Thursday 18 January 2018

Initial Research - Reflection

Much like every other COP module that i've 'endured' on this course it started off with a feeling of not knowing where to focus my research although one redeeming aspect to this was i was very sure about basing it around Music. This was an easy decision purely because i know that this is where my practice lies. However, it was still no easy task as i was struggling with the narrowing down element of where to focus in on, trying to make sure my eventual chosen essay question wasn't too broad as that is where i struggle the most.  

I was drawn to the idea of exploring the element of how visual art i.e illustration expresses music and sounds within its aesthetic and ultimately i aimed to create work that applied this same principle for my Practical work. 

In my initial research i discovered the theorist Walter Pater and his quote - 'all art constantly aspires to the condition of music' this quote effectively got the wheels turning and ball rolling and it opened up new avenues of research to explore and delving into the theme of Music aesthetics and the visual within music and vice versa in a way. 

One book that shaped a lot of research ideas was by Simon Shaw-Miller 'Eye Hear; the visual in music' was highly influential for me in terms of forming opinions and ideas and to get a better understanding of the certain aesthetic principles that reflect the visual in music. 

There were a few stop and start moments particularly before i had eventually nailed down my final question of 'How can Illustration communicate the emotional resonance of music' which was down to many personal tutorial chats with Jamie which effectively moulded the basis of my research, discussing what was working and what wasn't or what types of research would be relevant or not. 

The research continued throughout the process as late areas of research for the practical at least formed my ideas in terms of experimentation. Important finds such as the experimental and pioneering animation techniques of the likes of Walter Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger who's animations in responses to scored music i found very inspirational. 

Overall i believe the research in all was handled in a professional manner as once i had found an area to explore i got invested into the topic and followed it to find the influence and ideas that i knew i would get from this project. However there were many stop start periods and i did take a while to fully get going, which surprises me due to the whole topic, with it being based on the theories of music in an aesthetics sense should have grabbed immediately, rest assure it did grab eventually. 




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