Hi Everybody,I just wanted to get a dialogue going about our flower/music assignment. What's everyone's thoughts? Shoot just flower shots? Shoot other objects too? Specific songs or like a whole genre? I feel like we could take this so many places and am curious what angles are being thought about!
I don't know how I feel about this assignment because like you said we could take this in so many places. For me personally I might have to go with a genre then over a song.
ReplyDeleteIs it an option to photograph some other organic object as a flower? This morning at work I was shucking a case of corn and all the little fibers and strands and translucent covering were very interesting...
ReplyDeleteI got a new CD last week that I'm pretty fascinated by. Music is a very subjective experience- like making visual art, it is interpreted and means something different to everyone.
Until I was about 17, I wanted to pursue music as a profession. I played the violin, piano, bassoon, guitar, bass, flute, clarinet over the years but never felt able to translate everything completely from one instrument to another. Violin was my first instrument, but I couldn't ever really write on it. Sometimes I wish I could go back with my knowledge from photography and apply it to music-- sequencing, form, color, layering, tone...
the most visceral part for me was always the very physical aspects that music acquires over time-- rosin dust that gets on your fingers, striking harmonics, callouses, the smell of wood, whether it was a full or reedy sound, strings, metal. All pretty interesting stuff really.
Have any of you had the sensation of seeing color when a certain note, chord or key is played? I think it was Beethoven who said that B minor was the 'black' key for him. If you start associating colors with notes, what does your palette look like when you build a cadence, a chord or an image?
Other musicians? What do you guys think?
Lindsey, I just have to say you just blew my mind but thats probably from the lack of sleep/being overtired. But anyways I really like your idea of the sensation of seeing color when certain note, chord, etc is played. I think it would be awesome if we could some how capture that since not everyone experiences that.
ReplyDeleteLindsey those are all very interesting points. Music was never a huge part of my life until about the last year. My parents forced instruments on me (piano, cello) and tried out voice and guitar lessons. It was just not something I could get passionate about. But I have learned that a passion is a passion. I can understand people who are passionate musicians because that's how I feel about visual art. I find your comment about seeing color with music really interesting, my boyfriend is a musician and he has mentioned that to me before. I've never really had that experience. For me music is more of a emotional response and it's something I take very personally depending on the musician. Like some music just sounds like who you are. I feel like my being had a soundtrack, it would be the Fleet Foxes. And other music is what triggers strong memories. So it's hard for me to decide how to form this project. I'm unsure of how to associate colors and objects with how I feel about music.
ReplyDeleteAhhh - this is good discussion - bravo!
ReplyDeleteuse your emotions and the response that is elicited and how you might visualize it.
Look at images
Listen to your body - visual and sensory experience - what resonates?
what is your spin on this?
if it feels overwhelming to parse out, ask one question at a time.
then build.
No wrong answers....
remember - the goal of this assignment is to think of creating an image with layers, parts, composite, construct exquisitely...
Synaesthesia:
ReplyDeleteA while back I met a young lady through a girlfriend at the lime who's painting was heavily influenced by her Synaesthesia. Her work is pretty...interesting... ( http://www.lucymckenna.com/art/2010gallery/index.htm ). She's very outspoken about her ...condition... Basically when she hears sounds she also has the sensation of color associated with it... Also different memories and places and objects are evoke different colors when she thinks about them... I really don't know too much about this but i always found it intriguing. It makes me think about old photographs and how they fade (this is mostly unrelated) and how my memories feel like that sometimes. Like when you almost have to stretch your imagination to get a really old memory and it seems correct but the color is wrong or you don't quite remember what people were wearing. My mind usually makes up those little details or i remember it in pieces and patches that are hazy and incomplete. So i don't really know how i got so far off topic, I'm real bored and too damn sober. Cheers
Oh, I guess i was going to mention something about how certain objects are fairly concrete in your memory... ie you may not remember a particular daisy but the daisy is a set concrete image in your mind that can be invoked at any time... Which makes me think about all the little daisies i picked for my grandmother everyday and she would put them in a tiny jar above the sink in her kitchen.. It seems like i can remember each petal on every daisy in that little jar, but really it could be an accumulation of all the daisies i've ever seen... Memory and sensation are strange. Oh i guess this doesn't really relate to our project... Balls.
ReplyDeleteAll of the above DOES relate to the assignment.
ReplyDeleteThe goal is to create a layered/composited image - but BEFORE you can do that, you need to know WHY you would do that, other than - well just because I can...
How and why we visualize is a composite of many elements.
memory, nostalgia, ideation - all occur because something internal resonates, is triggered.
I chose music since it has a universality to it.
Gale on the other hand is in a different position since being assigned to visualize music is more than a challenge - it is impossible in te way any of us hearing people might interpret the assignment.
YET - I am sure she will amaze us since a strong emotion was/is elicited with this assignment.
This assignment may also be the beginning of each of you creating your own syntax, a visual vocabulary, set of icons, symbols that have meaning to you.....
Wassily Kandinsky is a good painter to look at for this. He had a rare disorder that mixed his perceptions of sound and vision so he literally "heard" color and shape and saw sound. He is currently my inspiration for this assignment.
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