APD_ Play and Abstract

ADP week 9 Play and Abstract

Documentary video: https://youtu.be/IScPUPk34wQ

Content:

This week the topic is abstract. Abstraction is non-objective, with little or no reference to original objects. Inspired by Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise (1963-67), I tried to explore the idea through graphic music scores in different visual forms.  

Ways of presenting songs through visual artform are adventurous and explorative. Therefore, I try to draw experiment with it through guitar tabs.   

Method:

I use a guitar tab sheet of the song “Waiting” by Panic in 1995. Then I use Procreate to create them. Also, I use paper and toilet rolls to make some prototypes of the model.

Response:

”Lend you ears to music,  open your eyes to painting, and ... stop thinking” Wassily Kandinsky

I have tried to expand the music notes through colour and shape. Letting my work speaks for itself, different interpretations could be the response from the audience as there are no rules in ‘reading’ the work. This is also an interesting part of the graphic music scores as the development of the visual notation is experimented with. I tried to represent the notation, patterns and geometric forms seen on the sheet. The process of creation is like building LEGOs with my creativity and individual interpretation of the song. At first, I have been thinking about how people would experience the work which has narrowed my creativity. Then I tried to expand the idea by add other elements, like the music box.I also have my belief in the symbols that I created and included in the artwork then. They represent different music elements I obtained from the tab sheet.

I believed that the Music box is a symbol of music as well as a musical instrument. The rotating dolls on the music box often play along with the music. It is believed that the rotating motion is relatable to music when we are watching it. So I tried to include the rotation in the animation and the hand-made prototype.

Other than a still image, I have animated some GIFs from those images.

‘Treatise is "for any number of musicians with any instruments, [and] may be performed in whole or in part."’ - Cardew(1963-67)

The image that I have created is like an abstract instrument playing with the notation and pitch. Music cannot be heard, still can be experienced through the whole picture of art collections.

To put the project in further development, AI skills could be imported into the work. Similar work has been done by Centre Pompidou and Google Arts & Culture Lab (2021) in the work “Play a Kandinsky”. It is an interactive play that develops and shows sound in terms of colour and shapes. By implementing different sounds according to what Kandinsky believes, they have successfully linked the abstract concepts in play.

To scale the project with a longer production time, It is imaginative to include my work through an interactive or documentary way where the audience could have a closer intimacy when interacting with the ‘song’ through animating imagery in a space.

credit to

Panic (1995) Waiting .From WAITING TAB by Panic @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com

Strong Media(2020) Rotating Music Box - Copyright free stock footage. Rotating Music Box - Copyright free stock footage - YouTube

Cardew (1963-67) Treatise

The Guardian (2013). Graphic music scores - in pictures. Graphic music scores - in pictures | Music | The Guardian

Centre Pompidou and Google Arts & Culture Lab (2021)Play a Kandinsky.Play a Kandinsky — Google Arts & Culture

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/kidcut/green

License code: ZNJ6CLDH6ISBV2JT