freejazzart PSC by Alan Silva

Raditionally, the arts have been separated into disciplines delimited by medium and other criterion. Painting and music for example are delimited by, amongst other things, the different senses by which they are perceived - we hear music and see painting. One of the great dreams of the romantic tradition has been that works particular to each artistic discipline might be meaningfully represented in another artistic discipline. One of the great challenges to the inter-disciplinary translation of artworks has been the development of a system of mapping perceptual attributes between each of the five human senses. Whilst mapping between sculpture and painting may be achieved in a very literal way, mapping between music and painting has always presented itself as more of a challenge. A study of human perception, especially as it pertains to the relationship between audition and vision, can prove very useful toward this end.
Half a century ago, Marcel Duchamp stated: “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution.” Today, we’ve taken that philosophy a step further by blurring the lines between spectator and artist, transforming the act of spectatorship into a fundamental part of the artistic process.