Audible Time
Translating Time into Tone: Visual and Sonic Patterns Based on the Circle of Fifths
Audible Time is a series of drawings that explores how time can be translated into both visual and sonic forms. Using circular diagrams based on the Circle of Fifths, the series maps solar and lunar rhythms into spatial and tonal patterns.
What began as exploratory line-based notations evolved into layered structures integrating day and night, seasonal transitions, and harmonic systems. From early experiments in converting time into tone to the development of radial scores, Audible Time reveals how time can be both seen and heard—transformed into a multisensory experience.
Mapping Time into Tone – The First Experiments
This group of works marks the beginning of the Audible Time series, where the conceptual bridge between time and tone first took form. The initial drawing of the Circle of Fifths was a foundational sketch — simple yet powerful in its geometric and harmonic clarity. From there, a series of handwritten charts followed, systematically assigning time intervals to musical tones.
These tables were early attempts to sonify time using tonal logic, long before any visual score or radial diagram was drawn. The process was intricate and exploratory: How could specific hours of the day correspond to specific keys? What tonal frequencies might match seasonal rhythms or daily cycles?
These early mappings paved the way for later works in which the abstract structure of time would become both visible and audible.
Layered Structures – From Tone to Time
This group of works presents the first fully integrated system combining the Circle of Fifths with the 24-hour cycle. What began as tonal mapping now expands into time-based logic—visually encoding not only pitch and harmony, but also light and darkness, and the seasonal flow of a year.
Drawn on transparent tracing paper and layered by hand, these works allow multiple temporal dimensions to coexist: tone, time, day and night, and the four seasons. Each radial division marks a tonal point; each segment of the circle now holds a temporal meaning. Through this layered structure, the abstract passage of time begins to resonate audibly—structured, repeatable, and interpretable.
This phase marks the transition from exploratory drawing to a systematic method of sonifying time.
From Lines to Loops – Early Scores of Time
This group contains early experiments in visualizing time as sound. The first large-format drawing translates all 365 days of a year into a continuous horizontal flow. Each color-coded bar represents a moment of solar or lunar transition—an early attempt to write time as a linear score. This foundational piece later informed the three-year time-based scores developed in other series.
The next two drawings zoom into spring, expanding individual sections of the linear score. Although they remained undeveloped as standalone works, they reveal a process of visual testing—how time could be broken down and layered as sound.
The final drawing introduces a circular structure for the first time. Based on real data from May 2017, each small circle represents one full day, segmented into 24 hours. Its format resembles a calendar grid, yet retains traces of the earlier linear approach. The four colored arcs inside each circle correspond to the rising and setting of the sun and the moon—marking the beginning of a shift toward radial, cyclical visualization and ultimately, sonification.
From Spiral to Score – The Transition to Time Notes
These two drawings mark the conceptual and structural shift from the Time Spiral (2018) series toward the Time Notes(2019) series. Initially, time had been visualized through purely spatial compositions, while its sonic dimension remained separate—rendered in parallel as linear scores.
In this phase, the Circle of Fifths was introduced directly into the circular time drawings. This allowed pitch and harmonic structure to be embedded within visual time itself.
The first drawing presents a larger division of time, where spatial intervals between tones were too broad to capture subtle variations. In the second, that limitation was resolved: the structure became denser and more refined—revealing the form that would later define the Time Notes series.
Both drawings were made on printed circular grids using pencil and colored pen, combining precise visual rhythm with harmonic logic.
Introduction to the concept and visual-music structure of Time Sound (English).
Introduction to the concept and visual-music structure of Time Sound (German).
Artist Notes
Why do I keep wanting to understand time? What is time, really? How can something invisible be made visible?
Then one day, I realized—it reveals itself through light and darkness, the colors of the seasons, and the quiet rhythm of a day.
The rising and setting of the sun, the appearance and disappearance of the moon— I followed these movements, drawing lines, tracing circles, unfolding spirals.
My days and seasons were no longer something passing overhead, unseen and abstract. They became time I could actually see.
These raw drawings are records from the moment when time first began to take shape. The unseen texture of time flowed, overlapped, and spread across translucent paper.
These small beginnings later evolved into Time Spiral, Moon Calendar, and The Depth of Time and the Holy Heptagon.
And even now, I continue to ask: How can we truly see time? And might we be able to hear it, too?