Music On Canvas

I still have a carful of detritus and tools to unload from Friday.
And a canvas.
What is ON the canvas doesn't make much sense!
But then, how can you make sense of an experience?
Some experiences are so individual that the illustration of the moment, when borne witness to, is nonsensical. In that respect, Dadaism was right: Human beings are absurd, irrational, unreasonable, and prone to affect. My painting is a collection of affects, so therefore I am not that bothered that people dont understand it and have trouble with it, and prefer some depiction of a story or recognisable figures. Many opinions abounded as feedback including "It was a distraction from the music" and "It should have had a narrative" and "It should have been a picture of something and maybe the style changed when the music changed". But the audience was mostly music students, so my guess is that they are aurally inititated. My sister, on the other hand, has neither a leaning towards music or painting particularly, so for her the visuals ENHANCED the sound. She actually said that it was like looking at a star sideways, it seems more brilliant when you dont stare straight at it - in other words, the performance of painting during the playing of music made you not concentrate on the music too hard, and that it could then enter the subconcious in a more intense way. That was echoed in another comment that it would've worked better for wider audience, one not so focussed on classical music.
It was an interesting experiment and throws up lots of questions.
Would I do it again? Definately!
Would I do it the same - ie spontaneous actions to a previously unheard score. Yes. But I will also do versions taking in other ideas (such as, planning an overall landscape with people and paint in the historical style of the time the music was composed.. one of the musicians suggested that, but I think that misses the point of synesthesia they were interested in to start with).
Would the musos do it again. I dont think so. Apart from the fact it was alien to them, a lot of trouble to organise, and we didn't get much of an audience, it was only part of a college project for them, and once they've ticked their boxes they'll move on. I know, cos I do PPD projects that I dont really have my heart in and are just so as I can get a good final grade.
Pity there is no time and resources to explore the concept tho. It was really stimulating - for me at least!!

Kandinsky....



Hoffman...




Me....!


"Kandinsky, himself an accomplished musician, once said Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. The concept that color and musical harmony are linked has a long history, intriguing scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton. Kandinsky used color in a highly theoretical way associating tone with timbre (the sound's character), hue with pitch, and saturation with the volume of sound. He even claimed that when he saw color he heard music." http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/