Creating music and the visual arts are primarily different parts of the same body. A song is different than a portrait, as a music festival is different than an art gallery.

But for Rachel Evans, a LaGrange College student and director of the college’s Acoustic Cafe, the two might as well be one in the same.

Evans, who is working on degrees in art and music, creates what has become known in academic circles as computer music. Using visual-based software, she can add images and videos to the music to create visuals projected during the performance.

In short, you not only hear the music - you see the music through the composer’s eyes.

“I guess I would say my goal is to make it as interactive as possible of an experience and also as multimedia of an experience, so that you get all of the arts,” she said. “… If someone else were to do my (music) piece with the same setup in front of the same computer patch and with the same music and everything, it would sound and look totally different.”

Evans uses a combination of purchased and freeware software to program the visuals alongside her recorded or performed music. Using a laptop and Musical Instrument Digital Interface synthesizers, she can control what the audience sees projected while the music plays.

Her goal is to combine the arts, creating an amalgam that people can use as a metaphor for life, “where you can make whatever you want out of your experience. Whether you know you affected (it) or not, in the end, you’re the one who creates your own experience here.”

Her art has taken her beyond Troup County as she was invited to perform her piece “Mirrors” at the Electronic Music Midwest festival in Kansas City in early November. She was the only undergraduate performer of about 50 total, ranging from computer music graduate students to professors.

“This is the third year in a row that I’ve submitted something to this festival, well, to multiple festivals. This is the first one I’ve ever gotten into, so it’s exciting,” she said. “… I expect to be rejected because I’m a student, but it was cool to be the youngest.”

She and her husband, Grant, plan to travel later to a more Northwestern state so she can continue with a graduate program in an area where computer-based music and art has taken more a foothold.

“To move out there would really help my chances (of getting my foot in the door),” she said, “and there’s already so much of that going on out there, I’m probably a little behind or a lot behind.”

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.

— “Neighbors” is a feature of LaGrange Daily News which spotlights people who are in the news, have unusual hobbies or are otherwise interesting. To suggest a person who could be profiled, contact Becky Holland at bholland@ lagrangenews or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 229.