by Rolf Aamot
Visual music is tones in pictures: color, values, and lines in time and space. The base on which this art form rest is visual music’s visual tone electronics.
Like music, visual musictakes two main forms, one in pure visual tone language, the other visual music drama. The symphonic and dramatic are the premises for dynamic pictoral art, in which time is concrete. Visual tone language makes it possible for the image to collaborate as an equal partner with the words and music.
Symphonic visual music
Colors, values and lines in movement is a challenge to the eye, a challenge that is perceived both physically and mentally. Direct and indirect images alternate. The eye is attacked, facinated and delighted. Colors appear, ascend and disappear, all in a flow of organic movement. The image takes shape only at the moment the impression arises; everything in visual music is transitory.
Nothing can make such an immediate impression on a person as color and movement. The wandering to and fro of the mind between form and color creates overlays and density. We create form when we are moved. It is the viewer who is the artist.
The artist must see the color, not only subjectively, but objectively: the color as tone material. The color free from form.The color as form.Modulation, not modelling. The intrinsic movements of the brain and color are one and the same. The viewer is moved inrelation to what is happening.The order of the color – is the form of the color. the spectral colors need to become independent elements. The form spreads in the color. The color of the form derives from the color. Color – form – movement are created by visual tone language. These three elements have a mental and a physical side. The mental rests on the physical world of visual music. For this reason the physical part is the most important for the artist.This raises the following issues:
1. Form – color
2. Form – movement
3. Form – color – movement
Dramatic visual music
Dramatic visual music, like symphony music, is based on visual tone language. Colors, values and lines in time and space. It is the visual tone technique of visual music that endows this form of art with this special freedom.The body as a line instrument in the electronic painting.On pictorial art’s premises. Man and visual tones form a whole. Visual music is milieu, costume and visual music in one. Body language and visual tone language combine to form the medium. In the world of electronic image every tiny happening is dramatic. Electronics constitute an extension of our sensory system which carries us to the furthest limits. The pulse is our own. Visual music – our breathing. Death – a static picture.
The visual music theater has its roots in the original theater of Antiquity, which was visual.
The base on which visual musical communication rests is visual tone instruments. These may be utilised by themselves, as conveyors of pure visual impressions – pure visual music – but also as a part of the setup in performing works where a synthesis of visual music and ordinary music is created. Two independent forms of art form an artistic whole. One of the principal objects of visual music is to initiate cooperation between the branches of art. On a common base with respect for the distinctive character of each. In my visual music studio it is possible to work on these premises.
The basis of visual music is the theories of visual tone I have developed. In common with other kinds of art it has movement and rhythm and the organic and architectural principles. I start composing with a written score. It bears a certain resemblance to the score a composer uses for electronic music. From the notation I play the work. Visual music can be performed in a concert hall. It can be recorded on video tape, film, and digitally on a Compact Disc for picture/sound, CDI.
We live in an age in which visual effects are palying an increasingly important role in out daily lives. In this society visual music will be a reality. Electronics make it possible to create a direct art form, i.e. to bring the spectrum of tones and intensity of the work right up to the viewer/listener.
ROLF AAMOT
Electronic painter,painter, visual music composer and film/video producer. Awarded a permanent governmental stipend for artists in his capacity as an electronic painter. Member of Bildende Kunstneres Sentralorganisasjon, Landsforeningen Norske Malere and Norsk Filmforbund as a producer.
Uses the media as an independent means of artistic expression: music and visual music.
Trained at Statens håndverks og kunstindustriskole, Statens Kunstakademi, Statens Filmopplœring and Dramatiska Institutet, Stockholm.
Visual music/musical compositions for the cinema and television: EVOLUTION, RELIEF 1 and 2, KINETIC ENERGY, STRUCTURES, VISION, VISUALLY, PROGRESS, ACTIO, PULSE, MEDUSA – SHE WHO SEES and THE EXPULSION. ELECTRONIC PAINTING EXHIBITIONS: Munch Museum, Oslo 1975 and Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo,1976. Has represented Norway abroad as an electronic painter and film/video producer.
