Cloud Music

Robert Watts, David Behrman, Bob Diamond, Cloud Music, 1974-1979, hybrid sound/video installation with custom electronics, dimensions variable, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.64, © 1979, Robert Watts Estate, David Behrman, Bob Diamond

Artwork Details

Title
Cloud Music
Artists
Date
1974-1979
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
dimensions variable
Copyright
© 1979, Robert Watts Estate, David Behrman, Bob Diamond
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
hybrid sound/video installation with custom electronics
Classifications
Subjects
  • Performing arts — music
  • Landscape — weather — cloud
Object Number
2013.64
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.64

Artwork Description

Cloud Music is a synthesis of sound and image, the result of a collaboration between three artists: Robert Watts, David Berhman, and Bob Diamond. A closed-circuit video camera is directed through a window to the sky. A video analyzer and audio synthesizer read the image on a TV monitor, transforming the movement of clouds and changing light into an original score of music that transports the natural environment into the gallery for a new and immersive audio-visual experience. The result is an electronic score that fills the space with subtly shifting harmonics. Visitors listen to video as a nature-driven event unfolds in real-time. As sound is composed from light, Cloud Music is at once a conceptual homage to “chance” and a technological triumph that inspires a new means to experience the world.


Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015

Works by this artist (19 items)

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Image Not Available
(Famous Paintings, portfolio) The Coast of Florida
Artist
Not on view
Mary Nimmo Moran, The Old Homestead, 1880, etching and chine colle on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of American History, Division of Graphic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.122.59
The Old Homestead
Artist
Date1880
etching and chine colle on paper
Not on view
Mary Nimmo Moran, Twilight, ca. 1880-1890, etching, roulette, sandpaper, and scotchstone on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of American History, Division of Graphic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.122.54
Twilight
Artist
Dateca. 1880-1890
etching, roulette, sandpaper, and scotchstone on paper
Not on view
Mary Nimmo Moran, (Three Maidens at the River), ca.1880-1890, etching on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of American History, Division of Graphic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.122.57
(Three Maidens at the River)
Artist
Dateca.1880-1890
etching on paper
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

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Edward Sachse, Smithsonian Institute, ca. 1855, hand-colored lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Al Marzorini in honor of Harry Lowe, 2019.23
Smithsonian Institute
Artist
Dateca. 1855
hand-colored lithograph
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Image Not Available
Marching As to War
Artist
Daten.d.
color etching
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Pharoh’s Horses
Artist
Unidentified (British)
Daten.d.
engraving
Not on view
Jakob Steinhardt, Untitled, n.d., etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Adelyn D. Breeskin, 1970.61
Untitled
Artist
Daten.d.
etching
Not on view