Author: Hoiyan Guo

Julia H Schroder’s article “Graphic Notation” provides a concise history of musical graphic notation and its different approaches/categorization while guiding us in understanding its practical and aesthetic value. While it was a common practice for artists, especially abstract painters (Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian) in the first decades of the twentieth century to absorb inspiration from music, music graphics after 1950 is even more comparable to a traditional staff notation because its instructional nature – to guide a specific musical performance, is well integrated into its creation. The abstraction and freedom featured in a music graphics provide a new vision for musical performance which is highly expressive and individual, something that is limited by the rigid standard from traditional musical notation. During the preparation for our project 2 live performance, we tried practicing this novel approach to draw an overall instruction.

This is our graphic score to illustrate the acting process during the performance, reflecting the three roles of us – performance (Phyllis), visual effects (Yutong), and sound&music (Hoiyan). We three each can read the graphic score in terms of visual cues for action. Furthermore, the graphic score also indicates the duration and frequency of action which corresponds to the musical composition.   

We composed five phases of the audio-visual performance, which are the introduction (A), transition (B), enhancing (C), climax (D), ending (E). The three components each have been choreographed to form the overall audio-visual experience and the emotional state. 

The pursuit after abstraction had been a major theme of Modernism which traveled from Europe to America and lasted till the last decades of the twentieth century. Both Jordan Belson and the Whitneys brothers – James Whitney and John Whitney, were filmmakers who had the vision to further innovate abstraction which was a major theme for especially painters. The central idea of abstract art is to discover a new state of being or consciousness – being in a “metaphysical, weightless, egoless state”, in order for a connection with the spiritual world. Inspired by Eastern metaphysics, both Belson and the Whitneys were well aware of the limitation of painting as a medium because the materiality of canvas and paint greatly hindered the experience of a non-physical and ideal world but only reminded spectators of the material world. Belson and the Whitneys chose to work with the medium of film to liberate abstraction from a two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional experience that had the potential to overwhelm the mind.

While Belson were open to both new and old technology in his filmmaking process, utilizing techniques and tools including “standard animation, optical printing, lasers, liquid crystals”, the Whitneys were enthusiastic about contemporary technologies including the invention of their own optical printer and a system of creating sound from the motion of a pendulum. Their specific approach to generate sounds from motion resulted in the full integration of music and sounds in their works, inviting their audience to experience their art as synesthete. Impacted by the obsession with science, the Whitneys featured atomic-like particles in their works and their aesthetics appeared to be “electronic, aggressive, grating, ruthless” while Belson’s works convey a more organic and natural feeling. Belson cleverly cut off his spectators’ mental connection between his working materials or approach and the visual outcome.

The Vortex concerts were performances of abstract film/light art and other art forms including music and literature. Its center contribution to contemporary events is its combination of lighthearted entertainment and serious high art. The pop concerts and dance music events today commonly feature abstract visual content as a background and usually take place in a closed space which aims to a distance the event or the celebration from the familiar social setting. Despite any apparent nature of being amusement, the experience provided by most music events today is also a pursuit after a different state of being, which was the main vision of abstract art.

Project 1

Title: Son and Daughter

Project Description:

Project 1 is my very first experiment in producing an audiovisual piece. Since we were expected to generate completely abstract content and there was no need to prepare external materials in advance for the project, I started working on a patch on Max already before coming up with a detailed concept. It wasn’t till later that I realized most of the decisions I made concerning the final outcome were all intentionally led to a projection of my own mood while piecing out the project – the feeling of excitement, the sense of discovery, and novelty. In further accomplishing the project, I became clear that my version of the project should appear and sound playful, curious, and fresh as something right after its birth without obvious sophistication.

Perspective and Context: According to Hinderk M. Emrich and his fellows, synesthesia is “the simultaneous, involuntary perception of different, unrelated sensory impressions”, a “blending of the senses”. In my understanding, the most important knowledge revealed by the notion of synesthesia is that the various senses humans possess are not separated from one another at all, the differentiation of different senses are merely for the convenience of theorization rather than being a result of the empirical knowledge of perceptions. While a synesthete by definition tends to perceive a much stronger pairing of two or more senses, everybody is more or less synesthete to different degree.

