Soundstitching by Cassia Kite

Summary

This script discusses the experimental project 'Sound Stitching,' which merges visual art and music. The artist explores an innovative method of translating hand-stitched imagery into sound, using a color scale in the key of C major to compose music. Influenced by the artist's family history in music and folk art, the process combines traditional forms of hand-stitching with modern sound composition, creating a unique dialogue between the visual and auditory worlds. Through this integration, 'Sound Stitching' offers a multimedia platform that allows the artist to communicate through a folk art approach, connecting their visual history and musical roots.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker does not consider themselves a musician due to a lack of classical training but is focused on blending visual and auditory art forms.
• 🎨 The main project, 'Sound Stitching,' is an interdisciplinary effort that creates a dialogue between hand-stitched imagery and music.
• 🎶 The concept involves translating color and imagery into sound, allowing the stitched artwork to produce its own unique song.
• 🔗 'Sound Stitching' integrates a traditional form of art (hand stitching) with music composition, providing a new communicative tool for this art form.
• 👵 The speaker's musical background includes receiving piano lessons from their grandmother and playing drums in a middle school band.
• 🎵 The project links the speaker’s visual history, love of music, and folk art by composing music from hand-stitched images.
• 🧵 Each hand-stitched image is translated into a color map pattern, which serves as a guide for creating music.
• 🎼 The color map is designed to fit within the C major scale of the piano, with each thread's color corresponding to specific musical notes.
• 📜 The stitching pattern is read from left to right and top to bottom, influencing the order in which colors are played on the piano.
• 🎤 'Sound Stitching' offers a multimedia platform to unify visual art and music, using folk art techniques to experiment with the process of composing music.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the project described in the script?

The primary focus of the project is an experimental interdisciplinary approach called 'sound stitching,' which combines visual art (hand-stitching) with music creation. It aims to give a voice to hand-stitched imagery by associating it with unique musical compositions.

How does the process of sound stitching work?

Sound stitching involves translating a hand-stitched image into music. The colors of the stitches are mapped onto a color scale that corresponds to the piano's key of C major. The image is then read from left to right, top to bottom, and used to create a methodical line drawing that guides the order in which the colors (and thus the notes) are played on the piano.

What is the role of the color map in sound stitching?

The color map serves to organize the hand-stitched threads into a pattern that is used to generate music. Each color corresponds to a specific note in the C major scale, and the color map helps determine the order of the notes to be played.

How does the artist connect their visual history with music and folk art?

The artist connects their visual history with music and folk art by using hand-stitched imagery as a medium for composing music. The process blends the tradition of visual art, such as hand stitching, with the artist's love for music, creating a new way to communicate and express through these art forms.

What is the significance of the artist's background in music?

The artist's background in music, particularly their early piano lessons and experience as a percussionist in school, is significant because it informs their approach to sound stitching. Their understanding of music theory and performance enables them to create a methodical approach to translating visual art into sound.

How does the artist use the piano in the sound stitching process?

The artist uses the piano as the instrument to 'play' the hand-stitched images. Each color in the image corresponds to a note in the C major scale, and the colors are played in a specific order, determined by the color map and line drawing.

What role does hand stitching play in this project?

Hand stitching is used as a form of visual art that is transformed into music. It plays a crucial role in the creation of the artwork as it becomes the source material for the sound stitching process, with each stitch representing a specific note or sound.

What is the relationship between the hand-stitched image and the music created?

The hand-stitched image is directly translated into music through the process of color mapping and line drawing. The image acts as a visual score, where each stitch or color corresponds to a musical note, resulting in a unique song that embodies both the visual and auditory elements of the artwork.

How does the color scale in the C major key influence the composition?

The color scale in the C major key influences the composition by determining the pitches and progression of the music. Since the colors are mapped to notes in the C major scale, the resulting music follows the structure of this scale, creating a harmony between the visual and auditory elements.

What is the overall purpose of sound stitching in terms of artistic communication?

The overall purpose of sound stitching is to create a new way of communication that bridges visual art and music. By combining these two forms of expression, the artist aims to give a voice to hand-stitched art, allowing it to interact with and convey meaning through sound, thereby broadening the way art can be experienced.