Raewyn Turner & Mirjana Devetakovic Radojevic, Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Paper presented at: Second International Congress Synaesthesia, Science & Art April 2007

Published as a PDF file  : Generative Art Conference GA2002 Milan

Raewyn Turner Sound Drawing

Example of a translation of Brahms Hungarian Dances# 1 into coloured light: The sequential colour states were informed by sound drawings as well as the colour intuitively suggested to me by the phrases of sound.

‘Brahms Hungarian Dances1’ was included in the 2002 multisensory Four Senses Performances with a symphony orchestra. In the “Four Senses Concerts”  (1999, 2002) I’m investigating the correspondences of the vibrations of vision and sound and olfaction that together affect physical and emotional states.

I used the stage lighting states that I had composed for this piece in performance as the basis of the colour animation video.  The pre-programmed light states for the theatre performance of the ‘Brahms Hungarian Dances# 1’  were created with a lighting plan and a pc based stage-lighting program to make multiple sequences and cues used in improvisation.  I divided the orchestra  into sound groups which were each assigned a colour and its complimentary according to the colour of the instruments. Assuming the whole orchestra as a canvas, I used saturated colours to achieve high degrees of retinal stimulation, brightness and afterimage.  This was a colour mixing method which I developed while working on a project with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra during 1998 and in an earlier experiment with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australia.

for example:

Orchestra Section                                   Principal Colour       Complimentary

1      1^st violin………………                             magenta/deep blue/green

2       2^nd violin……………                      violet/deep amber

3       viola…………………                                 medium blue/orange

4      basses, cellos………………                     deep blue/green/magenta

5      drums, percussion…………                   light red/pea green

6      sax, trombone, tuba………………..       lemon/lavender

7      trumpets……………………………              deep amber/violet

8      clarinets, flutes, bassoon, oboes…    pea green/light red

9      horns………………………………                 orange/medium blue

10  piano………………………………                   bright rose/sea blue

Both series of performances in Auckland, New Zealand were with the Aotea Youth Symphony Orchestra.