The Starry Sky (Nimanty&Solarsoul)
Concept
Although the lyrics do not exist, this silent but sharp sound provides listeners an image of a profoundness of the universe with a calm inner state. A planet and its ring around it not only represent the universe realistically but also symbolize the infiniteness of space called the universe. The two different sizes of lines in the middle part expressed a continuation of thoughts that never stop even in a calm inner state. The letters in various languages expressed the existence of various cultures of humans, their peace and coexistence in the supernatural space of the universe, but the twisted form expresses complexity due to various internal conflicts such as desire, sadness, hope, and anger.
Process
When choosing a song for the Sound Visualization Project, I had a lot of thoughts in my head. This is because there are an endless number of songs in the world, and the message and inspiration given to the audience are all different depending on the genres, rhythms, beats, and lyrics. At the beginning of the project, I tried to choose one of the popular music, the songs people usually listen to, but I felt that the lyrics in the songs dominated the messages and inspiration of the song. I decided to find a song that could be interpreted differently by individual audiences. I’ve tried various kinds of classic songs and loud songs that might be played in the club, but The Starry Sky was the song that I felt most directly delivering the message without lyrics. I listened to this song over and over again to reinterpret it in my own way. When I first listened to this song, as the title suggests, I could only imagine the vast universe and the stars floating in the sky, but the more I listened to it, the more I began thinking about the relation between the images of the universe and the calmness that came out from the silence.
One Black Square
In short, Gestalt’s theory is “The whole is different from the sum of its parts.” In the end, we look at a certain image as one image, but there are various combinations of shapes and arrangements inside of it. I don’t think I perfectly applied the Gestalt theory in my Sound Visualization Project, but I tried to apply it as much as possible. The circle at the top of the figure is a just one simple circle, but it is expressed as a planet with its angle and arrangement and location with the surrounding rings. In addition, the lines were written several times with the English alphabet S, but this was also expressed by Gestalt’s theory as a total of four endless lines.
Conclusion
In various aspects, I think my Sound Visualization Project needs to be supplemented with. The biggest issue was that I did not fully utilize the characteristics of “One Black Square.” Because I spent a lot of time choosing songs, which eventually led to a lack of illustrator work time. In addition, it was my first time using Adobe Illustrator, so I had a hard time working on it. However, I think it was good to interpret the song and deliver my own understanding of the music to the audiences. This was the first project, but I think this work was an important project to know the overall concept and purpose of Communication Lab projects in the future. In my next projects, I will create more creative and improved works through what I have learned in this project.