Black Magic
About the work
Black Magic is a multimedia work inspired by Harry Potter. Through music, visuals and performance, it tells the story of a child who unexpectedly acquires magical powers on the eve of Halloween and becomes entangled with the dark shadow from which those powers originate. A triangle symbolizes the shadow's approach, and the visuals for this performance take the form of a cinematic trailer.
Musical structure
The music unfolds in four parts, following an introduction, development, turn and conclusion. The arpeggiator on the DeepMind 12 produces repeating, dreamlike sounds, while oscillator and ADSR controls change the timbre in real time. Synthesizer sounds played alongside a triangle express the dark shadow's theme, and the Locrian scale creates tension.
Technology & performance
A magic wand fitted with Arduino and an accelerometer triggers sounds, while Max/MSP handles panning, data communication and real-time vocoder processing of the triangle. In a system built with React and JavaScript, chapter-specific code entered by the performer calls up scenes and timelines. The code and visuals appear side by side, and the boundary between the two screens gradually blurs as the performance progresses.
Music & technology
Full submitted program note · English translation
Team: lee (리)
Members: Kaylee Yeom (케일리, 염정윤), Hyewon Lee (이혜원)
Work: Black Magic
Black Magic is a multimedia artwork that combines an Arduino-based interactive system, live music performance, and visuals created through live coding.
Inspired by the Harry Potter novels, the work uses a triangle as the sign of a dark shadow approaching its protagonist, a child. This symbol evokes a threat like Voldemort, recalling the fear and trauma surrounding the reluctance to speak his name in Harry Potter.
The story begins on the eve of Halloween, when a child unexpectedly acquires magical powers. Unaware that a dark shadow is the source of these powers, the child begins to use magic. Music, visuals and performance explore the process through which the child becomes entangled with the shadow. The full version, which tells the complete story, can be seen in the performance for the New Music Performance course at Dankook University's School of New Music.
Music notes
The music consists of four parts following an introduction, development, turn and conclusion. Music production and live performance use Behringer's DeepMind 12 polyphonic analog synthesizer and Arturia's MiniLab 3 MIDI controller. Max/MSP controls the overall sound system, panning and communication with Arduino, connecting music with interaction.
The work also includes an interactive magic-wand performance using Arduino and an accelerometer, as well as a performance that gives the triangle—the symbol of the dark shadow—an audible form through the percussion instrument of the same name. During the performance, the wand can automatically trigger sound playback. The triangle is captured in real time and modulated through a vocoder implemented in Max/MSP, giving the symbol a direct sonic form. These sounds establish the dark shadow's presence and the music's mysterious atmosphere.
In particular, the arpeggiator on Behringer's DeepMind 12 is used extensively to create repeating, dreamlike sounds. During the performance, listeners can hear the sound change in real time through oscillator and ADSR control. Synthesizer sounds played together with the triangle form the dark shadow's theme, while the Locrian scale creates tension.
Visual notes
The visuals take the form of a cinematic trailer lasting approximately four minutes and fifty seconds, using a custom web-based performance system built with React and JavaScript. Rather than playing a conventional video file from beginning to end, the performance uses a live-coding format: the performer enters chapter-specific code on stage, and this code calls up the relevant scene and timeline.
The visuals are divided into three chapters. As code corresponding to each chapter and scene is entered, the scenes unfold in real time. Cinematic imagery plays on one side of the screen, while the code that constructs the visuals appears simultaneously on the other. The audience therefore experiences the process by which code creates scenes as a performance in its own right.
In the first chapter, the child discovers a letter marked with a triangle. In the second, the power of the dark shadow reveals itself through events such as a broken door handle and a book floating in the air. In the third and final chapter, the child confronts the dark shadow in a mirror, collapses, and then awakens to discover that everything was a dream. However, the child receives a letter bearing the same triangle again in the real world. The visuals end at the ambiguous boundary between dream and reality.
The visuals were produced by separating backgrounds, characters, shadows, mist and light into multiple image layers, then combining effects such as camera movement, zooming in and out, dissolves and fades to black along a coded timeline. As the performance progresses, the triangle signal and code imagery from the live-coding screen extend into the video area. By the end, the boundary between the coding screen and the visuals gradually blurs. In this way, the live-coding interface goes beyond a simple control screen and acts as a visual stage device expressing the process by which the dark shadow invades reality within the work.
Performance video
A video of this performance will be available after the event.