Colour is the keyboard: Case studies in transcoding visual to sonic

This chapter discusses the phenomenon of ‘synaesthesia’, the phenomenon in which a visual perception gives rise to a musical sense-impression, or vice-versa. The chapter covers over one hundred years of artists, composers, and inventors developing sculptures, instruments, and systems to transcode visual data into sonic material. This time frame encompasses mechanical, analogue, digital, and hybrid systems. Most of the algorithmic procedures in these case studies are not reversible; in other words, the visuals cannot be generated from the sound. In many cases the visual aspect is not even meant to be seen as part of the experience, while in others the visual aspect is an equal partner in a synaethestic experience.