Editorial: Visual Art, Sound, Music and Technology

Author(s): Roger F. Malina

Source: Leonardo, Vol. 20, No. 2, Special Issue: Visual Art, Sound, Music and Technology
(1987), pp. 103-105
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578323
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 Visual Art, Sound, Music and Technology

Editorial

This special issue of Leonardo brings together a number of articles on various aspects of art and sound.
Over the years, Leonardo has published many articles in this theme area (see Bibliography). It is clear
from the manuscripts solicited and accepted for publication by the editors that there is a resurgence of
interest in the overlap of visual art and sound, as well as in theoretical issues involved in contemporary
music driven by new technologies.
An impetus for work in this area is provided by the expanding use of the digital computer both in the
visual arts and in music. Direct application of the computer has resulted in the well-known
developments in computer graphics and animation, on the one hand, and computer music and sound
synthesizers on the other. The digital computer has, however, driven to the fore, or at least refocused, a
number of theoretical issues. The digital computer requires digitization of analog input for processing.
Once the processing is completed, digital data can be transmitted to a variety of output devices-
analog or digital, visual, sound or any number of other sensory modes. In terms of digital information
processing, visual art and sound are suddenly unified, in a much more fundamental manner than the
synaesthesia of the Romantic artists or the search for sensory equivalence of the Theosophists. Fourier
transforms, for example, provide rigorous theoretical connections between time and spatial domains.
Methods in information theory and computer science can be applied to arrays with any number of
dimensions, as well as time sequences of arrays. Concepts of randomness and entropy are finding
unusual new applications in the arts. It will be many years before such theoretical ideas mature and
generate radically new artforms, but it is a certainty that this will occur. Today's computer graphics
and computer music are primitive forerunners of the artforms that will evolve.
Some of the areas of ferment are documented in this issue by Larry Polansky and John Levin in their
survey of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music's Seminar in Formal Methods Series; their
bibliography is a good starting point for readers interested in these topics.
The history of efforts to harness the computer as a tool for compositional decision-making is
reviewed in detail by Charles Ames. Remarkably, composers have been able to keep pace with
technological developments but, as recorded by Ames, most of today's approaches find their
theoretical precedents in the ground-breaking years from 1956 to 1976.
Ernest Robson's memoir documents his explorations of sound since 1926. His studies of sound as an
art medium find contemporary resonances in many of the soundworks of contemporary artists.
Very different theoretical approaches are discussed by Rudolf Arnheim and Tom DeWitt in their
discussions of the relationship between musical harmony and the human visual perceptual system; only
the future will tell whether visual music is indeed a new artform or whether aspects of music theory can
find successful application in visual art.
In large part independent of all these theoretical constructs, artists are using sound. Fran9ois and
Bernard Baschet document 30 years of work in sound sculpture and new approaches to musical
instruments. Vera Meyer and Gerhard Finkenbeiner describe the glass harmonica, which they have
rescued from 100 years of obscurity; they and many other artists are exploring a wild variety of new
musical instruments that often also function as sculptures, many of them not involving computers or
high technology. The advent of the music synthesizer and computer music, as well as the electric guitar,
seems to have reactivated the development of musical instruments in all their varieties, developments
which had been eclipsed in the early part of this century due to the dominance of the instruments of the
Western symphony orchestra. The journal Experimental Musical Instruments, for example, has been
charting and advocating the exciting new work in both conventional and unconventional, high-
technology and low-technology instruments [1].
Performing sculpture, sound installations and sound sculpture are described in this issue of Leonardo
by artists Liliane Lijn, George Shortess and Bill Fontana. Their discussions of why they have sought to
create their artworks provide a necessary counterpoint and pragmatism to the theoretical discussions.
Liliane Lijn's emphasis on artistic, political and psychological goals, rather than technological
motivations or theoretical underpinnings, is a salutory reminder that it is neither the technology nor
the theory which originates the artistic impulse. The technology and theory can but help the artist give
voice to truly contemporary artforms. Indeed Bill Fontana succeeds in reducing to complete

Pergamon Journals Ltd.

Printed in Great Britain. LEONARDO, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 103-105, 1987
0024-094X/87 $3.00+0.00

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 invisibility his advanced technological tools and uses relocated ambient sounds as his sculptural
elements. Nicolas Sch6ffer laid out an agenda for the city of the future, describing the city of the future
as

a constant audiovisual performance whose unfolding is contingent, where the decors are both static and
dynamic, and where the actors are also spectators, and where the musical accompaniments originate
automatically from sounds caused by diverse visual parameters in varied and variable movement [2].

