I received 26 pieces of feedback on this intervention.
Compare to the previous exploration, this intervention is a relatively useful way to strengthen the audience’s connection and resonance when viewing the exhibition. The data shows that 50% of people think the background sound can help them get more into the paintings. And most people can understand what the artists tried to express correctly.
From the angle of helping the audience better understand artworks, it is a relatively effective way. Now, I am thinking about the next step. How can I push my project deeper and further?
A friend of mine who was studying in Newcastle recently had a staged pop-up show. After I communicated with him, he agreed with me to experiment with some sound. I think this is a good opportunity to experiment in a real place, and the audience is visiting the painting in a real space and hearing the sound at the same time.
His paintings are also relatively abstract paintings. The paintings I used in intervention 2 are his works as well.
After intervention 4, I thought that sound and painting are different media for expressing emotions. If they are used as different media to express the same emotion, even if there is no direct correspondence between the content they express (for example, the sound in my intervention 2 is mainly description The content of the painting), can it better convey the information?
So the first thing I need to do is understand what the artist wants to convey in this series of artworks. He said:” The name of my series of works is ‘This Is What We Have Gone Through’. Before the pandemic improved, I came to a strange city alone as an international student. I have experienced a long time with myself, and I often feel very lonely. In this series of works, I ,as a recorder, use an artistic perspective to record the pandemic that I have experienced. What I saw, what I thought, and what I felt. The epidemic has changed the trajectory of many people’s lives, and I hope my works can also bring some thoughts to the audience.”
Based on the interview with him and his paintings, I try to create the sound of ‘Lonely, wrapped and alienated’.
Jonauskaite, D., Abu-Akel, A., Dael, N., Oberfeld, D., Abdel-Khalek, A.M., Al-Rasheed, A.S., Antonietti, J.-P., Bogushevskaya, V., Chamseddine, A., Chkonia, E., Corona, V., Fonseca-Pedrero, E., Griber, Y.A., Grimshaw, G., Hasan, A.A., Havelka, J., Hirnstein, M., Karlsson, B.S.A., Laurent, E. and Lindeman, M. (2020). Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10), pp.1245–1260.
Popova, M. (2012). Goethe on the Psychology of Color and Emotion. [online] The Marginalian. Available at: https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/08/17/goethe-theory-of-colours/ [Accessed 15 Aug. 2021].
YELLOW: In its highest purity it always carries with it the nature of brightness, and has a serene, gay, softly exciting character.
RED-YELLOW: The red-yellow gives an impression of warmth and gladness since it represents the hue of the intenser glow of the fire.
YELLOW-RED: In looking steadfastly at a perfectly yellow-red surface, the colour seems actually to penetrate the organ. It produces extreme excitement and still acts thus when somewhat darkened. A yellow-red cloth disturbs and enrages animals. I have known men of education to whom its effect was intolerable if they chanced to see a person dressed in a scarlet cloak on a grey, cloudy day.
BLUE:This colour has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye. As a hue it is powerful — but it is on the negative side, and in its highest purity is, as it were, a stimulating negation. Its appearance, then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose.
RED-BLUE:Blue deepens very mildly into red, and thus acquires a somewhat active character, although it is on the passive side. Its exciting power is, however, of a different kind from that of the red-yellow. It may be said to disturb, rather than enliven.
BLUE-RED: This unquiet feeling increases as the hue progresses, and it may be safely assumed, that a carpet of a perfectly pure deep blue-red would be intolerable. On this account, when it is used for dress, ribbons, or other ornaments, it is employed in a very attenuated and light state, and thus displays its character as above defined, in a peculiarly attractive manner.
RED: The effect of this colour is as peculiar as its nature. It conveys an impression of gravity and dignity, and at the same time of grace and attractiveness.
GREEN:The eye experiences a distinctly grateful impression from this colour. If the two elementary colours are mixed in perfect equality so that neither predominates, the eye and the mind repose on the result of this junction as upon a simple colour. The beholder has neither the wish nor the power to imagine a state beyond it.
1. Please use 3 keywords to describe how you feel after seeing this painting.
A：Hot; Planet; Confused
B：Retro; Psychedelic; Serious
C：Mysterious; Chaotic; Unbalanced
D：Moon; Universe; Touch
E：Space; Remote; Hot
2. Please describe the degree to which you feel connected to this painting from 1 to 5?
3. Please use 3 keywords to describe how you feel after watching the video?
A: Industrial pollution; Steam siren; Noise
B: Serious; Sci-fi; Future
C: Scary; Profound; Supernatural
D: Sad; Countdown; Destination
E: No feelings
4. Please describe the degree to which you feel connected to this painting from 1 to 5?
5. How do you feel about music?
A: Busy port.
