From Sound to Image: Toward an Aesthetic of Saturation in Peter Tscherkassky's Outer Space

This article examines Peter Tscherkassky's Outer Space (1999) from the perspective of audiovisual composition, focusing on the vertical structuring of image and sound. Constructed from found footage from The Entity (1982), the film uses analogue techniques such as laser image transfer and camera obscura to generate a dense, multi-layered montage. The soundtrack, created by copying the visual images onto the audio track, produces a saturated sonic texture that reflects the visual distortions. Drawing on early film theories - in particular Eisenstein's concept of vertical montage and Gance's polyvision - the paper explores how musical concepts such as harmony and polyphony can be used as analytical tools to understand film structure. The interplay between harmonicity and inharmonicity, both visual and aural, produces a dynamic tension that culminates in a perceptual cadence. This interdisciplinary approach, which links musicology and film studies, proposes Outer Space as a model of intermodal writing, where meaning emerges from the convergence of sensory modalities.