Bill Fontana's urban sound sculpture brings to reality one element of this agenda.

FUTURE EDITORIAL DIRECTION FOR LEONARDO

To recognize current work at the boundaries of visual and sound, a new section of the journa
"Sound, Music, Science, Technology" has been created. The section will be under the editorial
supervision of Larry Polansky of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. Leonardo will
seek to publish articles addressing contemporary sound work by artists, as well as theoretical issues.
We are interested in articles on, but not limited to, the following topics:
* the interaction and co-evolution of technology and music, and connections to the visual arts
* psychoacoustics, perception and music cognition
* experimental aesthetics
* electronic performance and compositional systems
* advanced notions of language and music
* artificial intelligence and music
* documentation and descriptions of artists' work
* music theory, especially as it relates to formal methods in music and sound
* soundworks, sound sculpture and other visual artforms involving sound
* new concepts in performance, composition and music in society.
In general, the section will present articles with a broad scope, rather than articles dealing primarily
with technical explications of a given process. There are a number of excellent journals that deal with
these topics in depth [3]. Specifically, we are concerned with ideas of interest to artists and thinkers
from a variety of disciplines. We will not be duplicating the scope of existing journals in computer
music or music theory, but rather trying to deal with broad issues involved in sound and art.
Please direct inquiries, proposals and manuscript submittals in this topic area to Larry Polansky, c/o
Leonardo, 2020 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704, U.S.A.

Roger F. Malina
Executive Editor

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. Experimental Musical Instruments, Bart Hopkin, ed., P.O. Box 789, Nicasio, CA 94946, U.S.A.
2. Nicolas Sch6ffer, "Sonic and Visual Structures: Theory and Experiment", Leonardo 18, No. 2, 64 (1985).
3. U.S. journals received at the Leonardo editorial office, in addition to Ref. [1], include Computer Music Journa
Curtis Roads, ed., MIT Press, 28 Carleton St., Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A.; 1/1 (Journal of the Just
Intonation Project), David Doty, ed., 535 Stevenson St., San Francisco, CA 94103, U.S.A.; Music Perception,
Diana Deutsch, ed., University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.; Perspectives of New Music, School
of Music, DN-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, U.S.A. We urge readers to bring to our
attention work and other publications in these areas. We look forward to collaborating with workers in the
field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles Published in Leonardo on Visual Art and Sound, Music and Technology
NORMAN A. ANDERSEN: Phonic Sculpture: Mechanically Actuated Musical Instruments in a Sculptural Contex
99 (1986).
BERNARD BASCHET: Structures sonores, 1, 393 (1968).
PIERRE BOULEZ: Technology and the Composer, 11, 59 (1978).
Louis BRILL: Wavefronts Theatre of Performing Lights: On Light Shows with Music and Dance, 13, 307 (19
FRANK BROWN: Computer Music Produced with the Aid of a Digital-to-Analog Converter, 11, 39 (1978).
LEIF BRUSH with GLORIA DEFILIPPS BRUSH: Monitoring Nature's Sounds with Terrain-Based Constructions,
(1984).
JAMES W. DAVIS: A Response to W. Garner's Observations on the Relationship between Colour and Music, 12
(1979).
ELENA DE BARTOLA: On Space and Time in Music and the Visual Arts, 5, 27 (1972).
ROBERT DONNINI: Artistic Graphic Musical Scores Influenced by Tantric Art, 14, 122 (1981).
LIN EMERY and ROBERT MORRISS: Kinesone I: A Kinetic Sound Sculpture, 19, 207 (1986).
JOHN EVARTS: The New Musical Notation-A Graphic Art? 1 , 405 (1968).
B.M. GALEYEV: Music-Kinetic Art Medium: On the Work of the Group 'Prometej' (SKB), Kazan, U.S.S.R., 9, 177
(1976).
W. GARNER: The Relationship between Colour and Music, 11, 225 (1978).

