From painting to music

Preface

I went to the Miller Gallery and the Carnegie Museum of Art. When I went to the Miller Gallery I was fairly disappointed, since many artwork there are combined with modern technology. In my mind, art and technology is a weird combination, because art lets people have feelings towards the artwork, but machines are just like cold stuff, not lively at all.(though some artwork combined with technology are really good) That was the reason I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art. I found the artworks there much more appealing to me, because they are closer to my life. I realized that it was artists in our age trying to find out new ways of expressions. Portraits and landscapes are mastered by artists a few century ago, and they can be produced perfectly by digital things. Therefore artists now move into a new world-- spiritual world. (more like abstraction) I went back to contemporary artworks with the hope to find out their inner world.

Work

It is an artwork (in my definition). It attracts me firstly because it is a drawing on music score. Also, it doesn't seem like a mess. Those 'black dots' make me want to see closely what they are. They are people, with all kinds of gestures. The idea is really interesting to me, since the artist presented people as notes. They are similar in several aspects: tiny in their world, black, lively.

Experience and Response

The first thing I noticed were the pine trees, because they are the only well-shaped things when I took a view with a distance. Then I found a group of people with the actions of skiing. The white background of the score looks like the ground covered by snow. There is a group of people in the right middle of the picture, breaking the artwork into two parts(though I do not feel major differences between the two parts) Other people on this painting have other different actions. On the top left corner is a sun.

At the beginning, I was only amazed by the idea of presenting people on music score. With those actions, this black and white picture seems colorful to me, since the objects are lively.

Later on, I found that there are real dots and lines on the score. The trace of notes is underneath the crowds of people, but it shows that it is not only a picture. It can be a composition without notes. Different people can compose different rhythms when they see the graph, because there is no restrictions. Different people see the same crowd of people will have different feelings, and generate different music. It can be a painting, as well as a medium to other forms of arts like music.

Product

Following my description, I should have created a piece of music to represent my feelings. But I didn't, because I thought that may constrain the range of art. The feeling I have the most is the convertibility of arts. I can feel a different kind of art from the original one. That was the reason I created this picture.

I do not have good drawing software, so I just use 'drawing'. I made these cartoon notes because I wanted to make them lively. The original artwork used people to represent notes, and I used notes to represent people. They have different actions, and the graph is full of all kinds of music elements, but there is no restriction of the music. I want to give notes lives, because that was what I perceived from the original artwork.

Besides, I used gimp to add some effects since the background is so insipid. The atmosphere should be happy and colorful. 

Reflection

The first thing I learnt is to think about every artwork deeply and then talk about it. Artworks that seem strange may have other deeper meanings. Secondly, I knew the convertibility of art. Art can not only make people think of themselves or real things, but can also let people create something of their own. With that kinds of art, audience will become producers, enlarging the imagination and the range of art. Also, it an artwork can make people produce something, the spreadability of it will reach a new level. Starting from the same point, but reaching other unrelated paths is the beauty of art, since everyone can contribute their experiences into the artwork.