Interaction, Visual Composition and Synthesis with Quartz Composer

This paper gives an overview of my creative practice over the last 3 years, in particular focussing on the video synthesis and interaction techniques used in the compositions Diffraction, Circadian Echoes and a piece currently under development. It specifically discusses methods of synthesising animations in Quartz Composer. Quartz is a free visual programming language available in OS X, which is designed for processing and rendering graphical data, interactive motion graphics and video manipulation. It can be used to create real-time interactive applications and offers many tools for parametric mapping between sound and image. As a MAX/MSP and Jitter user, I will describe the relationship between both applications and discuss the influence Quartz has had on my creative outcomes with examples from my compositions