Tomasz Grab

 

 

IKTSUARPOK.

Iktsuarpok is a word from Inuit culture that describes the anticipation of waiting for someone to arrive — that restless urge to keep checking if they're there yet. This piece is built around that feeling. I made it using Max/MSP, Ableton, and Premiere, working with field recordings I captured at Inti Raymi in Cusco, Peru in 2022.

EXPERIMENTAL_FILM.


This experimental film was built from archival footage, personal photographs, and field recordings. The work began with a soundscape — field recordings transformed into composition, layered with voice and virtual instruments — which then served as a framework onto which archival footage was placed. Rather than illustrating the sound, the visuals were chosen to introduce new meaning into existing archive material through associational editing and audiovisual juxtaposition.

The piece follows no conventional narrative. Personal diary excerpts and a passage from Kerouac's On the Road anchor the abstract soundscape, while sequences of photographed everyday surfaces sit alongside archival footage of industry, landscape, and ordinary life. The result is a collage-form work open to interpretation, positioned toward the avant-garde rather than commercial cinema.


SOUND_FILM.

It is an experimental audio-visual project of mine. The inspiration I took to create this film is derived from my traveling experiences as well as the street photography I practice while being on the road.


I made this film by taking static videos instead of photographing things, when being on the road. I used footage from my trip to Isle of Skye, as well as recordings I took in South America in 2022. Since the film tries to convey the emotion and inner world of my traveling, self-doubt, and the search for meaning in external validation, I decided to juxtapose some of my footage to enhance the derealization of the material and make it more insightful. The biggest inspiration, though, I took was derived from films such as Sans Soleil by Chris Marker, where the poetic narration from the travels of fictional characters are being read over beautiful, analogue shots from the streets of Tokyo, as well as Tree of Life, where the narration pushes the narrative forward.

 

REAL-TIME WEATHER DATA SONIFICATION.

For my dissertation project, I created a system using Max/MSP that generates real-time sonification of the weather in Glasgow. The patch receives live weather data and interprets it to create sound collages — a never-ending piece of music with no clear beginning or end. The data used in the video represents four different weeks from four different seasons across Scotland. Each week was chosen for its weather anomalies. I created this fixed-data version to fully demonstrate the potential of my main project and to explore how the system sounds across different seasons, days, and nights.

The mapping of my sonification project is as follows:
Temperature is mapped to the pitch of virtual instruments, allowing them to arpeggiate within either a major or minor scale, depending on the temperature. Wind speed directly affects the volume of the wind instrument, making it louder as the wind intensifies. Cloud cover influences the overall brightness of the sound by interpolating between ‘bright’ and ‘mellow’ timbres. Humidity controls the reverb, which activates when levels are between 75% and 100%. When it rains, a chorus effect is applied to reflect the wet conditions. Additionally, the system generates music during sunrises and sunsets — different compositions for each event. On the visual side, I’ve mapped strong wind to blur the screen. Cloudiness is connected to the grains. The screen colors change to reflect day and night cycles.

The purpose of my project is to create a compassionate mirror of reality — a sonic system that embraces the fear surrounding increasingly severe global warming-related weather anomalies. It transforms the ontological data of the weather into phenomenological sound. The sonification is meant to keep playing, no matter how extreme the weather becomes. The piece is designed for an art gallery setting and can be easily reprogrammed to reflect weather from any part of the world.

I am aware of both the potential and the imperfections of my patch. In the future, I plan to create a website for this project. I’m also exploring ways to make my sound works more collaborative. I recognize the limits of my environmental knowledge and hope to collaborate with someone who can help harness natural processes and translate them into sound — amplifying the message of the coming climate catastrophe.


OTHER PROJECS


EXPERIMANTAL SHORT FILM. DIR . TOMASZ GRAB. 

I assembled a tapestry of archive footage, pairing it with music I composed and layered with audio recordings from my travels. This blending of visual and auditory elements created a work that feels deeply personal yet universally evocative.
link

SOUNDSCAPE. 

Experimental soundscape. I made it for an university project.
link

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VIDEO ART DOCUMENTARY.  DIR.  TOMASZ GRAB AND GREG BREEN.

Documentary I made with my frind Greg Breen as a part of a University project. We got the task to create a documentary on a chosen art movement. We chose ‘video art’.
link

HIGHLANDS. MUSIC FOR PICTURE.

I wrote a piece of music inspired by my stay in the Scottish Highlands, drawing inspiration from artists such as Boards of Canada and Sigur Ros. To create the piece, I improvised to a video I found on YouTube and added field recordings I made with my Olympus ME-31 recorder.
link

MNIEJSI.  

A composition of mine. I composed it using the private conversations and soundscapes I recorded during my three month-long travel around Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. link
 

sound
art

©MMXXVI Tomasz Grab