“…we must imagine that the string is not a straight line but a circle”

Johannes Kepler [1]

Conceived in 1980 by Christos Hatzis, Harmonia is an audiovisual work in progress. The recent computer realization of this project has been conducted principally by composer and audiovisual designer Bruno Degazio with smaller contributions from animator Doug E. Smith and, more recently, filmmaker and installation artist Henry Jesionka.

Harmonia takes a one-dimensional string and, in Kepler-like fashion, maps its harmonic properties on a two-dimensional plane and in time (a string, the two ends of which exist at two different locations in time.) In its present version, it consists of projection on a screen and quadraphonic diffusion of the audio component. The audio and visual components are identical: what you see is what you hear. Future versions of Harmonia may incorporate 3D projection inside a geodesic dome (constructed by Henry Jesionka), 3D binaural sound interface, and (possibly) electromagnetic stimulation of certain parts of the brain—all intended to stimulate an immersive artistic experience. A research component of Harmonia associated with audiovisual perception and cognition is also (slowly) being investigated. The intended result is one of audiovisual immersion which, in Jungian fashion, affects the participant psychologically as much as intellectually. (Harmonia's Pythagorean elements are meant to be felt as much as consciously understood.)

Below is a (low resolution) half-hour version of the HARMONIA animation on VIMEO:

Below are selected frames from the HARMONIA animation
accompanied by brief descriptions.  
created by Bruno Degazio and Doug E. Smith)

Harmonia during the incidence of the fundamental (the "Big Bang"—first frame)

Harmonia very soon after the "Big Bang". The decaying envelopes of the fundamental and lower partials
(2, 3, 4, 5, 6) are still visible

Harmonia during the incidence of odd numbered partials (3, 5, 7 are clearly visible)

Harmonia during one incidence of the 5th partial

Harmonia during one incidence of the third partial

Harmonia during the incidence of the second partial (half-way through the cycle)

Harmonia during the incidence of an unspecified  higher partial (towards the end of the cycle)

Monochrome rendition of Harmonia during the incidence of the third partial (as above) but with more detail

Athroposophical connections:

"You surely hit on an original idea back in 1980, with the fractal organization of music,
and although I understand little about that I could appreciate the mobile geometry of the images,
bringing life to a usually static medium. Seen in three dimensions, on a large screen,
with good audio quality, I'm sure it would have a powerful effect,
and perhaps give people ungifted with synaesthesia a taste
of what it must be like to have that capacity.
You have given new impetus to the rediscovery of Harmonics
as the basis of music (and maybe of everything, as Hans Kayser teaches).
Also, of all the systems that have sought to link geometry with harmony,
from Ptolemy to Kepler and beyond, this is the most logically defensible.
Like geometry itself, it combines a basic simplicity with infinite complexity.

Your project also puts me in mind of Claude Bragdon,
a Theosophist and architect of the early 20c. who staged shows of "mobile color"
in New York, based on his color-music theory and 4-D geometry,
and inevitably limited by the technology of the time.
Current technology, as outlined in your paper,
holds the potential for an experience of far greater intensity."

Joscelyn Godwin, author/editor of

Harmonies of Heaven and Earth : Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant Garde
The Harmony of the Spheres: The Pythagotean Tradition in Music
Cosmic Music : Keys for the Musical Interpretation of Reality
Music Explained as Science and Art
Athanasius Kircher

"It is then suppos'd, that Musick is an outward Representation
of the Harmony of the Divine Powers and Properties
in the Nature of God: who exists and manifests himself in infinite
variety and multiplicity, all in perfect Concord and Unity.
The Unity as Fundamental, comprizing and containing
all in it self. And thus the one Ground Note, or Bass
contains in it self all the whole Scale above it; not only
the Artificial Scale, but all as high as we can imagine;
and its Tone is an Aggregate of them all; as the roaring of
the Sea is made up of the noise of each particular Wave
contain'd in it. Out of the Bass then all the other
notes proceed, as a Birth from it; and together make up
its adequate proportion and Image....

...Thus is the True outward Harmony of Nature, an Image
or Manifestation of the Angelical, and Divine Harmony.
 The Bass or Centre stands continually sounding; and sounding
All Harmony in Unity; also working and shooting forth it self
 into Variety, and Multiplicity; and in the Circumference uniting again,
 in a Sphere of continued Unities. And every one of these,
as also all intermediate Ones, is as a Centre it self;
opening, and proceeding in a Sphere of its own.
So that as proceeding forwards they increase their Circle,
so each one, at whatever distance, has also its motion
back again and return to its Originals: and Ecchoes to it that
Proportion which it bears of it. So that  the Reflex Act
of the whole Circumference, and of all contain'd within it, is but
the Returning of the Outflown Image into its own Centre
and Original; or the True Eccho of the first Unity: which as it
gave out so it must receive again and contain all in it self.

Thus will the Theory of Musick, duly applied and
Spiritualiz'd lead us on to glorious Contemplations,
and give us a Key of the great Mysteries of Nature. It will furnish us
with sublime Idea's of the Beauty and Harmony of God,
and of his Works in the Creation: in the Contemplation and Joy
whereof all of the Anglelick Hosts, as they first began,
so still continue their Songs of Triumph and Praise:
The Morning Stars singing together, and all the Sons of God
shouting for Joy. And it will be a great excitement of Emulation
in us to joyn with them both in Heart and Voice."

Anonymous, probably the work of Dr. Francis Lee, found in
 Theosophical Transactions 1 (March 1697), pp 60-65.
Included in Arthur Versluis' article "Mysticism and
Spiritual Harmonics in Eighteenth-Century England"
in the Journal Alexandria, Vol. 2, pp 183-194
Edited by David Fideler. 1993. Phanes Press.
Spelling and punctuation
retained from the original.

“In the tempered tuning of the twelve notes, we actually no longer have the notes themselves
before us in all their liveliness and variability, but rather a rigid, dead image of their twelveness.
This signifies that when music became totally immersed in the sense-world, its actual reality did not follow;
only its image appeared therein. The reality of music remains outside.”

Hans Erhard Lauer [2]