About This Issue

The articles in this issue are all devoted to the topic of "visual music": audiovisual creations in which the artist strives to endow the video component with formal and abstract qualities that mimic those of musical composition. This emulation often, but not necessarily, derives from a more or less direct mapping between sonic elements in the soundtrack, on the one hand, and time-varying visual parameters in the video track, on the other. The more direct mappings bring to mind the rare perceptual phenomenon of synaesthesia, as noted by several of this issue's authors. Visual music can be solely graphical, but the present authors are computer music practitioners who also work in the visual domain.

Our associate editor Brett Terry has served as a de facto guest editor for this issue. He conceived of a special issue on the theme of computer music/video, put forth a call for manuscript submissions on that theme, reviewed the submissions, coordinated the peer-review process with independent referees, relayed the reviewers' and editors' suggestions to the authors, and decided upon the final set of articles. Furthermore, he served as curator for the DVD that is attached to the print version of this issue. (The call for submissions solicited not only manuscripts, but also audiovisual artworks, a selection of which populates the greater part of the DVD.) An overview of the articles appears in Mr. Terry's editorial, and his commentary on the video works can be found in the DVD program notes near the end of this issue.

We received a substantial response to the call for submissions. As a result, some interesting material that could not fit in this issue or on the current DVD will spill over into the next volume of the Journal.

Echoes of the issue's theme appear in other sections following the articles. The Products of Interest section describes, among other things, applications for real-time graphics and for editing, sequencing, and processing video. The Reviews section examines an implementation in Max of David Rokeby's Very Nervous System, an environment for video processing that offers a special focus on motion-tracking of the human body. Two of the reviewed DVDs showcase the work of video artists and composers, working either in collaboration or independently.