Speaker @ All Around Audio Symposium – IWA St. Pölten

At the 4th conference of German-speaking animation research „In Wirklichkeit Animation …“ as part of the International Conference on Creative Media Technologies in St. Pölten I was invited to talk about my master thesis.

Abstract:

The talk Holistic Perception through the Synthesis of Color and Music  points out neurological and artistic approaches of the synthesis of color and music. The goal is to define guidelines which induce a holistic perception caused by abstract artwork. Therefore, it has to be determined which color-music concepts influence the viewer’s perception. First of all, physio-psychological effects of audiovisual content and individual differences are defined. The rarely existing condition music-to-color synesthesia where affected people perceive color when hearing music is one of those interindividual neurological phenomena. Furthermore, crossmodal associations caused by trained and emotional, as well as cultural aspects, lead to means of combining audiovisual content. Therefore, empirical studies of music-color associations are mentioned. Moreover, concepts of combining music and color in Visual Music, the German Academy of Arts Bauhaus and digitalization of synesthetic perception of different artists are contextualized. Finally, an analysis of abstract music visualization of Oskar Fischinger, Mary Ellen Bute, Michal Levy, Coh & Frank and Melissa S. McCracken is done. Their artworks show possibilities of combining color and music. For this very reason, such breakdowns lead to applicable conceptional and interindividual influences which are crucial for holistic perceived abstract artwork.