Possible locations

I took a walk tonight for some possible night shoot places.

essay writing time!

Well this is the time that I have to put down my camera and pick up lots and lots of books. I've actually been really good this year, I've been taking books out every since first week of classes so I'm feeling quite prepared. I have been mostly concentrating on the literature review and I have decided to split it into 3 sections that I feel are the most important factors in creating my final outcome.

Section one
I think I am going to start off with the theory of the association between a note to a specific colour.
Starting from the very beginning, I have been reading a lot about Pythagoras and Aristotle who "speculated that there must be a correlation between the musical scale and the rainbow spectrum of hues" (http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html). Also when I was reading Goethe's "theory of colours" book, I read in the notes that Aristotle also said that "it is possible that colours may stand in relation to each other in the same manner as concords in music, for the colours which are (to each other) in proportions corresponding with the musical concords, are those which appear to be the most agreeable" (page 418)
I have also been reading a lot about Sir Isaac Newton and his theories of the association between a musical note and colour. Newton was "the first to observe a correspondence between the proportionate width of the seven prismatic rays and the string lenghts required to produce the msucial scale D,E,F,G,A,B,C."(http://rhythmiclight.com/articles/InstrumentsToPerformColor.pdf)

I will probably take about goethe's theories and then lead on to Louis Bertrand Castel.

Castel in 1730 created an Ocular Harpsichord which was founded on the Newtonian Doctrine. The colour organ was wired up to 60 different coloured panes of glass that corresponded to a individual note. When the sound was played, a curtain would lift the pane of glass and reveal the colour to match the sound.

Before Castel built the colour organ he posed the question " Can anyone imagine anything in the arts that would surpass the visable rendering of sound, which would enable the eyes to partake of all the pleasures which music gives to the ears?" (D.Conrad, 1999. the Dichromaccord: Reinventing the Elusive Color Organ.)

Section two

In the next section, I want to focus on the similarities in characteristics of music and visuals. 

I will probably start off with a quote from William Moritz that I have previously mentioned. 

"Just as many different techniques create moving images, so do many different instruments create musical sounds. Images (ie colors, form, materials, juxtapositions and contrasts etc.) and sounds (ie. tones, melodies, rhythms, orchestral colors, harmonies and counterpoints) function the same in different media"

Then I will talk about Leopold Survage as I feel his "Colored Rhythm" is appropiate to this section. As a painter, he had a problem with space so he wanted to create an animation so that it was as free and fluid as music. So he took a characteristic from music and applied it to visuals

Then I will carry on to Wassily Kandinsky. Why he is in this section it that he had an interesting relationship between Arnold Schoenberg. They were both similar in the way that Kandinsky wanted to create new abstract art and schoenberg wanted to create a new harmony in music. Schoenberg's work "seemed without rules, random, based on "aimless wanderings"". The way Schoenberg composed his music helped Kandinsky convey his ideas on compositional structure for abstract painting.

Section Three

In the final section I plan to talk about how you create an aesthetic for both the eye and the ear. In this section I will talk about the study I found in that the conductor found that:

“Although information from the world enters our heads via different sensory organs – the eyes and ears in this instance – once they are in the brain they are intimately connected with each other. Impressively, they are connected in non-random ways, so hat some combinations of sound and vision go together better than others.”

then I will most likely talk about a modern visual music artsit, I am currently torn between Netia Jones and Maura Macdonnell. 

Music video workshop day in Glasgow!

I'm just back from a rather strange workshop, strange not as in it was boring but I was basically the only person that turned up so I had an entire day of skilled people talking to me!!

First of all the day started with a history lesson on music videos. The funny thing is that for my module last year 'digital media project' I chose the music video industry as my chosen area to talk about. So I had already did an extensive research into the history but it was good anyway to go over it and I found a few videos that I had missed it so it was still worth listening and taking notes. The talk was taken by Blair Young who has a music video/ promo company in Glasgow so it was really interesting hearing how he started out to where he is now. After the talk I asked him about graduated programs and talked to him about my fourth year project ( I gave him a link to my blog), unfortuantly due to the small size of the company they do not have a graduate program but he said if I wanted to come for some work experience I should get in contact with him... CONNECTIONS!

