This composition utilizes a process now known as ‘Sonification’. It uses the structure of organic patterns in a series of large-scale photographs to design a musical score. The placements of the pools of light in the visual space determine the placements of notes in harmonic space. The visual and aural images are structural equivalents.

wedges of light strike leaves
             and the leaves exude wedges of sound…
Each frame in the PYPKPKP LEAF photo series generates a frame of music. The notes in each frame are arranged as a wedge. First one note plays, then another is added, and so on until a cluster of notes is playing. Then they all stop, and another wedge is formed from another photographic frame.

When many notes playing simultaneously, they lose their individuality and can no longer be heard as single notes. As the density builds, they and become part of a ‘sound cloud’ with a distinct harmonic texture. The constant rise and release formed by the wedges results in an ebb and flow in the sound environment. The empty spaces that occur are also part of the musical structure. The sound of silence is important.

The musical score for this piece takes the process even further to create a unique sonic environment. The score from each photographic frame is a different duration because the placement of the pools of light in each photo is different. When each frame-score is looped and overlaid with the others, they keep lining up differently, creating a perpetually varying musical composition. This model a philosophy of seeing the world as a unified entity [see Lateral Imaging>].

To really feel this music, one should experience it as an installation in a gallery where each piece is played on a separate speaker system. This particular mix has been installed on 5 separate 2.1 speaker systems yielding a 10-channel installation. As the listener walks around in the gallery space, their position varying the blend of the pieces through ‘Proximity Mixing’.

The environment of the EC(s)TASIS and (s)TASIS music is Extended Time; the time between the ticks of the clock. Berkian music resides in extended time and creates a condition of listening that taps the deepest resources. It removes the listener from present time and place, allowing the imagination to move into new realms.

The slow evolution of the composition invites the listener to pay even closer attention to the details, seducing them into a more intimate relationship with the music. This music links artist and audience, suspending them on a journey of shared emotions and source memories. As with dreams and myths, extended time music can overcome resistance to forgotten powers and images.

Lateral Imaging is a product of non-linear thinking. It is a way of seeing the world that links our perception, conception and emotion. Lateral Imaging is a philosophy that views the world as a field of coincidental events, each affecting all others, everything connected in an intimate way. The way all the wedge scores in PYPKPK overlay and interact is a model of this philosophy. This music requires the use of ‘Compound Perception to realize Lateral Imaging’.

The bottom line of this and all of Berkowitz’s work is to show how we are totally integrated with our world, not standing outside looking in. The patterns of nature are the same as the patterns of life in general. The patterns of our intellect determine our view of the world, i.e. our world creates us so we can create our world. This unity is the essence of Lateral Imaging. All is one.

about the title . . . The title PYPKPKP LEAF was originally derived as shorthand for Pennypack Park in Philadelphia, where the photos were shot. The growth points from which the leaves emanated were consistently placed in the upper left-hand corner of the frame to design a unified series of photographs. The Yiddish word for belly button is pippick. The navel is the growth point of a human being, so the subject exactly fits the word.