I believe Golan Levin sought to flip our perception on how we can be creative as artists, not so much as pushing the boundaries of the obscure/avant-garde realm via technology but really delving into the origins of how we traditionally visualize sound to isolate what truly draws us in as humans towards the experience of nature, work, or a piece of sound art. I will discuss some of the ramifications of this overarching theme and present some examples to support my claim.
Golan first started off his presentation referencing a work of art which stunningly portrayed projected facial reactions of music critics to a live performance. One can strive for automation or robotic manipulation of sound but one of the most powerful mediums for enhancement of the emotional experience of music would be the human face. Witnessing facial expressions convey their myriad of emotions will always have a direct and profound impact on the viewer. Vis-versa, from an alternative perspective it has been proven that music shapes the way we perceive facial expressions. There exists a strong symbiotic relationship between the visual and auditory cortex. The illusion of what we think we see in a facial expression can override what we are hearing, this is has been proven via experiment and is called the McGurk effect.
Supporting References:
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“it is well known that seeing the face of a speaker can increase the intelligibility of speech in a noisy environment. Similar effects are observed for musical intelligibility.”
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“the emotions evoked by music can be transferred to the sense of vision, and can influence how the emotions in facial expressions are perceived.”
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/05/11/music-affects-how-we-perceive-facial-expressions/
The interplay of simple lines and shapes serve as a strong visual/auditorial stimulant, this was demonstrated through the examples of Pen Point Percussion by Norman McLaren and some of the Opus works by Walther Ruttmann. These hand manipulated sound visualizations really show how the multi faceted audio/visual neural network of an artist can function together in harmony for a collective and powerful viewing experience. There is also something to be said about the work and effort involved in crafting an experience such as these works by hand. The synchronization of animation and music was un heard of at the time and showed how these artists were at the forefront of the experimental, pushing the comfort zone of what was physically possible within their given mediums.
Reestablishing our connection with nature is the final powerful medium which was discussed, and primarily through the example of Dawn Chorus by Marcus Coates. Through his manipulation of time he presents of unique view on the similarities between the human voice and birdsong. Noise is prevalent in our day to day life, it has been proven that within nature we can find stress relief and balance, the is the primary focus of a topic called Attention Restoration Theory.
Supporting References:
To conclude, I believe Professor Levin demonstrated the importance for us, as future pioneers of sound, to search for a sense of artistry beyond logical and rational thinking. He stressed the goal of connecting to the more intrinsic meaning and natural draw of the human interaction and stem all creative activity from this point.