Wings

With a generous blessing from Joan Tower, I created a live projection performance of “Wings” for my Masters of Music degree recital at the Yale School of Music. This performance was particularly special because of the technology behind it—instead of having a set animation, as is normal for “fixed” media, I worked with my sister Kaitlin Pet to have the video adjust and follow me in the moment, using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology.

Kaitlin, a PhD candidate in music informatics at Indian University (as well as an accomplished oboist!), not only designed the video tracking software, but also the “nest” structure featured in many parts of the animation. This structure is actually a dynamic graphical representation of the notes and phrases in “Wings.” Generated by NCBot, an AI-based networks program created by Kaitlin, the nest is made up of point (each one representing a note in the piece), and arcs run between notes that are adjacent to each other in the music. Thicker lines indicate that the pair of notes connected are played often together, whereas thinner lines connect note pairs only played once or twice, creating a visual representation of the emphasis of certain notes and intervals in the piece.

The inspiration for the visuals of this animation draws from the composer’s composition process—in a 2021 interview, Professor Tower spoke of changing the title from "Panthers," to "Falcons," and eventually to "Wings." Most of the visual imagery in my animation is based on falcons and other birds of prey, and the opening shifts of color are designed as an abstraction of the smooth and subtle movements of a panther.