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Listening to Visions

Seminar List • Abstract • Preparation • Main Text

Abstract

A particular interest of mine, and potentially a window on the mind. I tend to think about music in a visual or graphical way, but how does this work? It may seem quite intuitive, but what evidence is there concerning the process? Composers for film regularly face the same problem and solve it apparently with ease. What they do is clearly not entirely random, but what then, might it be?

Preparation

Think of some shapes and how you might interpret them. Write them down and then improvise some 'solutions'. Roughly notate some of these solutions. What is the relationship between the shapes and the different solutions? Try interpreting the axes in different ways - for instance, the vertical axis might be volume.
Look at some films, deliberately taking note of the music. Some good examples are Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey and The Shining, (the latter is not for the faint hearted!). Listen to how the music is used. Compare this with a film such as Eraserhead (David Lynch), which uses music exceptionally sparingly.
Investigate computer software which attempts the same thing. Examples include...

This software probably presents itself to you, and you manipulate it, through a GUI or graphical user interface. This is itself an illusion created by the computer's operating system and the person or people who constructed the software. How do you think the image is then further 'interpreted' to create the sound or music? How much is actually created by you, and how much by the programmer? How does this compare to composing, improvising, or performing on an acoustic instrument?
What influence does the physical process of playing an instrument have on our thoughts about this? Why do we say that a notes is 'high' or 'low' and not 'left' or 'right' or 'hard' or 'soft'?
See Light, Sound and Synthaesthesia

Prepare

Main Text

Main text (not usually available until after the lecture).