is jack ox well known? i’d never heard of her until today. she is an artist whose been attempting to systematically visualize music for over 20 years. from what i can gather (by pure inference) her most popular work was her visualization of Dadaist kurt schwitters’ famous 1923 sound poem the ursonate. (text here). since 1998 she has been working with programmer dave britton on the virtual color organ a 3D, fully immersive stereoscopic work intended for viewing at a virtual reality theater called the cave. (an early prototype and some specs) it’s all fascinating but what i wanted to particularly showcase here were some early applications of her visualization ideas which manifested themselves in the decidedly low-tech medium of oil paint.

quote: Since 1976 my paintings have been formulated through a set of visual equivalents employed effectively to “translate” a composition written in the aural “language” of music into a visual “language”. The musical vocabulary used by the composer is put into a new vocabulary, one that uses visual images instead of sounds. However, the original structure of the piece is retained along with the meaning. Not only do I, as a painter, function in a way similar to an orchestra conductor, but I am also the creator of the visual language. My activity could be described as a re-orchestration, followed by a visual performance. The actual act of painting produces a work which expresses feeling—mine and the composer’s—but is structured by a mathematical system.

I should explain, perhaps, what I do and do not mean by “translation”. I do not listen to the music and “paint my feelings”. I work from the score, making a traditional musicological analysis. I give systematic consideration to the composition’s thematic, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and dynamic elements. During this period of immersion and analysis I listen carefully to various performances of the music, noting the interpretations of different conductors. This analysis is what I translate into painting. I do not paint music; I paint a composition which was written in the language of music. That is an important distinction to make. My paintings are basically re-orchestrated versions of the original composition—re-orchestrated, that is, for the eyes.

she employs the kind of art theory i can get behind, which is to say theory that is implicit in the works physical creation not just the explanation of its meaning. interesting stuff and i really like the result. below are a few details from the various paintings. click each for larger versions.

all are details from painted visualizations of anton bruckner’s eighth symphony. (be sure to check out the links on the left side for a glance into the process. also here is an essay on the series)

both are details from her visualization of claude debussy’s nuages from the nocturnes.

both are details from her visualization of igor stravinsky’s symphony in three movements (first movement).

pretty cool if you ask me.

while we are on the subject i also recommend this piece: the sounding image about the relationship between art and music—an art-historical retrospective view by barbara john.