Photone: Exploring Modal Synergy in Photographic Images and Music

We present Photone, an interactive installation combining photographic images and musical sonification. An image is displayed, and a dynamic musical score is generated based on the overall color properties of the image and the color value of the pixel under the cursor. Hence, the music changes as the user moves the cursor. This simple approach turns out to have interesting experiential qualities in use. The composition of images and music invites the user to explore the combination of hues and textures, and musical sounds. We characterize the resulting experience in Photone as one of modal synergy where visual and auditory output combine holistically with the chosen interaction technique. This tentative finding is potentially relevant to further research in auditory displays and multimodal interaction.