“Kingdom is an exercise in merging sight and sound,” says co-creator Aaron Bleep.
This conceptional mixture of visual art and sound, developed by Aaron Bleep and Semjâzâ Ludovico, needs to be witnessed to be fully understood. We intend to do exactly that this coming Saturday, March 26th at the Stone Malone Gallery, located at 7619 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
“The technology developed as the ideas were dictated,” Bleep asserts. “Semjâzâ engineered the whole maneuver. The idea came to me about 10 years ago when I was drawing to music, and noticed I was drawing in rhythm. Then I started practicing it for fun. I was about to present it to a studio I used to work with, but we parted ways before I could present it,” he explains.
The product lay dormant for a long period of time – until now.
“Essentially, people can expect to experience music visually,” Bleep says.
The work is organic to Bleep’s art as a whole. “My previous work is a foundation for Kingdom. People familiar with my work will be able to recognize central themes and motifs throughout, as well my classical training as a musician and artist.”
The other half of Kingdom, Ludovico, is the engineer and electronics coordinator for the project. The two met at work, and bounced the ideas behind the sound/visual art merger around.
Ludovico decribes himself as the engineer and live composer for the project. “I built most of the equipment that we use, and I handle the effect processing and audio side of things. It’s basically my job to turn Bleep’s painting into music.”
Ludovico insists that he can’t take much credit for the original idea. “I’ve been building and using synthesizers for years, and one day Bleep came to me asking if I could make this idea happen. I drew some schematics and a few days later the machines that are Kingdom were born.”
Pressed to elaborate on the experience, Ludovico says he cannot really describe how important the music/visual art mix is to our culture, or how the project is perceived by individual viewers. “I suppose part of it depends on how much they understand about the process. I expect intrigue and curiosity, but either way it’s a new realm for people to explore.”
The self-professed sound guy describes Kingdom as a meeting of sight, sound, and technology. “It’s a way to break down the boundaries of conventional thinking, and a way to inspire experimentation. It’s a way for people to ask themselves, ‘Why should we be limited by artistic medium, genre, or even physical boundaries as we know them?’ We, as humans, have the technology to create anything that we want, and this is a celebration of that progress.”
Celebrate and go visit next Saturday. For a sneak peak of what you’ll see:
The video above was shot at the first performance of Kingdom, at renowned tattoo artist Sean from Texas’ solo show closing event held at Stone Malone Gallery. Kingdom’s creators advocate viewers documenting through photos and video unobtrusively throughout the performance.
– Genie Davis; photos and video by Hollowdoubt