These photographs are an exploration of a 20th century musical technique called 12-tone composition. 12-tone music was developed in order to escape the hierarchy of traditional harmony (where we hear certain notes and chords as more important--more stable--than others). It is most often associated with Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg. 12-tone composing uses all twelve different notes in equal number and frequency: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, and G# (or their enharmonic equivalents in flats). A 'cell' is formed by choosing the order and rhythms in which the twelve notes will appear.

The cell in its original state is called 'prime'.

When the prime is flipped horizontally, this changes the rhythm and the order of the notes, but not the notes themselves. This is called 'retrograde.'
When the prime is flipped vertically one interval at a time, this changes one or all of the notes and is called 'inversion'.

 Or the prime can be flipped both ways simultaneaously, which changes everything. This is called 'retrograde-inversion.'

In photographs then, a cell is not a set of notes, but a single photograph. These finished images were composed by using the four varations explained above. As a result, they are highly self-contained. They explore a photograph as a unit of meaning and a picture's relationship to itself, both at the edges where identical points meet, and in terms of how the figure and/or patterns of each picture reflect each other.


Cycles

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