Research Blog - Surround Sound

For this blog I want to make a short tutorial of what I've learned on how to create surround sound with Sony Vegas Pro 9. This technique is useful in my work because the music that coincides with my images is supposed to play out of separate speakers so as to isolate each instrument with it's corresponding image. However, in order to get each instrument in sync, I must either press play on multiple players simultaneously or play the track in surround sound with each instrument on a different speaker. I kind of like the idea of physically syncing different players and since I only have three tracks right now, I may do it this way for this crit. However, once I add more tracks it may be necessary to use surround sound. And here's how I'll do it, it's pretty simple:
1.Start new project in Vegas

2.Import each instrument on a separate track.

3. Go to File -> Properties -> Audio and select 5.1 surround from the Master Bus Mode drop down menu. Below that I set it to 3 buses because I have three tracks, I want the quality on the resample and stretch and low-pass filter to be at 'Best'

4. This should put the 5-speaker slider next to your tracks.

5.I already have my first two tracks split into the right and left channels so I will put the orange dot on the corresponding speaker. The third track I want on another speaker other than the left or right so I will put it on the rear right.


Unless you have a 5.1 surround sound sound card in your computer, you won't be able to hear the effects and would not be advisable for large projects with lots of surround sound effects, but if you export this as an AC3 file and burn it to a DVD, it should work in a DVD player hooked up to a surround sound system.

Artist - Gene Davis

In trying to created a stronger relationship between my music and visual work, I have begun taking a more minimalist approach. Rather than drawing my music from images, which held too many variables, I am creating the image and music at the same time and am focusing on the relationships between each note and visual element. This approach has led me back to color fields. My imagery has become of simple color bars that are meant to directly relate to the music. I was certain that this type of imagery has been used before, though maybe not in the same context, so I went searching for an artist whose work is like this. I came across Gene Davis whose work is visually very similar. While Davis does have an interest in rhythm, he seems to focus more on the relationship between his colors. While I am also considering the color relationships, I am more focused on how the colors and bars relate to the music.

Davis is a color field painter and was a member of the 60's abstract art group, the Washington Color School. He was a teacher at the Corcoran School of Art, where is work is also part of their collection. He is one of the most prominent color field painters of his time and has work in such collections as the Guggenheim and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Gene Davis, Phantom Tattoo, dimensions, medium, date unknown

Black Aces, 1967
Acrylic on canvas

Gene Davis, Black Grey Beat, Acrylic on canvas, 1964

Davis' work has more variations in rhythm and color than mine. His work "Grey Black Beat"(last image above) references the musical in his work through the title. I feel like I am taking this a step further by actually trying to understand the relationship between the visual phenomena of sensing music, and hearing it. My color bars have less character, most of them are evenly spaced but I think this is a result of the simplicity I am aiming for, maybe I am working on something that is more of a study, but I want to understand fundamentals and build my own theories before going all out on a complex song or image. When I become more comfortable with how I related the music to the visuals, I expect to build more complex songs, resulting in more complex color bars or different forms.

Research Blog - visible sound

In my research I have come across this really amazing phenomena that shows sound waves manifested in physical representations by putting a cornstarch and water mixture on a speaker. It seems a sine wave is required to achieve this effect, but I think it can be produced in some way or another using different sound waves or materials such as water. A sine wave is a single tone without harmonics and is found in ocean waves, light waves, and sound waves.

A similar phenomena can be seen when applying vibration waves to various particles like sand. I found this other video that shows this and explains some of the ideas I am working with, such as the idea everything is built upon different vibrations of energy running through everything.

