"Magnetic Man"/ Visual interpretation of Music

This is a Brittish band I've recently discovered and that I'm very much interested in, on how it introduces an entirely new era of sound.

Its an electronic music project, with dubstep influences created by Benga, Skream and Artwork; the three of them are DJ's who perform using three computers. One plays drums samples, the other one basses and the third one leads and samples. They basically combine pitch, rhythm and melody using electronic musical instruments.

What I love about this band is the fact that they combine different genres of sounds, like techno, pop, opera, and they mix them with electronic elements of modern music. They take unusual electronic sounds to suggest the beat, that is mainly presented as a 2-Step Beat. This ultimately creates an overwhelming Bass line that is reinforced with occasional vocals and manipulated instrumental sounds.

In my opinion, it's an innovative new band that represents perfectly the roughness and the darkness of city life in a modern society.

Inspired by Brian Eno's Constellations (77 million paintings), I've considered taking the sonic pieces of the a band's songs and divid them into individual parts of sound. Each part could be differently presented as a visual canvas of colours and shapes. I t will not relate so much to the lyrics of the sound but the more into the pitch, rhythm and melody of that specific song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_06fTFFMoi0




* A quite interesting experiment of a foundation student in his project on how to visually interpret the sound of an analog radio being tuned.
http://vimeo.com/11746359

* Another interesting example on Audio Visual Interpretation of a song by Eminem.
http://thedesignatedsketcher.com/progress/audiovisual-interpretation




DOUG AITKEN

A very inspiring work of Doug Aitken- "Sleepwalkers"(2007) at MoMa, New York. It consists of five  short interconnected film that tells the story of one night in the life of 5 New Yorkers. The fact that it is so gracefully placed and presented around the city buildings, makes it even more realistic. This sort of projects as well the music of Magnetic Man, are very much representing a new, interactive era of the 21 century. Audience is given the chance of experiencing sound and image in an entirely new way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVRds0rTILM


Monica Bonvicini

" Destroy she said"/ two-channel video installation onto drywall screens (1998). An inspiring artist, who's video installations and general concepts on art and life are quite interesting.  


Olafur Eliasson

San Francisco/ Museum of modern arts. This is a tunnel of colour and light illusions that you experience while walking through it and gradually observing it from different angles.

The artist makes the piece so spectacular because he manages to manipulate the light, the shapes, the colours and the angles in order to create a beautiful synthesis of colours.

Jenny Holzer

I love Jenny Holzer's series of work, called "Projections". She focuses on applying words and ideas in public spaces. Through her work you can clearly see that she's very well aware of the art of text and uses her knowledge to draw the attention. 

Considering this, I've thought about using the lyrics of my chosen song and use different style, size and boldness of lettering to emphasise the music. 


Nam June Paik

" Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S" 

Paik was committed to finding ways in which he could develop video and the moving image as an art medium. He discovered innovative ways of using the TV as an art installation medium. He also used laser as a new form of sculptural art and installation. In his other works "Exposition of Music-Electronic Television" and "TV Cello" he uses magnets to distort the images on the TV screen.

I've recently found this work by illustrator Wayne Horse. I really like the idea of having a big screen outdoors somewhere easy for public to access and just show great animations with the affordance of sitting while watching. I'm very interested in this kind of approach towards music, something free and public for everyone to see and hear.