re traveling along with the sound and visual.

Does this artwork reflect your habitual approach to integrating visual and auditory elements? How was it different?
To some extent yes, but there are always different approaches with different tracks. For visuals, I like to start with a base idea and progress, but then often I find that when I adapt the visual with audio reactive elements, it can go in a different direction and there are a lot of happy accidents, things I didn’t think of doing initially that happen.

What inspired you to first explore audiovisual art?
I have been making music forever and spent a long time trying to figure out visual themes and worlds that my music could live in. This is why the majority of my art is based around audio, I love the way light and sound can interact and immerse an audience.


What aspects/features of digital technology have proven particularly useful to your creative process?
I think the most useful thing is the access to various software now and the link between audio + visual. The main reason I use TouchDesigner is because it is so powerful in terms of what can be achieved when linking these elements and I love how deep it can get - there is always a way to get an idea out.

Are there any digital tools/techniques that intrigue you at the moment?
I guess AI and stable diffusion, things like that are interesting. I see a lot of stuff out there but I think it’s still super early days and a lot of it ends up looking the same or there’s a lack of originality. I’d like to see how it evolves and if there’s any way I could use it but I don’t think it’s for me just yet.


Who, or what, has been your biggest artistic and musical influence this year?
It’s hard to say just one because there are a lot of people that inspire me — in terms of music, I always go to Flume and Eprom. Literally the best at sound design and just making the coolest sounding stuff. For visuals, there are so many people I follow on Instagram that are making really amazing fresh stuff. Safehaven, MONOCOLOR, Unknown Sources are probably the main ones when it comes to who has influenced me. ■