Jim James

Cymatica

I was attracted to collaborating with Jim James (aka ICE) because when I spoke with her, her themes and influences were so different from anything I'd previously done for this project. Jim is a composer and music producer. (Check out her work on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.) The ideas behind her music were much more abstruse and conceptual than with the other musicians I'd worked with—Jim told me that as a live electronic music producer she's inspired by patterns, specifically cymatics. (You can click that link to read more about cymatics, but in a nutshell, they're patterns produced by sound, which can be made visible.) I have always loved playing with fractals and other patterns in my work, and the idea of working with cymatics was really interesting to me. 

When I hear electronic/digital music live (and loud) at a show, it's so overwhelming that I feel as if I stop existing—I fall apart and become part of the music. I have never been much on going to raves, but I absolutely understand that desire to get lost inside the experience. So my idea for the main image (above) and the image immediately below was to portray Jim literally dissolving into patterns of sound.

Jim is also influenced by the uncontrollable nature of water - she told me that she dreams of tsunamis. So I also played with the idea of water, literally turning her into a wave for one images below, and overlaying cymatics on her face (above) to re-create the effect of underwater caustics. (I also included an outtake image of Jim smiling, as she told me these are hard to come by.)

This image series was really interesting to research and work on, and I hope that I've captured some of the feeling that inspires Jim's work. 


Model: Jim James - ICE

Costume: Model's own

See more of this series here.