mü—the clouds obey the stars—

In April 2020, during the first French lockdown,
a photograph of a cloud (1) was taken from a window. The only access to the sky was this frame.

— (1) cloud photograph — Canon Eos
April 2020

From this image, four hexadecimal values were extracted through a JavaScript algorithm I built — a randomized yet controlled sampling that interprets the cloud's grayscale data (2):

#1E1E1E
#BCBCBC

A second algorithm, also self-written, translated these values into a musical score.

— (2) mü original score
Js script

The score was performed by two musicians on two instruments — a double-bell trumpet and a modular synthesizer. The musicians did not limit themselves to the four source values: they searched within the score for other hidden blues, implicit values not written down. From this expanded material, they divided the colors — the trumpet appropriating the deep values, the synthesizer the lighter ones — then merged everything to construct their own mental score, an interpretation that exceeds the original data. The composition runs
15 minutes 58 seconds.

— 1er rehearsal — Paris 2021
Noé Nelni: trumpet
Paul Müller: synthesis

From this composition, a free interpretation will be generated through a generative algorithm (3), producing a visual pattern built from the same hexadecimal values. The cloud becomes color, color becomes sound, sound becomes form.

A future phase of the project envisions a precise and controlled AI analysis of the composition — mapping its sonic structures, frequencies and silences — in order to reconstruct an artificial cloud, completing the cycle: from the real toward the abstract, from the abstract back toward the real.

mü references Aristotle's concept of the Prime Mover — the first cause, the unmoved mover of the cosmos.

Nothing disappears. Everything translates.

Photographer & Composer: hakeem b
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• device: Canon Eos
• focal: 15-45 mm
• size: 1000x600 mm |
Design Score: Js script |
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Musicians:
• Noé Nelni: Trumpet
• Paul Müller: M Synthesis |
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Transcription:
• technic: Js script |
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Website: mu.hakeemb.com |
Year : 2021 |

© hakeem b