When applying the notion of synesthesia to designing an audiovisual project, the crucial challenge is to create a possible experience for audience to visualize a piece of music or hear a specific visual pattern – to make sense to the coupling between the visual and audio compositions. In other words, to combine the visual and audio information seamlessly that they become one unity. In creating my project, I paid special attention to matching the tempo of the sounds and the visual movement that they appear to fall under the same narration. Furthermore, I attempted to match the main colors used in the visuals with the timbre in order for the consistence of style. In this way, the audience is more likely to receive the information from two sources altogether and experience synesthesia.

Development  & Technical Implementation: The basic idea of the project is to generate visual content with sound signals. Therefore, I came up with the plan to build two synthesizers using BEAP, running the audio or midi signals through convertors so that they could be applied to trigger VIZZIE modules and eventually generate visual content that corresponds to the sound signals.

Synthesizers: The first synthesizer consists of a DRUM SEQUENCER, three CELL modules for sample inputs, a PAN MIXER to balance the pan and volume of the three sounds, a GAIN AND BIAS as level control, and a CHORUS effect module. The second synthesizer consists of a PIANO ROLL SEQUENCER, a MIDI TO SIGNAL signal convertor, a SAMPLR, a CLASSROOM FILTER, a VCA level control with an ADSR envelop inserted, and REVERB 1 effect. I run both of them through a AUDIO MIXER to balance the two sound inputs before connecting them to the STEREO output. I created each of them following the order of sequencer – oscillator – mixer – level control – effect. My plan for the audio part is to have a combination of a melodic and a rhythmic section. My initial outlook was to have the drum sequencer being responsible for the rhythm and the piano roll sequencer controlling a melody. However, after testing out different samples and their arrangements, I ended up with two guitar samples and one shaker on the drum sequencer and one conga sample on the piano roll sequencer – mixing the melodic and rhythmic parts mainly on the drum sequencer and one more layer of rhythmic section on the piano roll sequencer. The rhythm is highly syncopated for the sake of interest. I also played around with the high pass filter, reverb and chorus effect to further enrich the sounds. 

Converting BEAP to VIZZIE: after the experiment with the audio content, I used BEAPCONVERTRs to convert the audio and midi signal from synthesizer 1 and the midi signal from synthesizer 2 to trigger the VIZZIE modules. The basic idea is to combine (using MIXFADR) a colored filter (MAPPR and 2TONR )and a pattern created by any GENERATOR (3EASEMAPPR) for the visual outcome. In altering the signals, I also connected modules including SMOOTHR, and INVERTR. In order to have more control of how the outcome may appear, I didn’t let the signals control as many options on the generator as possible but instead only connected them to a limited amount of knobs/menu selections. Following is a video of the visual content without the sounds –

Link to GitHub: https://gist.github.com/HoiyanGuo/36daec9a276908aec3c96eb769dc37d5

Presentation: The biggest regret for my presentation is to have prepared it elsewhere on a computer before reopening everything on an IMA laptop shortly before the class, which resulted in losing the original arrangement of the audio part. It would have been great if I could share the original version with my classmates! Furthermore, I didn’t remember to adjust the fader knob control to have a better balance between the patterns and the colored filter, resulting in a quite vague visual presentation especially through the projector. Although the presentation of the project didn’t go as planed and appeared somewhat messy, I believe I did showcase the basic aesthetics of it and present one more different outlook of what the project could be like.

Conclusion:Looking back at my project 1, I think it was all about experiments and having an open mind of all the surprising things Max can do. I learned about the necessity of coming up with a framework before further accomplishing each detail. At the same time, I also realized that each project’s final outcome is always based on the combination of plan and unexpected results. For projects in the future, I hope to spend equal attention to the presentation of projects as to the development process.

