Orbital Frequencies.
As part of What If?, a group exhibition sponsored by the Qatar–USA Year of Culture and curated by Muna Al Bader for Qatar Museums at Gallery 29, W Hotel Doha (January–February 2021), Michael Hersrud presented Orbital Frequencies, a series of three plotter-based monoprints (45 × 62 cm each, Strathmore Bristol paper, permanent marker, and ballpoint pen). The series emerged from a practice of live “plotter performance,” in which drawing became both a visual and sonic event. The mechanical sounds of the plotter—altered through repetition, line density, and placement—generated a feedback loop between form, sound, and iteration.
This research continues Hersrud’s investigation into sonic visualization and data sonification, informed by historical precedents such as John Whitney’s computer graphics, Oskar Fischinger’s explorations of circles and squares, and Norman McLaren’s experiments with hand-drawn sound. The series foregrounds the exploratory nature of practice-based research, where rapid decision-making and iterative mark-making operate as generative strategies for discovering new relationships between sound and image.
