Digital Foundations

Project Description

For this project students will create three wholly abstract digital artworks that capture the visual essence of short music fragments. This project challenges the student to invent a visual that represents the sounds, the harmonies, the notes, the rythyms of a given piece of music. The music is provided by the instructor. The student's task is to listen carefully and create an abstract digital artwork that communicates the effect of the music to the whole class. You are each going to become synesthetes, at least for a little while.

Carefully consider the composition. Music is dynamic and your artwork should be too. Fill up the entire space, even pauses and silence have a color. BTW, did you notice that composition, the term used to describe the arrangement of marks, shapes, colors, of an artwork, is the same term used to describe how one writes down the sounds in music, which is the arrangement, pattern, repetition, of notes on a sheet of paper.

A major challenge for many will be the fact that they cannot use recognizable imagery. It is not uncommon for artists and designers to lead the viewer without being explicit. Abstraction, metaphor, and suggestion are tools of artists and graphic designers. Not being explicit can leave space for visual poetry, play within meaning, and even happy accidents (like a certain Mr. Bob Ross used to say). A major challenge of this assignment is to create something that the viewer understands, that relates to the music, without making a cliché (a tired, too often repeated image or idea). One has to draw upon a common visual language among humans, yet do it in a fresh way. It sounds hard and at times it can be. Welcome to the challenge of being an artist. With perserverance you will succeed.

Humans have an abstract language that we all share, many aspects of it are true across countries and cultures. For example, what is the color of cold? Most people say blue. Why do you think that is? Many believe it to be because water is often bluish or perhaps it is when cool rains come, the clouds are dark and bluish. What is the color of warmth? Most people say red, orange, or yellow. Why do you think this is? My guess is that it is because those colors relate to the color of fire (and to that big fiery ball in the sky we call the sun); both are warm/hot. What is the color of growth or maybe new life. Many people say green, perhaps because plants are green especially when it is new growth. What is the color of death? Many people who grew up in the United States or Europe will say black. Although I have heard that in parts of Asia, they answer that white is the color of death. Both black and white can be seen as the absence of color. Something lacking color can be seen as lifeless. Can you think of other common ideas about abstract concepts that exist across countries and cultures?

Learn about kiki, boobah, and synesthesia in the audio piece below from Studio 360.

In the social media screencap below the author describes their understanding of a few colors and the relationship to what we feel.