The brief in-class screening of Thomas Wilfred’s lumia took place two weeks ago, but these days I have found myself pondering on it from time to time. Watching the slow movement of lights composed by Wilfred was breathtaking – I had not actually seen anything like it despite the fact that Wilfred invented the novel artistic form almost a hundred year ago. Accompanied by pure silence, I find the imagery a subtle combination of nature and technology featuring an unfamiliar sense of sacredness which captures my full mental attention. As I learned more about Wilfred’s life and work through Meredith Finkelstein and Paul Vlachos’ documentary LUMIA along with Keely Orgeman’s text “A Radiant Manifestation in Space: Wilfred, Lumia and Light”, I came to understand my initial response to Wilfred’s works as natural results of his two important artistic motives in my eyes, technology and spirituality.

It was important for me to understand lumia as an independent art form with its own medium, the light. The medium of light itself is crucial in shaping the artistic and philosophical value of lumia. As Orgeman suggests throughout his thorough introduction to Wilfred, light is a truly unique element in the universe full of characteristics and even its own personalities. Light possesses weight and a kind of authority, it enables humans’ optical sensations and opens a wonderful world of colors. The sense of motion, energy, and space are inherently residing in our perception of light.  The connection between light and the genesis of the universe or beings is undeniable. Therefore, Wilfred’s application of light as the ultimate medium of lumia is in fact a philosophical gesture which distinguishes the art form from any other one – it is about the endless fascination with the abstract.

At the same time, I find it interesting that lumia itself contains the absolute opposition to abstraction – the kinetic machinery. The machinery/instrument is crucial in the artist’s composition of the final outcome. It seems that the invention of lumia itself is a reflection of the industrial mentality – the desire to create, but also to control and manipulate. Wilfred didn’t generate lumia freely, instead he had a certain vision for the actual outcomes and insisted being a careful arranger. The arrangement and interaction of light bulbs and various lenses weren’t spontaneous but rather results of study and experiments. According to the description in Orgeman’s text, the instrument of lumia is quite comparable to a piano not only because of the control system but also for its potential of commodification and privatization. I wonder why despite Wilfred’s numerous efforts in familiarizing the public with lumia at his time, it didn’t earn its position parallel to any common art mediums situated in the major hierarchy of visual art or music. But I truly respect Wilfred’s decision of keeping lumia as an independent form distinguished from “color music”, which I assume to be an attempt in preserving lumia’s artistry from entertainment.

During the abstract film screening last class, I felt most intrigued by New Zealand artist Len Lye first through a glimpse of his kinetic installations and soon later his film production. No matter it is sculpture or film, his works commonly feature a kind of upbeat energy and a strong sense of impulse. A Colour Box is incredibly dazzling and rich in flavor – it unfolds with the rapid movement of geometrical shapes and patterns with the constant change of oftentimes shiny and bright background colors. Moreover, the short film for sure creates a synesthetic experience for viewers – the audio and visual information are both fast-paced and share a common mood of excitement with the movement of each component and the overall frames always corresponding to the rhythm. However, what I find most interesting is his inclusion of words besides the use of abstract language. Words taken from post, food packaging, cigarettes box surprisingly intrude this world of abstraction, introducing the impression of traveling/globalization and possibly consumerism.

Despite being recognized as a New Zealand artist with the major collection of his works located there, Lye spent most of his life beyond his birth nation – after his travel to Australia and Samoa in his early years as an adult, he eventually settled in London where he began his career as an artist, and eventually past away in New York (“The World of Len Lye”). The experience of living with the indigenous community and being expelled by the New Zealand Colonial administration inevitably led to one of his most important artistic focuses, the primitive and the aboriginal in the historical background of modernism (“Free Radicals by Len Lye”). His most well-known film Free Radicals is a tribute to the indigenous culture in Africa composed by rhythmic movements of flickering patterns to the rhythmic African drumming and tribal singing (“Free Radicals by Len Lye”). In achieving the total abstraction, Lye was the pioneer to work with the direct film-making technique – a technique which didn’t require working with a camera. I feel very impressed by the expressive nature of Lye’s works and hope to learn more from his art in the future.

Works Cited

“The World of Len Lye | Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre.” Accessed October 8, 2019. https://govettbrewster.com/len-lye/.

“Free Radicals by Len Lye.” The Third Eye (blog), December 20, 2012. http://www.thethird-eye.co.uk/free-radicals-by-len-lye/.