In the first three decades of the 20th century, musicians and painters collaborated to coin the term colour music, which was also known as mobile colour. The basis of the theory was to create instruments that could create light projections of colour, thus creating a synesthetic machine. The science behind the relation of light and sound waves was first realised in full view by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century when he devised a long-awaited link between the white light spectrum of colour against musical distribution of tones (see left). He was able to devise a graph made up of seven light entities in relation to seven octaves.
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Mathematician Louis Bertrand Castel adapted this in the 18th century and changed the graph to fit twelve octaves and waves, this helped him design and build what is seen as the first colour organ. He believed that with a mass production of these instruments they could become a new form of popular entertainment, however it was not until the late 19th century that colour organs could be demonstrated in front of a large audience. Alexander Wallace Rimington was able to successfully turn the colour organ into a working instrument for artists. However, even though the phenomenon spread throughout the world, no other artists or composers were able to captivate audiences well enough for the colour organs to become common and interesting enough for the public’s view. Even though he was able to publish his manuscript for the theatre piece Der gelbe Klang (The yellow sound), the renowned synaesthete Kandinsky was not even able to hold his own show with colour organs because of their growing unpopularity.
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Thomas Wilfred, who fore fronted the trio the Prometheans, devised the only light projections that were seen to be a success in the first half of the 20th century. It was after disbanding this trio that he begun to create sustainable work that attracted critics. This was mainly because he did not play music through his light shows and the basis of the show was to look at the many colours and movements that were produced as projections. Although this changed in 1926 as he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, however in his program notes he explicitly denied correlation between sound and colour and focused only on the aesthetic qualities of the show, this contradicted the colour organs because they produced colour with every note whereas Wilfred’s shows were seen to be the colours reacting to the music being played and vice-versa. His light projections became even more successful and founded the Art Institution of Light in 1930.
In his studio-laboratory space, he and his students continued to produce pieces of work such as Multidimensional, Opus 79. After the Second World War, he expanded his presentations to large spaces rather that just theatres and with his redesigns and improvements of the projections, more confident and complex oscillating images were able to be produced through the 1950’s and 60’s.
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In his studio-laboratory space, he and his students continued to produce pieces of work such as Multidimensional, Opus 79. After the Second World War, he expanded his presentations to large spaces rather that just theatres and with his redesigns and improvements of the projections, more confident and complex oscillating images were able to be produced through the 1950’s and 60’s.
-Jed
Towards the early parts of the 20th century Wagner’s music was being used as inspiration to painters, an example of this is Janus de Winter’s Musical Fantasy (Wagner); it was a direct response to hearing Wagner’s music. He painted what he thought the music created in terms of colour. The piece itself was a response to a request from psychologist Ten Haeff who asked to him to describe his synaesthetic perceptions.
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Wassily Kandinsky was triggered into devoting himself to painting after experiencing synesthetic visions while listening to Wagner’s music. In his autobiography, Rückblicke, he described how the sunset in Moscow reminded him of Wagner’s Lohengrin. “The violins, the deep bass tones, and especially the wind instruments embodied the entire force of the early evening hour for me….” (Maur, K (1999). The Sound of Painting. Munich: Prestel. p30.) Kandinsky became so obsessed with his synesthetic experiences to
Wagner, and later the music of Schoenberg, that he decided to assign certain instruments to a primary or secondary colour for example yellow was assinged to the sound of a trumpet and green to that of a violin. Paintings such as Fugue (Fuga) portrayed this kaleidoscopic atmosphere that he was able to lose himself in. -Jed |
Shanghai design firm Super Nature Design has explored various ways to stimulate audiences visually with colorful, interactive works based on historical breakthroughs in math and science, like Lost In Pascal’s Triangle, and Prisma 1666, which was based on Newton’s experiments with the light prism. The team is bringing together several of their works for their current exhibition, “The Scent Of Light.”
You may find yourself asking, does light even have a scent? If it does, Super Nature Design is convinced that it can induce a variety of emotions through the experience of picking it up. Whether or not they stimulate the olfactory senses, the works certainly do live up to the team’s previous efforts by being visually ethereal and beautiful. Jed- http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/the-scent-of-light-explores-the-synesthetic-potential-of-ethereal-light-installations |