Golan Levin’s guest spot on visualizing sound reiterated for me how much of my interest in sound is guided by synesthesia.
It honestly makes the whole topic of visualizing sound somewhat frustrating because I have a very strong connection between sonic and tactile texture. It’s influenced how I understand sound and what I tend to gravitate toward aesthetically. For instance, I get excited by things that have slightly rough or grainy sound, while on the other, anything that’s passed through an FFT (with audible artifacts) tastes/feels like the hand soap from a public bathroom. Long story short, I have predetermined expectations of what a sound looks and feels like, and it’s profoundly distracting to when what I see doesn’t match what I hear.
However, it is with some surprise that I have to say I’ve learned a lot about what works for me and what doesn’t from delving into Norman McLaren’s work.
The first thing that jumps out at me is that while his most exciting work doesn’t follow the what-you-see-is-what-you-hear approach that a lot of artists take, it still creates an extremely satisfying connection between the sound, image and textures. Norman McLaren is a master of synchresis, a term coined by Michel Chion to describe the link forged in the audience’s mind between sound and image when both happen in the same instant. In ‘Dots’, and ‘Phantasy in Colors’ McLaren’s tight link between the sounds and the visuals creates the impression that one is generating the other. McLaren’s use of synchresis is actually clearer in ‘Loops’ than ‘Dots’ because it isn’t as seamlessly integrated. Unlike in ‘Dots’, not every movement is in loops is accompanied by a sound and leaves a conspicuous voids. Thematically, McLaren’s visuals for ‘Phantasy in Colors’ are much more loosely derived from the music, but nonetheless create a very satisfying relationship. The jerky, hand-made style of the visuals in both pieces matches the squelchy character of the audio. Even McLaren’s drawn-sound score for ‘Neighbors’ couldn’t really be replaced by a synthesized or orchestral arrangement of the same notes because something about the quality of the sound suggests earthiness that connects it to the flower.