Translated from Norwegian by Philips Norway/Polygram Records, Oslo 1986
Visual music is tones in pictures: color, values, and lines in time and space. The base on which this art form rest is visual music’s visual tone electronics.
Like music, visual musictakes two main forms, one in pure visual tone language, the other visual music drama. The symphonic and dramatic are the premises for dynamic pictoral art, in which time is concrete. Visual tone language makes it possible for the image to collaborate as an equal partner with the words and music.
Symphonic visual music
Colors, values and lines in movement is a challenge to the eye, a challenge that is perceived both physically and mentally. Direct and indirect images alternate. The eye is attacked, facinated and delighted. Colors appear, ascend and disappear, all in a flow of organic movement. The image takes shape only at the moment the impression arises; everything in visual music is transitory.
Nothing can make such an immediate impression on a person as color and movement. The wandering to and fro of the mind between form and color creates overlays and density. We create form when we are moved. It is the viewer who is the artist.
The artist must see the color, not only subjectively, but objectively: the color as tone material. The color free from form.The color as form.Modulation, not modelling. The intrinsic movements of the brain and color are one and the same. The viewer is moved inrelation to what is happening.The order of the color – is the form of the color. the spectral colors need to become independent elements. The form spreads in the color. The color of the form derives from the color. Color – form – movement are created by visual tone language. These three elements have a mental and a physical side. The mental rests on the physical world of visual music. For this reason the physical part is the most important for the artist.This raises the following issues:
1. Form – color
2. Form – movement
3. Form – color – movement
Dramatic visual music
Dramatic visual music, like symphony music, is based on visual tone language. Colors, values and lines in time and space. It is the visual tone technique of visual music that endows this form of art with this special freedom.The body as a line instrument in the electronic painting.On pictorial art’s premises. Man and visual tones form a whole. Visual music is milieu, costume and visual music in one. Body language and visual tone language combine to form the medium. In the world of electronic image every tiny happening is dramatic. Electronics constitute an extension of our sensory system which carries us to the furthest limits. The pulse is our own. Visual music – our breathing. Death – a static picture.
The visual music theater has its roots in the original theater of Antiquity, which was visual.
The base on which visual musical communication rests is visual tone instruments. These may be utilised by themselves, as conveyors of pure visual impressions – pure visual music – but also as a part of the setup in performing works where a synthesis of visual music and ordinary music is created. Two independent forms of art form an artistic whole. One of the principal objects of visual music is to initiate cooperation between the branches of art. On a common base with respect for the distinctive character of each. In my visual music studio it is possible to work on these premises.
The basis of visual music is the theories of visual tone I have developed. In common with other kinds of art it has movement and rhythm and the organic and architectural principles. I start composing with a written score. It bears a certain resemblance to the score a composer uses for electronic music. From the notation I play the work. Visual music can be performed in a concert hall. It can be recorded on video tape, film, and digitally on a Compact Disc for picture/sound, CDI.
We live in an age in which visual effects are palying an increasingly important role in out daily lives. In this society visual music will be a reality. Electronics make it possible to create a direct art form, i.e. to bring the spectrum of tones and intensity of the work right up to the viewer/listener.
ROLF AAMOT
Electronic painter,painter, visual music composer and film/video producer. Awarded a permanent governmental stipend for artists in his capacity as an electronic painter. Member of Bildende Kunstneres Sentralorganisasjon, Landsforeningen Norske Malere and Norsk Filmforbund as a producer.
Uses the media as an independent means of artistic expression: music and visual music.
Trained at Statens håndverks og kunstindustriskole, Statens Kunstakademi, Statens Filmopplœring and Dramatiska Institutet, Stockholm.
Visual music/musical compositions for the cinema and television: EVOLUTION, RELIEF 1 and 2, KINETIC ENERGY, STRUCTURES, VISION, VISUALLY, PROGRESS, ACTIO, PULSE, MEDUSA – SHE WHO SEES and THE EXPULSION. ELECTRONIC PAINTING EXHIBITIONS: Munch Museum, Oslo 1975 and Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo,1976. Has represented Norway abroad as an electronic painter and film/video producer.
Translated from Norwegian by Philips Norway/Polygram Records, Oslo 1986