FiddleLights is a body of practice-based research exploring the kinetic signatures of fiddle tunes in relation to the sound produced on a violin. Experimenting with photography, video and computer enhanced compositing, FiddleLights creates light-based visualization of movement and technique captured from the bow hand of the violinist/ fiddler. This technique is then used to inform my own musical compositions, creating a synthesis of light and sound, in a multi-level installation where the music and the drawing are inextricably entwined, in process as well as product.

    Beginning with investigations into kinetic signatures of fiddle tunes and kinetic portraits of individual fiddlers using time lapse photography and processed videos, the FiddleLights Project has expanded to include my video/compositions where musical choices are influenced by the graphic gestures of the bow hand. These video/compositions are a synthesis of my music making, art making and the proprioception of playing the violin.

    The most recent FiddleLights video/compositions are projected in a triple screen format, where the light visualizations of the kinetic gestures surround the viewer on three sides. For this variation of the project, I work not only as a composer and artist, but also as a choreographer, choosing the gestures that will be composited together, and on which screen they should be projected.

    The corporeal experience of the fiddler/violinist, in which the manipulation of the bow creates the sound on the violin, is something that is largely known only through a haptic sense experienced by violinists themselves. The FiddleLights Project shares aspects of the haptic experience of making sound on the violin which is then translated into a visual language for many to experience.