TRACES - between imprint and sound

TRACES - between imprint and sound is an artistic research project (KUV) carried out at SDMK in 2025-2026. The project explores how nature's graphic traces can be translated into musical parameters. Here you will find videos, sound examples, images and texts from the process.

The material is presented in chronological order, from the first experiments around the turn of 2024/25 to the most recent in spring 2026.

Dragged Notations

This is where SPOR took shape.

The first experiments with tree drawings and sonification & visualization

Experiments with eco printing and an experiment with charcoal in the rain - sonification

Tree Song

Visualization and sonification of a spruce tree.

Decoding.

Models, prototypes and sketches for translating nature's traces.

Forest traces – A print becomes music

An acetate plate was taped beneath a copper plate and dragged through the forest floor. The sound of the plate scraping and friction was recorded along the way. The traces in the acetate were later used to produce an intaglio print on paper. Using a homemade piano roll made from plexiglass and transparent tape, I translated the lines in the print into notes and programmed them in Ableton Live. At the end of the video, a series of prints created from several trips through the forest are shown.

The Drawing as a Score

Orbita Sequencer and tree drawing.

Five coloured pens from the magnolia tree create a score, and the texture comes from swingin' dragged mics, a microphone suspended from a branch.

Contact microphone on tree trunk and tree drawing.

The sound inside the trunk and the wind outside recorded while the tree was drawing. Nothing added in post-production.

Listening and presence.

Two field recordings: soil mics in the roadside ditch among winter aconites and anemones, and an evening recording from Kruses Have with branches, birdsong and church bells.

Yew

Sounds and drawing