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.

Research - Kandinsky's color theory

I've been looking at musical interpretations in art and have come across the work of Wassily Kandinsky. He had complex theories about synesthetic relations between colors, sounds, and feelings. I always liked Kandinsky's work, but I didn't know that much of it was inspired by music. It reminds me of string theory, which basically says that everything is composed of "strings" vibrating in space. This means that everything that there is, is all basically the same thing, "strings" vibrating at different frequencies, that everything is one extremely complex and brilliant song, here is an image that hopefully can explain it a little.


I am very interested his ideas and find myself in agreement with a lot of them. Not only that, but I feel like I already know his theory, like it is something that is a part of existence and a universal experience to some extent. I was further convinced when I was reading an article about his ideas about how certain colors lend themselves to certain shapes.

He believes that yellow calls for an interesting intense shape like a triangle, red an "intermediate" shape like a square, and blue corresponding with a "dull" shape like a circle. I saw this image and then thought to myself, what shape would green be? I imagined a softened, slightly unevenly shaped hexagon. I scroll down to find that, though not exactly the same, his idea is very similar to the image I had in my head.


I'm going to try to use his theories in my interpretations, for example Kandinsky also states that different colors can be represented with certain instruments, like light blue is a flute, dark blue is a cello, and the darkest blue is an organ. These ideas will be a good base for my musical interpretations of a scene. I want to try and 'play' a photograph using his ideas about color and perhaps some of my own. I feel like I sometimes have synesthetic inclinations and I want to try and focus on these feelings and bring forward a better sensitivity to these correlations. Though I don't play that many instruments, I have the means to use them in my work through digital music software, though I'm not sure if I want to go that route or not.
Here is Kandinsky's Composition VII, I think it's interesting that he titles his work as compositions or improvisations, like music.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913, dimensions and medium unknown

Artist - Terry Winters

Today I want to talk about Terry Winters, Tom suggested I look at him in our last meeting and he was right, I do enjoy Winters' work. He was born in New York and has studied art since high school. He received his BFA from Pratt institute in 1971. I like his work for a lot of reasons. It is messy and loose, which adds an element of action to it not just in the way it looks, but the method in which he made it. When painting, I like working quickly as well. It seems to make me work more intuitionally, rather than relying on logic to make the piece 'work'.

Terry Winters,

Much like what I am trying to do, he uses a lot of designs that are taken from nature, patterns that appear to be like those on leaves, or in this one, I see butterfly wings and cocoons.

Terry Winters, Free Union 1883
oil on linen, 79 x 104-1/4 inches

I also enjoy the colors he uses. They tend to be natural and subtle and remind me of color choices I have made in my paintings.
Aside from painting he also does a lot of drawings and lithographs. This series of lithographs appears kind of cosmic to me and I enjoy the patterns created in it.

Terry Winters, Tokyo Notes, 2004
Set of 9 lithographs with title and colophon pages
Edition of 30
Image/Sheet size: 22 1/2 x 30 1/4 inches each