Micromorphosis No. 3 Audiovisual installation | Ali Balighi | 2026
Program Note
Micromorphosis No. 3 is an audiovisual installation in which sound, image, and time grow from one numerical source: the Fibonacci series. Five numbers from the series (13, 21, 34, 55, and 89) are used in three different ways. They divide the octave into microtonal scales, they set the length of each section of the work, and they shape the growth of the spirals in the visual field.
The title has two parts. “Micro” refers to the very small intervals of the microtonal scales and to the small changes made to the sound of the guitar. “Morphosis” refers to growth and transformation, the way these small materials develop into larger forms in both sound and image.
Sound
The sound comes from twenty recordings of extended guitar techniques. These recordings are transposed into scales that divide the octave into 13, 21, 34, 55, and 89 equal steps. Each section lasts as many seconds as its scale has steps, so the 13-step section lasts 13 seconds and the 89-step section lasts 89 seconds. In the lower divisions, the listener hears clear and unfamiliar intervals. In the higher divisions, the steps become so small that they are heard less as separate notes and more as changes in colour, resonance, and beating. Between sections, the music passes through transitions where one tuning has not fully disappeared and the next has not yet settled.
The samples are also reversed, distorted, delayed, and moved through space. Through these processes, the guitar gradually turns into electroacoustic texture, while still keeping traces of the physical gesture that produced it.
Image
The visual field is made of several planes of points floating in three-dimensional space. Each plane holds a spiral that grows according to the golden ratio. Lines also form between the planes, creating a network that becomes denser or thinner as the sound changes. When the sound grows louder, the planes expand, the points become larger, and the lines become more visible.
The image does not illustrate the music. Sound and image are two parallel expressions of the same principle. At some moments they move together, and at others the image follows its own motion and rotation.
How it works
The sound is generated live in SuperCollider. A small Python program sends information about the sound, such as its loudness, tension, and motion, to a web browser, where the image is drawn in real time with Three.js. The image is not a fixed video. It is calculated continuously while the work runs, using the same live data as the sound.
Credits
Guitar samples: Versilian Studios (royalty-free licence) Software: SuperCollider, Python, Three.js Documentation: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22819248
A paper on this piece is forthcoming:
Fibonacci Morphologies in Microtonal Audiovisual Composition: Structure, Timbre, and Computational Form in Micromorphosis No. 3 Ali Balighi • 2026 • Chroma: Journal of the Australasian Computer Music Association. Forthcoming, publication date: November 14, 2026.
#audiovisual #microtonality #fibonacci #supercollider #threejs #generativeart