Math is a technical language that quantifies and relates
things in the physical world we live in. Our perception of the world is based
on a variety of complicated physical phenomena that are well modeled by
mathematics and thus it shouldn’t be that surprising that artists have been
making use of these mathematical descriptions to create art for a very long
time.
Tricking the mind to perceive depth
is one of the ways artists do this and is the idea behind the vanishing point,
in which parallel lines in the real world are seen as converging to a single
point through our own eyes (a result of our eyes interpreting smaller but
similar objects as being linearly further away). A replication of vanishing
points on a canvas will give the illusion of depth to an art piece.
(Above) Classic Example from Mattereal.com. (Right) M.C. Escher uses multiple vanishing
points in Up and Down to allow the painting to be viewed in different ways depending on where
your eyes start to view the painting.
There is an analog in music
production to the depth perception we get from vanishing points in
visual art. Beyond the fact that sound and light are intrinsically similar, (both are packets of waves that our brain quantifies and interprets
as patterns of abstract ideas, i.e. color, brightness, pitch, loudness, harmony, attack, decay) it turns out that when a sound
engineer wants to make a sound seem closer or further away there is a trick for
that too! An article by Paul White called Creating
a Sense of Depth in Your Mix illustrates a number of ways to do this
including taking the high frequencies out of sounds you want to sound distant
(because higher frequencies are absorbed more rapidly than low ones), adding
the right amount and type of echo or reverb, and creating contrasting clear and
loud sounds to give a reference sound space.
Of course there are many more
examples of art utilizing mathematics to trick our minds into new artistic
experiences including holograms, stereograms, 3D glasses, motion sensor
camera’s, the theremin and the ubiquitous idea of recording sound and images
onto other media.
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| Up close record and record player showing grooves created to model sound waves (vinylrecordfair.com) |
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| Sterogram from stereogramsworld.files.wordpress.com |
The Legend of Zelda Played on the Theremin by Randy George
"Cool Stereograms |." Stereogramsworld.wordpress.com. N.p., 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
George, Randy. "The Legend of Zelda Theme on Theremin." YouTube. YouTube, 23 July 2006. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Houdon, Par. "Matte Painting - Partie 5 : La Perspective - Matte Real." Matte Real. N.p., 07 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
"How to Clean Vinyl Records - VinylRecordFair.com." VinylRecordFaircom. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
"The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher." The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher. Platonic Realms, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
White, Paul. "Creating A Sense Of Depth In Your Mix." Creating A Sense Of Depth In Your Mix. Sound on Sound, Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
I never would have considered a form of a "vanishing point" in music! It's so cool to make that connection between math and physics, in forms of frequency, pitch, loudness, etc. and how that translates into art. I'm sure these amazing artists are utilizing these mathematical concepts to really maximize the sounds we hear from our headphones. Thanks for sharing how sounds can be engineered in unique art forms!
ReplyDeleteI never knew that sound engineers make sounds seem closer or further away through adjusting frequencies and etc. I don't know if it's the same concept, but sometimes when you play songs usings the iPod, you can only hear certain sounds from each earphone. For an example, you would here the bass being played in one earphone and the person singing in the other. Maybe it's not even a thing. Also, I understand how vanishing points work, but how do optical illusions work? There is one where from far way, the lines seem crooked or slightly diagonal but when you look at it closely, they're in fact straight.
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