Deciding to work with metal came quite naturally to me.
However, I realize this musical choice may seem trivial or superficial when compared with the possibilties offered by classical music. Metal may also seem too mainstream or pop culture-based when compared with experimental music, some kinds of electronic music, noise, and other types of contemporary music that are recognized within the contemporary art world.
It is true that the metal subculture tends to focus too much on rather ridiculous religious dichotomies and symbolism, and is often associated with highly unimaginative imagery. But I feel the possibilities offered by this subgenre are worth much more than their seemingly low face value.
Let me explain why I've chosen to focus on metal.
I orginally became fascinated with the violin at a quite young age, because I liked the sound and the way that sound looked. The sound of the violin is typically yellow for me, and I prefer violin tone of a pure, golden shade, deeper in the center, slightly transparent around the edges without blurriness.
Because I received an extremely rigid and technique-oriented classical training in violin, standard music notation and playing technique have become deeply ingrained in the listening process. When I listen to classical music, my brain goes into uber-analytical mode: recognizing patterns and immediately associating them with their standard notation or with the playing techniques required to create them. I find it difficult to completely dissociate what I'm hearing from the way the music is technically created and represented. As a result, I haven't been interested in working on visually representing classical music.
I'm much more interested in working with music that is edgier, darker and more aggressive. I prefer the way metal "looks" when I listen to it. And I'm especially interested in the process the brain goes through when learning to listen to this highly distorted, thrashy, aggressive music. Much non-mainstream metal isn't immediately accessible to casual listeners, and a new album can, even for seasoned listeners, cause metal fatigue and require multiple listenings to even begin decoding it.
I feel like you need to learn to process the intense, aggressive sound and rythmns - which can be perceived as noise - into understandable, recognizable patterns. Once you begin to recognize the patterns, you can move away from focusing on each element that constitutes those patterns, and begin focusing on the shapes those patterns build.
In my art, I'm interested in exploring ways of making this extreme music more accessible through abstract yet visually understandable structures.
I recently discovered the graphic notation movement that developed in the 50s and 60s with avant garde and experimental composers such as John Cage. I'll be sharing more as I continue to research this fascinating subject.
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