Exhibition Statement

Concept:

My workshop idea stemmed from the medical condition synesthesia, which is where the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second cognitive pathway, and the exploration of how this phenomenon can applied to art – specifically visual art and music. In my workshop, I aimed to provide a new way for my students to listen to music as they artistically visualize what they hear and feel unique to their ears only through shapes, colors, etc., while still being interpretable to their peers as they’re provided with an insight into the way you perceive, internalize, and express music. This workshop exposed my students to genres of music they typically don’t explore and made them critically analyze the individual elements (rhythms, beats, melodies, tone, etc.) of songs from an unbiased standpoint. Throughout the class, we used different art mediums such as pen, pencil, colored pencils, markers, paint, oil pastels, clay sculptures, etc. to turn an intangible form of music into a tangible piece of artwork. The diversity of the songs created an inclusive class atmosphere and a dynamic final portfolio of unique artworks.

History and Distinction:

The first account of someone having the medical condition synesthesia dates all the way back to 1812 with a man named Georg Tobias Ludwig Sachs who described how colored ideas appeared to him (Safran). Ever since this discovery, there has been ample amounts of neurological research, case studies, and firsthand accounts by those who have it in the modern era. I have utilized the voices and artistic work of people who have openly talked about and embraced their synesthesia such as Melissa McCracken, who does “oil and acrylic paintings based on the music she hears, the flows of color and texture she sees, and changes that occur when new instruments are introduced” (Zhang), to educate my students further about the subject and provide them with reference artworks suggesting what their artwork could look like and how different types of art mediums can represent music in different ways and achieve unique effects.

Methods:

The research methods I used for my workshop consisted of reviewing medical articles on synesthesia’s broad variations and unique effects such as chromesthesia which turns music into color. I connected this to my workshop as I taught my students about color-theory, “which describes how different colors mean different things, and can assign emotions to the songs being listened to” (Hu) so they could work it into their own personal artwork. After covering the definitions and fundamentals of ‘what is synesthesia’, I researched synesthesia artists that worked with a variety of mediums and incorporated their online portfolios of artwork into specific weeks of my workshop where we would use the same art medium as the artist, who would act as inspiration and facilitate discussion between the students regarding their opinions on what they viewed. For example, we covered Timothy B. Layden when using oil pastel and Anne Patterson when doing clay sculptures.

Audience and Impact:

The audience attracted to my workshop were students who wanted to know more about the process of drawing what you hear, analyzing music in a way that they have never done before, and are interested in exploring the expression of art as influenced by another form of art. The audience being drawn in had an affinity to/experience with music and/or visual art. I aimed to make my workshop as inclusive as possible by creating a Spotify playlist where students would add their favorite songs for a personalized class experience, and they would be able to create art to a song with feelings attached to it. The influence I wish to have on my students is for them to become more open to music they previously gave no thought to as they explore beneath the surface of what makes a song and the emotional impact it can have on the listener. I also wish for them to take the artistic skills and experiences with different art mediums gained over the semester with them in order to create more personal visual art outside of the workshop. The impact of my capstone project on myself is that I became more confident in my leadership skills, furthered my understanding of drawing what you hear and how to clearly articulate the meaning behind it, and broadened my understanding of music that I don’t typically listen to that was provided by my students. I also learned many things about synesthesia that I didn’t previously know of and discovered many talented synesthesia artists who are making the most out of their medical condition to share art with the world.

References:

Anne Patterson Studio. “Anne Patterson Studio.” www.annepatterson.com. Accessed 10 Oct. 2022.

Hu, Guosheng. “Art of Musical Color: A Synesthesia-Based Mechanism of Color Art.” Color Research & Application, vol. 45, no. 5, 2020, pp. 862–870., https://doi.org/10.1002/col.22532.

Layden, Timothy B. “Home.” Shapes of Sounds, www.tblayden.com. Accessed 10 Oct. 2022.

McCracken, Melissa S. “Prints.” www.melissasmccracken.com/prints. Accessed 10 Oct. 2022.

Safran, Avinoam B, and Nicolae Sanda. “Color synesthesia. Insight into perception, emotion, and consciousness.” Current opinion in neurology vol. 28, 1 (2015): 36-44. doi:10.1097/WCO.0000000000000169

Zhang, Jenny. “Artist With Synesthesia Paints Music as Gorgeous Splashes of Color.” My Modern Met, 15 Aug. 2017, mymodernmet.com/melissa-mccracken-synethesia-paintings.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the Arts scholars faculty - Heather, Harold, and Gabi - for helping me with any issues/questions that I had throughout the semester and providing me with amazing feedback and suggestions to improve my lessons and experience for my students. I would like to thank my TA, Vicki, for also providing me with great feedback and suggestions on my lesson plans and for just being an amazing and cheerful person that would always hype me up when she thought my plans for class were exciting. She was also a huge help in handing out materials, helping me organize the room, and keeping track of the time so the class period ran smoothly.