I find it very interesting that sound has this effect on matter. But it makes sense based on my understanding that everything is basically the same thing and that rhythms of energy, basically in a musical way, bring everything into existance. Like the vibrations effect on cornstarch, when we make music we are applying energy to different notes in a rhythm that creates something almost tangible. Through different combinations of instruments, tempos, rhythms, notes, etc. a musical world is created in the listeners head. The reason we enjoy music is because it touches our primal instincts, when we hear something like a drum beat we subconciously associate it with experiences like walking or running. My friend has a book all about this and I am going to try to get it from him, it sounds very interesting. In the same way, matter is arranged through energy in different combinations of frequencies(rhythms, beats, tempos) or different arrangements of matter(notes, melodies, or instruments)

Things like music and the cornstarch/water experiment just happen to be effect that we can perceive with our senses, as opposed to the way most things vibrate, which cannot be perceived. For example we can't see the forces that are at work in something solid like a table. The molecules of solid things vibrate too fast for us to be able to see, our senses allow us to only perceive "the tip of the iceberg" compared to what there is. Water is more expressive of such forces as we can see things like large waves moving through water but still cannot see the vibrations of the water itself. My project really only touches on the tip of the iceberg of this topic so I want to try and modify it to represent these ideas better.

Artist Blog - Leo Villareal

Today I want to talk about Leo Villareal, his work deals with light and sound and in most of it he is creating patterns with LEDs as large scale installations. He sequences the LEDs in such a way that patterns and rhythms are created. The pieces evolve as the parameters that he assigns to the lights dictate the way the lights interact and change. It expresses a sort of duality between the medium and subject matter. While the patterns and movements of the lights appear very natural, flowing in ways that seem to respond to physics, the medium lends itself to be very cold and unnatural. It lacks the feeling of a handmade work and is very computerized but it still reads in a natural way. A lot of it makes the viewer try to decipher the patterns and want to find some sort of meaning or form in it. It relates to my work because my work is inspired by trying to understand natural patterns and how they correlate to others. I also find the simplicity of these moving lights to be beautiful and calming. They seem to relate to cosmic forces in the ways that they randomly create specific patterns and forms.

Leo Villareal, Stars, 2007, LED light sculpture

Leo Villareal, Comforter, inflatable light installation, 2006

Leo Villareal, Field, 2007, dimensions unknown

Artist Lecture 2 - Brian Ulrich

Don't get me wrong, I liked Ulrich's work, especially the empty malls and abandoned stores. But I didn't really get what he was saying about the retail stores with people in them. He said that he felt that the stores were designed to make you feel small, but I think of them as the last extension of the corporate machine. Another element created for maximum efficiency and maximum profit, huge stores can hold all the products a company can sell, with rows of check-out lines to get as many customers through as possible.

Brian Ulrich, Granger, In, 2003, photographic print, dimensions unknown

Maybe this does make the customer feel small, but I don't think that is the reason they are like that. Why build useless check out lines if they take up space that could be used for more products and advertisements? People buy things to feel better not because the store makes them, but because they exist in a world of stores and advertisements designed to make them think that money and the owning of nice things are the ultimate goal and meaning of life. I think it goes back to something else he said, we don't spend "all of our energy solving our problems but creating them." This is true on an individual level as well as on the corporate level. We've created a viciously cycling system that resembles productivity, but really stands for waste. The companies running it are created by people who want money, perhaps to buy the very things that their company sells. Everyone is small, but together we've created a monster that is stomping the reason we are here on earth, creating a veil over what is important, and we just keep feeding it. I saw the looks on the people's faces as a general unrecognized discontentment with the machine that they are trapped in.

Brian Ulrich, Copia - Dark Stores, Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, photographic print, date and dimensions unknown

I saw the abandoned stores and malls as visions of the future, forgotten buildings now serving only as shelter, disconnected from their original purpose. A lot of them I saw just as images of degradation, these types of images seem to be a big thing in photography, abandoned buildings being reclaimed by the elements. I think they are strong because they depict these spaces being allowed to interact with the ephemeral nature of the world. Finally let loose from mans misguided attempts to keep them shiny, new, and alive. They do not exist in nature, they do not support nature, therefore they cannot be sustained by nature. This may not be how Ulrich sees his work, but it is my interpretation and in this way it relates to my work and interest in the natural.

I also didn't understand what he was saying about shooting large format at night being looked down upon and that people said he was crazy. Is that some kind of art taboo? I think the lighting effects that come from the night light are very interesting and add to the idea that these buildings are past their prime, the sun has gone down on them and they are being consumed by the death that is night.