104 Editorial
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 THEO
THEOGOLDBERG
GOLDBERG
andand
GUNTHER
GUNTHER SCHRACK:
SCHRACK:
Computer-Aided
Computer-Aided
Correlation
Correlation
of Musicalof
andMusical
Visual Structures,
and Visual19,
Structures,
11 19, 11
(1986).
(1986).
JOHN
JOHNGRAYSON:
GRAYSON:New
New
Materials
Materials
and Methods
and Methods
for thefor
Musical
the Musical
Instrument
Instrument
Designer, the
Designer,
Audio-kinetic
the Audio-kinetic
Sculptor, Sculptor,
Musician
Musicianand
and
Composer,
Composer,
3, 295
3, 295
(1970).
(1970).
BARBARA
BARBARAHERO:
HERO:Drawings
Drawings
Based
Based
on Laser
on Laser
Lissajous
Lissajous
FiguresFigures
and the Lambdoma
and the Lambdoma
Diagram, 11,
Diagram,
301 (1978).
11, 301 (1978).
BARBARA
BARBARAHERO:
HERO:Paintings
Paintings
BasedBased
on Relative
on Relative
Pitch in
Pitch
Music,
in 8,
Music,
13 (1975).
8, 13 (1975).
STEPHEN
STEPHENJABLONSKY:
JABLONSKY: Graphic
Graphic
Artworks
Artworks
Based Based
on Music:
on Musigraphs,
Music: Musigraphs,
12, 308 (1979).
12, 308 (1979).
BEDRICH
BEDRICHJACINSKY:
JACINSKY: TheThe
Studio
Studio
of Word,
of Word,
Sound,Sound,
Movement,
Movement,
of the Janacek
of theAcademy
JanacekofAcademy
Music andofDramatic
Music and
Art,Dramatic Art,
Brno, Czechoslovakia, 5, 333 (1972).
Kinetic Art: Third Conference on 'Light and Music', Kazan, U.S.S.R., 27 June-4 July 1975, 9, 238 (1976).
RICHARD I. LAND: Non-Verbal 'Discussion' using Music and Kinetic Painting, 1, 121 (1968).
FRANK J. MALINA and PIERRE SCHAEFFER: A Conversation on Concrete Music and Kinetic Art, 5, 253 (1972).
JOHN D. MITCHELL and EMANUEL K. SCHWARTZ: A Psychosocial Approach to the Peking Opera, 7, 131 (1974).
JACK Ox with PETER FRANK: The Systematic Translation of Musical Compositions into Paintings, 17, 152 (1984).
SUSANNE PACH: Report on the ARS Electronica 80 Symposium held at Linz, Austria, in September 1980, 14, 206
(1981).
EKKEHART RAUTENSTRAUCH: Composite Graphic-Photo Pictures, 13, 313 (1980).
JUDITH ROTHSCHILD: On the Use of a Color-Music Analogy and on Chance in Paintings, 3, 275 (1970).
NICOLAS SCHOFFER: Sonic and Visual Structures: Theory and Experiment, 18, 59 (1985).
S.V. VADNERKAR: A Code for Representing the Occidental Musical Notation in Pictorial Art, 9, 140 (1976).
HENRY VALENSI: Une esthetique nouvelle: La loi des pr6dominances et la peinture musicale, 1, 457 (1968).
EDGARD VARESE on Music and Art: A Conversation between Varese and Alcopley, 1, 187 (1968).
ALAN WELLS: Music and Visual Color: A Proposed Correlation, 13, 101 (1980).

Note: Copies of these articles are available at nominal cost by writing to the Leonardo editorial office.

Obituary

Jan Zach 1914-1986

The editors of Leonardo note with

sorrow the recent death of Jan Zach. This :

internationally respected sculptor and _
painter was a valued supporter of the |
journal; an Honorary Editor since 1980, .
he lent us his wise counsel and served in
such capacities as author, reviewer, advisor
and friend.
Jan Zach's country of birth was
Czechoslovakia, but his work took him to
all corners of the world including Brasil
(1940-1951), the Canadian Pacific North-
west (1951-1957) and Eugene, Oregon !
(1957-1986). At the time of his death, he
was Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at i
the University of Oregon. His paintings
and sculptures have been featured in
major exhibitions worldwide and his
commissioned works can be found in
collections, both public and private, in
Czechoslovakia, U.S.A., England, Mexico,
Brasil and Canada. In keeping with his
international experience, he firmly believed :
in and actively promoted international
cooperation among sculptors. His last
work, entitled Lady, was a commission
for the city of Cata2uases. Minas Gerais.
Brasil. Even in its maquette stage, Lady .
eloquently testifies to Jan Zach's ability . !
to mold light, space and form into a Jan Zach, Lady, 1986.
majestic and enduring work of art. fabricated in welded ste

Editorial 105

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