A Synesthete’s Atlas: Real-time cartographic improvisations

From artist Eric Theise’s web site —

A Synesthete’s Atlas

Real time cartographic improvisations using projected, manipulated digital maps, in collaboration with local musicians. A visual wash of street grids, land masses, water bodies, and curiosities from built and natural environments. Orphaned labels and free-floating symbology. Auditory roundabouts. Saturated colors and the subtlest of tints. Acoustic cul-de-sacs. Jittery zooms, pans, and traversals. Glitches in crowdsourced data.

A Synesthete’s Atlas is my performance cartography project. It’s maps as experimental film, as environment, as light show with letterform experimentation. What began life as a rapid prototyping design tool evolved into a platform that allows me to manipulate projected digital maps in real time, in conversation with improvising musicians. The maps, the locations, the instrumentation, and their trajectory are never the same twice.

A Synesthete’s Atlas premiered in Lisbon, toward the end of a two month residency at Hangar: Centro de Investigação Artística in April 2022, as a 50 minute improvisation with cellist Helena Espvall. Since that time it’s had dozens of performances across North America. Performances occasionally introduce strobing effects that may affect photosensitive viewers.