Research Blog

I've found some writings by Albert Einstein. He seems to have a very similar viewpoint to myself. He understood music as synonymous with existence.
"Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust - we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
-Albert Einstein
This got me thinking about science and existence and bees. There are many things that science cannot explain or measure, perhaps by applying a derivative of music theory to scientific questions new theories can be made. Like string theory for example, which I talk about in an older blog which basically states that everything in existence is made of little 'strings' vibrating at different frequencies. Our experience of life is limited to our perception by a finite number of frequencies that we can perceive with our senses and only represent a small part of the unlimited number that could exist. We don't see how these different vibrations make up matter. We can't understand how the vibrations of a couch are different to but immediately relate to those of a table, but like everything else they have their own combination of frequencies in in the medium of space. Color is expressed through frequencies of light, sound through frequencies of pressure in a given medium. It is all different vibrations of energy through space. Perhaps to understand the meaning of life is to be conscious of frequencies of energies that are not available to our senses allowing us to see how we vibrate in relation to our surroundings. Bees see colors that we can't, just like other animals have heightened senses of smell, or what seems to be a sixth sense when it comes to natural disasters, so who knows how many dimensions of vibration there are, we just assume there are only those that can be measured such as sound waves, electromagnetic waves, water waves, etc. Perhaps there are colors that exist on the verge of sound. Perhaps there is no difference in color, matter and sound, only a ranges of frequencies and energy transitions in which they blend together. The reason the color green seems to compare to violins or that orange is like trumpets is that the frequency of the color and the frequency of the sound harmonize in space and strike a similar emotional chord in the viewer. It is an amusing coincidence in the experience of life.
Amber suggested that I check out Kandinsky's "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" so I've been reading that and in it he expresses an interesting unity between color, viewer, artist and their souls through the context of music,
"colour is a power which directly influences the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."
To expand on this, I feel it is more that god is playing the piano, the artist is a manifestation of that god, the pinnacle of creation which is gods attempt to see and enjoy himself, I believe it is only a matter of evolution before there is a full realization of universal unity and the infinite possibilities of gods potential.

Artist - Alex Grey

Today I want to talk about Alex Grey. His work is very spiritual and psychedelic. There is something oddly familiar about it; it seems he has tapped into something universal, so that you almost physically experience his paintings as a manifestation of something that you might have imagined, but not understood. Despite the fact that his work is surreal or even abstract, it still has a sense realness, it seems like it represents systems that really 'work'. His work transcends space and time with its depiction of earthly elements as they are connected to a different dimension or plane of existence which humans operate in but are not readily sensitive to. He has been shown worldwide and his work is similar to Abdul Mati Klarwein's. His work has been featured on the album covers of several musical artists, I like that this type of work is being used in correlation with music, it's kind of like what I am doing.

I enjoy his work for the patterns he creates, and how he uses them to indicate an unending growing and interweaving of creation. It's kind of what I want to do, perhaps I will employ similar techniques in making my video work, but I wouldn't want to go too psychedelic, out of fear of be written off as some kind of acid art. I also don't want it to be considered 'sacred' as Grey's work is often referred to as. But it does give me ideas for ways to go about composing my videos.

I especially like this one, as it depicts the balance of earth. It represents how human destruction of the environment disturbs the homeostasis of the planet and is created out of a small illusion that is merely a part of the vast whole. As in much of his other work it also suggests the cyclical nature of the universe.

Research - sacred geometry

First of all, let me quickly reiterate where I am at. I am basically trying to use a series of images of nature to inspire different elements of a song. Each image or set of images will be represented through a musical interpretation played by one instrument. The separate images and melodies will be displayed and played together as a single song. This work is taking me in kind of an interesting direction, I've been thinking about my interests in natural patterns, interconnectivity, and music. It seems to be a fundamental human need to try to understand existance, I think that studying these phenomena can give insights into the 'truth' of the universe. I think my work may be becoming more spiritual, dealing with my understanding of everything as infinitely complex music. I've been reading about sacred geometry and the divine ratio.

