The work FM-TOTEM by Dmitry Morozov, aka ::vtol::, is reminiscent of the tall, slender silhouette of totems, those mystical objects that evoke a deep, ancestral symbolism. This choice may have been made in honour of the technology on which it is built, namely frequency modulation, the method of sound synthesis and transmission that has profoundly influenced sound genres and practices in recent decades. The installation is animated by a cyclical process of sound and image generation and transformation. Light sensors intercept changes in brightness on monitors stacked in a structure similar to the faces of popular totems. The intercepted data is transmitted to software that synthesises it using frequency modulation techniques, sonifying and amplifying it, and thus influencing the texture of the images rendered by the monitors. The low frequencies are then sent to a low-frequency oscillator and displayed as RGB-scale graphic waves on the monitors. The effect is an audiovisual and luminous flux that can change abruptly, and self-condition itself depending on how the sensors perceive it, with elements that return and enchant in a continuous evolution. It resembles a sort of machine for triggering mystical cycles of transmission that has at its centre frequency modulation as the pivot of synthesis, in a continuous circular evolutionary reflection, like a metaphorical whirling dervish in search of ecstasy and understanding (or compression within) of the universe.

 

::vtol:: – FM-TOTEM