B: Serious; it feels like a prelude to a major event.
C: I think it’s mysterious and detached from reality.
D: Sad.
E: Feel like mining.
Comparing the two scoring charts, three people felt that the connection became stronger, and one even felt that the addition of music made him feel less connection.
Comparing the two keywords, I found that after adding music, the audience’s understanding did not change much. Some words are the same (orange part); some words are guided by sound, such as the sound of siren and countdown ( The blue part); some people even think that adding sound will make it feel-less.
There are many researches on the relationship of sound and color, and their theories will be influenced by the author’s own background, cultural environment, time and other factors. Therefore, to a certain extent, what music represents and what color is a subjective personal point of view, and it is not universal.
Sound and images are different media that can give different sensory stimuli. For the next step, I want to test if I use these two media to express the same emotion, even if there is no corresponding relationship between the two, will it enhance the transmission of information?
Nomura, J., 1998. Commodity color theory – the study of utility development by color. Chikura Shobo.
For this intervention, The painting I chose comes from my friend. He is an art student who is studying surreal painting recently.
Step 1: Choose the instrument’s sound, note and scale.
1. What instrument’s sound should I choose?
I extracted the four main colors in this work (Vermillion, Dark blue, Yellow and black.) and referred to Kandinsky’s color theory. The Tuba represents vermilion, the cello represents dark blue and the trumpet represents yellow.
2. Which note in C major should I choose? (do,re,mi,fa,so,la,si)
I referred to Newton’s Musical Color Wheel. Vermilion- E (re), Blue- A (so), Yellow-F (mi).
3. Which scale sound should I choose?
Nomura (1985) “Commodity Color Theory” explains the scale and color listening: “From all the scales, the high scale tends to be bright and smooth, and the children’s scale is normalized to light and dark colors, and the strongest tone is Will be close to this color, the weakest tone color is newly blurred, and is close to the target; the scale of the flat semitone will remind people of the warm color system, the scale of the sharp semitone is the color system; the gentle music music singer blue association, fast Rhythmic music has a red association; high notes represent bright colors, while low notes are dull.”
This is about ideasthesia. From the perspective of lightness, dark colors are bass and bright colors are treble. Because this painting has a deeper feeling overall, I will use a lower tone.
ABC Classic (2018). Music in Time: Isaac Newton. [online] ABC Classic. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/music-in-time/music-in-time/10201654 [Accessed 8 Aug. 2021].
Madcap Logic / Creativity Express (2013). Creativity Express: Newton’s Discovery. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ButdiKfJLU [Accessed 8 Aug. 2021].
Google Arts & Culture (2009). The Sound of Colours – Google Arts & Culture. [online] Google Arts & Culture. Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-sound-of-colours/0ALymHuhPl1jLg [Accessed 3 Aug. 2021].
Google Arts & Culture (2021a). How to Play a Kandinsky: behind the Scenes. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-h6wQ2rP4M&t=157s [Accessed 18 Nov. 2021].
Google Arts & Culture (2021b). Play a Kandinsky. [online] Google Arts & Culture. Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/sgF5ivv105ukhA [Accessed 3 Aug. 2021].
Light blue – Flutes
Dark blue – Cello
Deeper blue – Double bass
Deep, Solemn blue – A deep organ
Vermilion – Tuba
Yellow – Trumpet
Red – Violin
Play a Kandinsky experiment – hear the painting https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/sgF5ivv105ukhA
After intervention 3, I redesign my research question:
How can I increase the audience’s participation and interaction when visiting the exhibition so that the audience can have more understanding and connection with the artwork?
I no longer regard buying and selling as my sole purpose, but turn to the multi-experience and better understanding when they visit the exhibition in the gallery.
Thinking from this perspective, inviting the audience to create music and sounds during the visit is not very easy to achieve. So I reviewed Kandinsky’s theory of music and colour again.
I plan to test whether the audiences can better understand the artwork by adding music corresponding to the colour of the artwork?
There are 2 reasons： 1. In Intervention 3, I found that the music and the painting are connected to some extent through the instruments chosen by the audience. (wood instrument)
2. Not everyone has synesthesia, but the conclusion shows that music and pictures are connected to a certain degree. So, can Kandinsky’s theory apply to more people?
Now, I need to solve three problems:
1. What instrument’s sound should I use? 2. What tone should I use? (C、D、E、F、G、A、B) 3. Which octave sound should I use?
