Birdsong and an audio software used by biologists are inspirations for Claire Paul.
The Dunwoody Campus art professor and artist uses a spectrogram that “writes” audio scores, creating the visual background for her work. The spectrogram images are produced with a software program that shows a visible graph of sounds, both manmade and from nature.
Paul received her undergraduate degree in music from Florida State University—she was trained on the bassoon—and her master of fine arts from Georgia State University. She has long been intrigued with combining her love of music and art with science.
That’s where the spectrogram images come in.
“The spectrogram images are produced with a software program that shows a visible graph of the frequencies and durations of sound, including those manmade and from nature,” Paul says. “Some of my work is a direct result of field recordings that are then put into a computer application that reads the sound and translates it into a spectrogram. I will then print and draw on these screen shots of these sounds as a reference to recording them.
“I try to incorporate abstracted natural elements and internal sound into the work that reference the sounds of nature,” Paul says. “I’m fascinated by Phonomnesis (phonomnèse), which is defined by Jean Francois Augoyard as a ‘mental activity that involves internal listening: examples include recalling to memory sounds linked to a situation or creating sound textures in the context of composition.’”
This summer, Paul was awarded an artist residence themed by radio, art and technology, in Kefalonia, Greece. The program was led by Georgia State’s Craig Dongoski. At the Ionion Arts Center in Greece, her work was selected as a show finalist for the Seas International Festival.
Paul's art was recently displayed in a show at the Kibbee Gallery in Atlanta.