Composing Graphic Scores and Sonifying Visual Music with the Sum Tool

This paper will explore the potential for the SUM tool, intended initially for the sonification of images, as a tool for graphical computer-aided composition. As a user library with a graphical user interface within the computeraided composition environment of PWGL, SUM has the potential to be used as a graphical approach towards computer-aided composition. Through the re-composition of the graphic score of Ligeti’s Artikulation, we demonstrate how SUM can be used in the generation of a graphic score. Supporting spatio-temporal timepaths, we explore alternative ways of reading this score. Furthermore, we investigate the claim of certain visual artworks to be ‘visual music’, by sonifying them as graphic scores in SUM.