I've become interested in Pythagoras' mathematical discovery that octaves in music are created by halving the string and that all the notes of a scale are composed of rational divisions of those octaves. I see these ratios as directly related to ratios found in the rest of existance, this is why music can evoke a sense of a place or a situation. Perhaps a certain combinations of notes that give us the feeling of a sunny day at the beach are comprised of patterns and connections that are present in the actual experience of a sunny day at the beach.
The musician Sting has an interesting quote in his book,

"I seem to be perceiving the world on a molecular level, where the normal barriers that separate "me" from everything else have been removed, as if every leaf, every blade of grass, every nodding flower is reaching out, every insect calling to me, every star in the clear sky sending a direct beam of light to the top of my head. This sensation of connectedness is overwhelming. It's like floating in a buoyant limitless ocean of feeling that I can't really begin to describe unless I evoke the word love. Before this experience I would have used the word to separate what I love from everything I don't love - us not them, heroes from villains, friend from foe, everything in life separated and distinct like walled cities or hilltop fortresses jealously guarding their hoard of separateness. Now all is swamped in this tidal wave of energy which grounds the skies to the earth so that every particle of matter in and around me is vibrant with significance. Everything around me seems in a state of grace and eternal. And strangest of all is that such grandiose philosophizing seems perfectly appropriate in this context, as if the spectacular visions have opened a doorway to another world of frankly cosmic possibilities."
Broken Music - Pages 46-47.

I think that the ways that these patterns work together create the unity that Sting is talking about. I think by using something auditory like music compared with something seemingly opposite like the visual realm, I can create a sense of unity. Here is a mathematical fractal based on Fibonacci numbers that describes naturally occurring phenomena such as galaxies, hurricanes, and seashells, things that are all very different in their properties, but manifest themselves in a remarkably similar way.

Artist Lecture 1 - Penelope Umbrico

I liked the aesthetic of a lot of her work, the use of repeating, slightly differing images is interesting to me, it's simple, but its scale makes it complex. I also liked her mirror works, but I would never have gotten that they were about the feeling of absence of yourself. Once my bathroom mirror broke and for a long time there was no mirror there, but I didn't feel the same way as she described it, like I was missing. Maybe it has something to do with vanity or something, not knowing what you look like, but who cares? You probably look the same as you did the day or month before, unless you put on your face every day; it was really only a problem when I had to shave. Anyway, I've always thought that the intended meaning of a piece isn't that important. I just found it to be a funny illusion of a mirror that doesn't reflect. She was a little difficult to follow at first, which was kind of annoying, but she seemed to get it together as the lecture progressed. My favorite of her work is the broken LCD screen color fields. Again, I don't think it's important that they are supposed to be about the art being created out of the failure of entertainment or whatever she said, I want to appreciate it for the simplicity of it's ambiguous appeal. I'm amazed at the fact that something totally abstract like that can be interesting by it's own visual merit. A random malfunction can create something that can stand as a piece of art, I don't know, I'm kind of confusing myself.

Artist - Florian Grond, Frank Halbig, Jesper Munk Jensen and Thorbjørn Lausten

I've found this very interesting experiment called Sol by four artists who have created an audio/visual installation that converts scientific solar data into musical and visual representations. They take four sets of data, Medium Level Solar Radiation, Solar Wind, the distribution of Sunspots, and Solar Magnetic Mean Field. These readings are then directly translated into musical notes and are assigned different instruments. They similarly use different forms and visual patterns to represent the data as well. The result is amazing, I would expect the sounds to be more random, but it really is like music and almost sounds like you're orbiting the sun (in a burn-proof box). Here is a link to the project's website where you can listen to the music.
http://www.sol-sol.de/htm/English_Frames/English_Frameset.htm


This is similar to what I'm thinking about, but instead of focusing on accurate representation of data of something natural, I am attempting intuitive depictions of relationships between color, form, key, instrumentation, and notation derived from nature. Almost like "playing" a photo as a piece of sheet music, composed by nature.