The Color of Sound

E. R. Jaensch noted children at the age range between 6 to 11 were able to invoke vivid visual experiences both in play and in day dreaming events. The age cut off was deemed through observation. The researchers themselves felt they could not produce the image, yet they could suggest the presence of the image through their verbal questioning. Our ability to work with this phenomenon can be enhanced through the arts. How artistic interactions are devised through the media has not been studied. Eidetic Imagery has great potential in art and neuroscience. The more we work with our minds the more we will enrich ourself. Various stimuli can provide conditions that allow these images to unfold into our working conscious field. The Greek word εἴδωλον is Eidolon and is produced at the interface where thoughts manifest from nothingness. This is why Eidolon refers to the image produced from the thoughts. This spirit image is all we have to go on when examining thought formation in a dynamic event. The eidetic image or copy does not have to arrive to our perception solely from sounds by musical instruments. A combination of sensory and mental events can result in the constructing of this image. Physical research examined the visual stimulus in the 1900-1930 period. What does the image look like? It varies from individual. Research attempts arrive at the interpretation that the image may vary in size, color, and position of the test image suggested. It is the interpretation of the one experiencing the event. Interesting if an image could be suggested verbally can an image be suggested in music to two people in different locations? An important point for therapy is that the early studies provided direct suggestions of the image with the psychologist.

One idea to use eidetic images for the benefits in the fields of therapy, education, and neuroscience can be obtained when two or more senses are used in an art form. The opportunity of tone color introduced in lieu of musical notes lets the mind paint shapes and images with music. This method can allow the translation of color into musical notes by working only with color scales. By allowing the student to map color with notes a unique way of combining sense information provides a way out of trying to go through the intermediate step of converting sound heard in the mind to notes to sound produced by the musical instrument. Like all senses there is a connection to the higher conscious states. Both light and sound have a spiritual source and vibratory nature. These concepts were taken from the Hermetic tradition. The physiological effects that painting and music have on the individual are not known. Apparently they are far from trivial. Working in the areas of music and color it is apparent that one can easily recognize the concept of color over tonal pitch. It is easier to use the mind in creating a map of color ranges than for a map of a music scale. The components involved in both areas are different in the brain. Therefore a ratio of colors can be devised to represent the music scale. It is possible to obtain a chromatic scale using the primary, secondary, and tertiary color schemes. The ability to develop illumination to express emotion is a hallmark of the mind. A way for a therapist to learn the language of art is to realize how art manifests in our thoughts before it is translated and appears for us to experience. In the media of sound the tonic is not the musical note. It is the silence. This is akin to the texture of the drawing surface. To study neuroscience we must resist the response of the senses. The breakthrough will appear when we examine what is not being detected by the instruments. The music symbol of the rest can be used as a composition tool just as the full, half and quarter note. We begin in silence to quell the external thoughts. As the composition takes shape our mind focus on the silence between the sounds. This is how we are able to process shapes from a song. The rest note is the actual tonic. This is because musical scores do not take into account the psychological responses directly. An emotion must be recored for each passage to understand what the intention and the feeling the listener experiences.

Such a scale makes applying music in a rapid approach while avoiding the difficulties involved in transferring to other faculties when using musical notes in a composition.

A method proposed that circumvents the problem of "reading the note" and extends toward the emotions with the intention of which not produces feeling. Other methods are possible a sequence of vibrations can be devised for touch to relate to a note. This can be use for sense deficiency. The method proposed below is by Edward Mayron. His work was inspire by the interest in how an audience could be introduced to color light performances. The composer Scriabin also wished to introduce a musical performance with music an light by including a light organ. The work was called Prometheus: The Poem of Fire.

Source of research paper on Eidetic Image study, 1934.

Example of music with motion that invokes imagery upon listening. It is said there is an organ in the brain that functions like a harp. In addition the ventricles of the nervous system are influenced by our breathing patterns. This has an effect on the transport of the spinal fluid. As we experience art we alter our breathing patterns.

 

Examples of using color with moving shapes are essential to invoke emotion. A way to do this was envisioned in the mid 19th century. It is composed of moveable prisms, and painted images on glass disks. The visual images are projected onto a large screen by a light source. This device is called the Clavilux. It was devised in 1922 by Thomas Wilfred.

A schematic of the parts that allow the Clavilux to display moving colored shapes onto a screen

With this tool Thomas Wilfred was able to create shapes composed of various colors. These images would change as a the audience watched. The effects were intended to display three dimensional movements. Photographic stills taken from the screen of the Clavilux do not reproduce this phenomena.

A photograph showing the appearance of the image in a stationary position. The shapes and colors change based on the instructions recorded on glass plates. Several types of images are possible by the use of different prisms.

A console was designed so that Thomas Wilfred could compose light to an audience. He called this art Lumia. Based on his researches he was able to explain how certain colors behaved to the viewer. Others had noticed the psychological effect of color. When living creatures were involved the description of the effect became complicated. Yet there are observations that can be used to provide a model for how color interacts with the mind. With the Clavilux it has now possible to learn out both color shape and motion affect us.

The console for the Clavilux allows the Artist to create light compositions right before an audience. The disks on the right are made of glass and have colored paintings prepared earlier. The paintings are identified by Thomas Wilfred as an Opus  followed by a number.

The physiological response to color light was also noted by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His conclusion was that color required both light and darkness. Color is based on contrast. He felt that the principle players are the sun, the eye, and optical instruments and these were placed inside a diagram for his 1791 pamphlet entitled Beyträge zur optik.

The three aspects of a trinity. The components used in optics involve the sun, the viewer, and the optical instrument. This diagram is taken from his 1791 pamphlet entitled beiträge zur optik.


A presentation of Goethe's findings is provided in four parts by PehrSall.

This video explores Goethe's journey to the study of how we respond to color. In the case of Goethe he noticed that a prism does not split the colors as we assume. The study of color and prisms requires the actual experiment. By reading alone you will arrive at the incorrect conclusion. It is important to act out your plans.


Light differs from a physical world. A description of this other worldly visitor is majestic. This reveals that Light is not from this place. In motion you will sense light to be unearthly. This is the reason why the images constructed by Thomas Wilfred lack sharp images. The motivation behind this work is explained by him in this interview. His Lumina art was never intended as a light show. The purpose was to advance the hour a viewer was in. The word hour refers to a mental conscious state. The diffuse quality of the images reflect how our thoughts form in us. We have something to relate to us that is some activity which the higher self does. 

Another example of the Clavilux. This pattern is modified slowly over several events. The colors surrounding the central figure resemble a rainbow pattern and aid the viewer's interest. Composing with light demands the need to work with darkness. This is the tonic for light. First there was darkness, then their was light. To think in this media consider the tonic is silence and darkness. Begin by imagining endless dark space in front of you. So that you are at liberty to build a form. This object will surround you. You can force the darkness to move toward you. Become small, or enlarge so as to pass over you. Imagine that you were sitting inside some fantastic ship allowing you to travel through space. When you add color. Build with both form and motion to increase dimension. No one can derive emotion from a still image. The color of the light must move. The ability for the senses to pick up on motion is a property that relates light from the physical world to the mental world.

By viewing color and shape moving affects how our mind can change mental states. This allows us to realize ourself rather than be caught up in delusion..... Here is David Lynch pointing out there is more to us that we can access. A process in thought is to begin by being still. The entrance to thought begins just as in art. Start with nothing. Then expand and note all the potentials that are possible from your mind.

By using knowledge from different fields new thought can be created to advance our understanding.

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