Painted Tones
2026 Interactive

Painted Tones

Every stroke of color sings. Paint high on the canvas and sound ascends to clouds; paint low and it sinks underground. This is not a painting - it is a composition drawn into being.

About This Work

Kandinsky believed colors have sound. Painted Tones turns this conviction into operable reality: every stroke on the canvas continuously produces sound. The Y-axis is pitch's runway - higher strokes produce sharper notes, lower ones deeper tones. The X-axis determines stereo image - sounds from the left shore lean toward the left ear. Four brushes carry four waveform souls: sine's purity, sawtooth's rasp, square's coolness, triangle's warmth. When the painting is complete, press play and let it sing from left to right.

Features

  • Four brush timbres (sine/sawtooth/square/triangle)
  • Y-axis maps to pitch, X-axis maps to panning
  • Continuous sound from strokes
  • Replay sound scene from painting
  • Hand gesture painting support (MediaPipe)

How to Use

  1. Select brush color/timbre
  2. Drag mouse on canvas to paint strokes
  3. Higher position = higher pitch
  4. Further right = panning right
  5. Replay the sound scene of the painting