The Same but Different (Everything becomes round), 2008–2009
Video and sound installation
Toby Kaufmann-Buhler’s installation features two independent video segments that play concurrently. One part, comprised of image and sound clips Kaufmann-Buhler recorded each day over the course of one year, reveals brief moments from the artist’s life. In the second video, water drips onto a flat surface. We hear the soundtracks simultaneously: both the splat of the water droplets and the ambient noise from the video diary, which varies from rustling leaves to the sizzle of cooking edamame. When the volume in either soundtrack reaches a certain pitch, it triggers the image to alternate between the drip and the diary. The two videos are also different lengths, and when played together on a continuous loop, they create ever-changing patterns of sound and image combinations.
This installation marks a continuation of Kaufmann-Buhler’s exploration into the intersection between image and sound. As the noises from the videos determine the visual display, this work challenges standard notions of video and audio relationships by reversing their order. Additionally, by employing a predetermined structure (a computer algorithm) as the project’s foundation, but allowing for chance combinations to unfold within the structure, the artist fuses the innovative compositional ideas put forth by John Cage with twenty-first-century technology.