Then we closed for lunch and the second half of the day was held by Film G representatives (who organized the day). They have a competition on currently for passionate film makers and one of the section is a music video. Even though the songs are in Gaelic, that doesn't mean that I cant enter. I listened to a few of the songs and met a few of the songwriters who talked about their inspiration for their songs. It was really interesting having that one to one talk with the people who I could potentially be creating a visual representation for their music.

I would really like to enter as I think it would tie nicely into my project as well as a chance of winning £500 AND a day on a set of a music video, which lets be honest for a student is INVALUABLE! I'm not going to say I am defiantly going to do it because as I progress I might get some really good ideas that would be better to develop further, but I'm hopeful I have time for both!

Here is the link to Film G to find more:

http://www.filmg.co.uk/en/competition

Neon- Closing party

Well! what a week! been to a ton of NEON things and I'm up early for a music video workshop tomorrow! A very productive week. Tonight was pretty amazing, it was the final night for neon which has been hosting a whole variety of digital art this week and the finale was not a let down. But it was the final performance that caught my eye tonight. It was a strange looking photo booth in the corner. I got talking to the creator behind the installation and wow it was so cool. Basically Steve is a student at perth college study music (I cant fully remember the course he is on) and this was a project that he had done for college. So how did it work? Well you entered the photo booth and had your picture taken, then he translated the information into sound and then from sound to an image again! So essentially visualizing music! Here is my photo:

Pretty cool huh?

But back to the main attraction. Well creative would be an understatement. Two guys playing music and singing in a transparent prism that had visuals projected onto? Yes that is exactly what it was. An audio visual feast! Throw in some neon lights for music stands and wow, what an ending to a wonderful festival. I took some footage of the show that I will upload later for everyone to feast there eyes on, but I don't really know what else to say about it? I was a wonderful blend of audio/visual stimulation. 

Here's a short video that I took of the night

NEON- Heartbeater

Just back from another amazing neon spectacular! First of all I would like to thank Nilupul for such a warm and lovely evening. It was cozy and intimate with only a small amount of people who were all so kind and friendly. Firstly to describe this installation art, basically you are connected by your hands and feet and your movement controls and interacts with the audio/visuals. The piece is inspired by water, tranquility and peace giving off quite a meditative feel.Designed by composer Mattew Collings and artist Erik Parr, this installation is a sensation for the eye and ear. But what I espeically loved about this piece of art is that its not just used for neon, but Nilupul (where it was showcased) will be keeping "heartbeater" and using it classes and meditation purposes which I think is just so fantastic that a quite abstract piece is used in a really great way and not just for one week purposes.

At the beginning of the night, we were shown a short video of how the public interacted with "heatbeater". It was great seeing all the school children bouncing up and down and having such fun and interaction with quite an abstract piece. There were professionals for the evening that I was at and even though I do not want to doubt or offend their abilities but I much preferred the children and general public playing with it. Watching them, you could see the exploration in their minds and the adventure that they were on as it may seem just like fun to them, it was also expanding their minds to more than just maths and english. 

What I would have probably preferred with this installation would be if it was in a small encasing and you were on your own so it would become fully submersive to the user. Other than that it was a great night and I fully enjoyed the ways in which "heartbeater" connects with people on a different level to match their needs for it.

Here is an article that Nilupul posted on their facebook page :

http://www.facebook.com/nilupulfoundation

Crit week 8 My presentation

Firstly here is the link to my progress report for crit week so you can have a look at what I showed;

http://prezi.com/uuwmlionw2ev/amy-warnock-progress/

Ok so Im not going to go into to much details as everything that I talked about in my presentation is basically in my blog but for grading purposes I will talk a little bit

I firstly started talking about what I have been seeing/reading the past four month. I talked about Les illuminations with the scottish ensemble and video artist Netia Jones doing live visuals during the concert. I have also been reading Digital Harmony- on the complimentary of music and visuals. Even though this book is over 30 years old and times have changed significantly its still good to look back on some basic concepts that are still used today. I have also been reading a lot of books on colour theory, reading about timing in animation, musical texture and aesthetic theories.

I then went on to explain what I was listening to as music is a big part of my project. After reading a lot on musical textures I have been listening to a lot of jazz, dubstep and after les illuminations, orchestral music and classical music. I have been particularly inspired by Totally enormous extinct dinosaurs- Garden while its amazing into.

