Flight of Birds is a 35-minute HD audiovisual composition that draws on notions of anima and the realm of the spirit. The imagery is inspired by traditional Yoruban mythology in which a woman’s spirit may leave her body to travel outside in the form of a bird. Here, a woman longs for flight, staring into a birdcage for the mysteries within. We see her dressed as a bird, dancing, unfolding, but never quite leaving the ground. Darker, winged creatures haunt the air around her. Eventually, she is transformed. She visits the sky, not as a bird, but as a constellation.

Flight of Birds explores strategies to abstract movement and form through surface and temporal manipulation, as well as the defining sensory relationship that exists between sound and image in time-based composition. The piece takes a loose stance on audiovisual association, attempting to match aural and visual material through pace and suggestion rather than clearly defined gesture. The remix uses real-time performative transformations through custom software created in MaxMSP/Jitter. It playfully experiments with both linked and separate audio and visual process to reconfigure the work’s audiovisual discourse.

The project output include individual performances, custom software
for real-time media manipulation and control, conference presentations, keynote presentations, and writing on computational aesthetics.

The original footage in Flight of Birds features Audrey Ellis Fox and Bonnie Johnson.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/24173