To again reference my project created for assignment 2/3: On/Off, sound was a concept I stumbled upon early in the semester. I realized that there are many aspects of music specifically that make my day to day experience feel more full, peaceful, positive and relaxing. I also realized that when I turned off my constant soundtrack with the intention to listen, I found a very intimate and detailed experience and connected with my environment in a way I hadn't previously imagined. When Quinta presented her Digital Steward Presentation, she used a simple but incredibly effective approach to presenting sound - asking us to close our eyes. For one of her early examples she played a piece of music from a single instrument - a violin if I remember correctly - and something incredibly moving happened for me as those notes emerged from the darkness of my eyelids. I felt that I was hearing something for the first time, and while of course I have heard professional violinists many times and in many contexts, the experience of hearing it with my eyes closed and it emerging out of the subtle ambient sounds of the classroom was something that felt completely powerful and new.
I am incredibly moved by music, but it is almost always, if not truly always, accompanied by visuals - my way of artistically interacting with the world around me, as well as the basis of the art I personally create. I remember in Middle School first getting into movie soundtracks and the emotions that I could feel from the perfect combination of the tone of a piece of music with skillfully captured, beautifully framed and colored shots. I always loved how music could create a sense of rhythm that when timed and edited with music was also extremely powerful, which has lead me to an avid follower of the music video. To return to my original On/Off experience, why music is so important to me is that it creates a cinematic experience in my own life - providing a soundtrack that even in the dregs of a day of commuting, has the potential to line up with beautiful and moving images that I am observing. The tone of the music helps to color the visuals and make them richer, more powerful and more memorable. Thus when Quinta played the precise and beautiful notes of a single instrument, and I focused my undivided attention on them, with all visuals turned off, the experience was truly something new. It prompted me to want to go to a concert and experience it with my eyes shut, to live out in person what Quinta translated over a usually unimposing laptop speaker. In an art gallery or museum or movie theater, it is easy to attain silence, or quiet, for viewing that forces only the sense of sight to be activated, but doing that for sound is much less common in our worlds, without actively choosing to shut out the visuals that color the vast majority of our waking moments.These two projects have asked me to think of sound, not as a supporting act (albeit a very impactful supporter), but as something with an inherit power on its own.
I am incredibly moved by music, but it is almost always, if not truly always, accompanied by visuals - my way of artistically interacting with the world around me, as well as the basis of the art I personally create. I remember in Middle School first getting into movie soundtracks and the emotions that I could feel from the perfect combination of the tone of a piece of music with skillfully captured, beautifully framed and colored shots. I always loved how music could create a sense of rhythm that when timed and edited with music was also extremely powerful, which has lead me to an avid follower of the music video. To return to my original On/Off experience, why music is so important to me is that it creates a cinematic experience in my own life - providing a soundtrack that even in the dregs of a day of commuting, has the potential to line up with beautiful and moving images that I am observing. The tone of the music helps to color the visuals and make them richer, more powerful and more memorable. Thus when Quinta played the precise and beautiful notes of a single instrument, and I focused my undivided attention on them, with all visuals turned off, the experience was truly something new. It prompted me to want to go to a concert and experience it with my eyes shut, to live out in person what Quinta translated over a usually unimposing laptop speaker. In an art gallery or museum or movie theater, it is easy to attain silence, or quiet, for viewing that forces only the sense of sight to be activated, but doing that for sound is much less common in our worlds, without actively choosing to shut out the visuals that color the vast majority of our waking moments.These two projects have asked me to think of sound, not as a supporting act (albeit a very impactful supporter), but as something with an inherit power on its own.
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