Description
'All art aspires to the condition of muisc' - Walter Pater
Perhaps I can find a way to elevate art to this condition, by translating visual art into a musical language.The work I am developing investigates the function of the music box as a way to catalogue and store information. The original found music boxes store data, i.e. the songs 'encoded' on them, which are simplified to a basic geometric pattern. I'm interested in the translation of information: from a visual language, into an audio language, by means of a tangible object. We humans naturally hunt for patterns in everything we experience. Music itself is just a collection of sound patterns. My work attempts to draw parallels between pattern-hunting in the two mediums by translating found visual patterns into music using the music box. I'm interested in the tension between mathematical/ mechanical order vs. human imagination/error, and also the tension between ramondomness and the human desire for pattern.
Hey Ellie, here some artists you should defiantly look at..
ReplyDeleteIannis Xenakis - Invented a computerized tablet that reads images and converts them into frequencies (there's nothing in the fine arts library but lots in the music library)
John cage - uses the chinese book call I Ching (a book that gives order to random events) to make decisions when writing music. (some info in fine arts but more in music library). he also did a work that you might remember call 4:33 where he sat at a piano and did nothing for 4min 33 sec. the sounds in the room became the work.
Also look into Stochastic music (music made but change - directly relates to what you're doing)
Richie
I just remembered you talked about 'evil' sounding notes and stuff.. Look up the diminished scale, it's also known as the satanic scale, used in songs like 'The Beautiful People' by Marilyn Manson. Also the diminished chords..
ReplyDeleteAnd look up Conlon Nancarrow if you haven't already. (wrote songs on a piano roll past the human ability to play them, making him one of the first people to use a music instrument as a mechanical devise.)
:)