Then I went on to what are currently my inspirations/points of interest just now. I talked about Wassily Kandinsky as he loved to paint tones and cords that he heard and he also loved the communication between the eye and ear. Leopold Survage was a new find and he is a french painter who did a series of painting called "symphonies in colour" these beautiful works of art encapsulise the music and are absolutely stunning. John cage and his "prepared piano" is also very interesting. He put lots of different things into the piano to alter the sound when played. After les illuminations I have also been looking into the artist Netia Jones as i was bitterly disappointed with her video art that night so I wanted to find more about her and why she is so popular; maybe its just down to a taste thing and I happen to not like her. William Moritz is also still in my interest as he is a film historian who specialized in visual music and experimental animation. So if I need to know something I am pretty sure he is the guy who knows it, shame he is no longer here! I have also been watching/ reading/ studying the beginning of Fantasia and Finally taking a strong interest in Maura McDonnell who is a key element to the visual music world currently.

So, the important part...What have I been actually doing? Well if you look at my presentation, it shows lots of snap shots of just SOME of the work I have been up to, I have been particuarly interested in the movement/textures in music as well as visuals so Ive been playing with texture/movement in visuals. For example, Oil and dye, Water and dye, Salt and the washing machine, Salt and the hoover, Nature, leaves, trees, lighting, vibrations, rice and dye, colour etc. I have also been in talk with a local musician who I will be making a music video for as part of my pre-production. I have also been looking into instillation art with the TV screens that my last year video was on in the "imagination will take you everywhere" exhibition. I am thinking about visualizing the textures of the music on the tvs so when the sound is small it will be on the small tv and when it gets louder it will go on the big tv so it looks like all the movements are moving around and is just one big video joined together when it will be 7. I have also been playing with transitional videos like the example I showed (love and theft).


If you wish to read anymore about what I have talked about on this post, please dont hesitate to have a look on my blog where there is a dedicated post to each area so you can learn more about what I am studying.


Once I had finished, the floor was open to questions/discussion;

David: " Does it matter about music being totally in sync with the visuals?

Me:  " Its not necessary but what I want to create is a totally submersive experience for the eye and ear so that the two (visuals and audio) harmonize so well that you forget that they actually to separate things. But this is what my post-production stage is about, playing with different types of submersion (less for example a music video).

Belinda: "I really like your practical work, its amazing it kind of reminds me of Johnny's work, have you     looked at what he has been doing recently?

Me: " No I haven't, I will defiantly take a look at his work, I actually had a little meeting with Johnny yesterday and he gave me some great advice on my project so I will go check it out!

Another lecture: " Did you know how they did the skies in Jurassic Park" They used a fish tank, half with salt water and half with normal water and the effects to made clouds in there where really cool, you should have a look into it...

Me: Wow, that sounds so cool, Sounds like a really cool media test to try out!

Lynn: There's a NEON night on tonight, and they are working with lights and visuals, you should go look at that...

Me: I did not know that, I will certainly be going along tonight to have a look.

Please have a look at my post in the next few days, I have so so much things planned this week so watch this space...

NEON- 100,000 Lux

WOW! Tonight was amazing! I am so glad Lynn mentioned this to me, it was great! Ok, so what was is it? Well it was a wacky combination of science, visual art, and sound design! Sound cool? They used the side of Abertay University which has a light system already built in to the exterior. The audio was in control of the visuals generating a colourful, bright and an equally engaging piece for the eye and the ear. What is really interesting is that this artwork was created by data collection from the solar dynamics observatory which programmers erin michno and ian reynolds used to create the spectacular visuals. Also involved was lecturers David Mactaggart and Antonia Wilmot-smith (Dundee University). The audio was created by Raz Ullah who is currently at Abertay studying his masters in sound design. The audio is very unique to say the least, I hope not to offend when I say that it reminded me of the old dial up tone you used to get when connecting to the internet. But as a whole it was very engaging for the eye and ear; the visuals where interesting and in sync with the audio. It had a very alien/spacey vibe to it which is what I really like about it as its inspirations/data technically originates from space so I think its quite cool that it gave off that effect. Over all I thought it was a brilliant exhibit of people from lots of different fields working together and taking something mathematical and numerical into something very beautiful

Here is a picture from Neons facebook page of the event ( I took videos and will upload them later)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.517611701584027.121679.250366684975198&type=3&l=7e4b453583

Here is the video that I took (time lapse)