The Role of Participatory Art in the Audio-Visual Artistry - Essay Example

THE ROLE OF PARTICIPATORY ART IN THE AUDIO-VISUAL ARTISTRY THE ROLE OF PARTICIPATORY ART IN AUDIO-VISUAL ARTISTRY Thesis and Introduction The audience gets a better appreciation of the work of art if the creation and production of the work of art is weaved around them. In audio-visual artistry, there are several ways by which artists can use the qualitative properties of sound and vision in a blended fashion to make it carry the message of the art work easily to the audience. In this essay the role of participatory art in the presentation of audio visual art is critically discussed. Two examples of art work in which Participatory art was used Audience participation has been defined in many different contexts to correspond with some existing circumstance that an art work is presented in. In the context of the current research paper, audience participation is defined as the creation of a piece of art work in such a way that the audience will be easily connected to the work of art. In essence, audience participation does not necessarily deal with the direct role that audience play in the making of the work of art because the work of art selected in this instance is not a stage work, which has audience taking part in live viewing. A Mighty Heart In most forms of participatory art, the best way to get the audience to participate is by presenting them with themes of work that provoke their reasoning and level of awakening of the audience. It is based on this technique that the film “A Mighty Heart” (2007) by Michael Winterbottom was produced with a theme of cultural alienation. Often, in films rather than stage drama, audience participation has been said to come about through the level of ethnographic appreciation that the viewer has for the film (Calvert & Lewis, 2004). What this means is that the film but be set in such a way that appeals to the social perceptive dynamics of the audience. Meanwhile, the issue of cultural alienation is one that has a highly sensitive touch with the audio-visual reception of most viewers. This is because each person belongs to a given culture, and always seeks to have a judgmental attitude towards the cultures of other people. In “A Mighty Heart” therefore, the continual act of terrorism by a group of Pakistanis against an American journalist was themed. Viewing a film of this nature brings about an audience participation that is made up of a divide between those who justify the act of the Pakistanis and those who condemn the act. The combined effect of aural and visual perceptions in art has been reviewed above. As this combined effect brings about a well promoted audio-visual artistry, this section of the essay generally looks at the place of participatory art in modern audio-visual art with particular emphasis to the film industry. In contemporary media, and for that matter in the making of audio-visual art, participatory places a very role in engaging audience in almost all aspects of the piece of audio-visual art work. Generally participatory art ensures that audience become active partakers of the performance rather than passive recipients. This way, it is always possible for even the actors involved to have a better understanding of the impact that they are making to the audience. A typical example that can be cited with this is the use of stage drama, where audience participation can be accessed by performers in several ways. First and foremost, an auditorium of audience that is allowed to freely cheer and boo can send a very positive signal to actors on aspects of their act that makes the most significant impact to them, depending on the level of cheering or booing that will be received. Participatory art could therefore be said to be incomplete if there is an elimination of a form of physical interaction with the audience (Barthes, 2007). I love to love In the film “I love to love” by Adel Abidin, another dimension of gaining audience participation in films is depicted by the use of sensitive social variables such as gender, power and race. This is because the film takes a very central theme on power relations and violence with an overview on the positions that males and females take in most acts of violence. The reason the use of sensitive social variable ensures audience participation is that most of these social variables are directly related to the ethnographic appreciations that the audience has towards life in general. In effect, they are force to participate by carefully following the story as it unfolds to know the positioning that the art maker has for an existing phenomenon of society (Shams, Kamitani and Shimojo, 2004). At the end of viewing such films as “I love to love”, it is possible for the audience to engage Adel Abidin in an argument even though Adel Abidin may not be personally present. This is because the audience would have its own views and opinions on the theme of the film and the way key variables were presented. One of the commonly basis of argument that a viewer may most likely have after viewing “I love to love” is the depiction of women in power relations, where the film takes a position that women are always used as a bait by men to get the kind of power that they desire. Fig 3: A Scene in “I love to love” More to the use of culture alienation and sensitive social variables, makers of audio-visual art can also depend largely on the use of behavioural variable such as humour, romance and grief. With this also, a case can be used with Adel Abidin’s “I love to love” where the filmmaker tactically uses a disco platform that is generally noted to be a place of happiness to depict a sorrowful storyline that is made up of acts of brutalities and injuries. It is always possible to use behavioural variables to win the attention of audience and get them to participate in various forms of audio-visual art works because each audience possess a unique behaviour. There are also generalised behavioural variables that are common with almost all groups of persons, making it easier to catch the attention of such when used in a work of art. Examples of these are love, humour and grief. Once artists base their works on some of these generalised behavioural variables, it always becomes easier for them to win audience participation. In effect, in the production of works of art, it is always recommended for artists to have particular understanding on the use of behavioural variables that can best get them the kind of audience they want. With this said, the advocacy and need to always ensure that each piece of work will rightly serve the demographic appeal of audience is also important. For example, when making films for teenage audience behavioural variables like humour will be more appropriate than others like romance (Oboussier, 1995). Analysis of the examples based on theories The practice of arts as either visual arts or aural arts had long been undertaken as independent aspects of a single phenomenon. This means that for a very long time, artists were not seen combining vision with audio in the production of art works (Gonzales, Gordon and Higgs, 2005). To this end, visual arts were much concerned with the production of works of paintings and other forms of drawings that could be perceived only through the sensory functioning of the eye. At the other hand of practice, aural artists were also much engaged in the production of oral works such as poetry, songs and stories that were perceived mainly by aid of the sensory functioning of the ear. With time, the place of a more combined approach to treating these two independent forms of art was discovered through audio-visual arts. Gradually, audio-visual arts has become so popular and important that the most indigenous forms of independent aural and visual arts are now seeking ways of conducting their practice through a combination of the two phenomena (Ihde, 1976). While discussing art as a social practice, it is important to define society as a group of people who share common visions and goals and go about their ways of life in a common principle (Feisner, 2000). For art to be seen as a social practice, it means art should have the power of commanding a common grounds in which all people would receive and hence the combination of vision with audio. Audio-visual experts have said that realizing that there are five major senses of a human being, it is not for nothing that the two most compatible forms of senses that would be combined in the work of art is the aural and visual senses in a common audio-visual perception (Hay, 2006). The reason this combination is easily possible is because there exists scientific underlying characteristics that create a relationship that joins these two senses. It is not surprising that Campenhausen and Schramme (1995) studied the wave patterns that both produce and concluded that both aural and visual perceptions have wave-like phenomena that makes it possible for a classical Fourier transformation to be created between the two. It is not surprising that back in the days of Aristotle and Pythagoras there had been a proposition of a possible relationship between musical scale and the rainbow spectrum of hues, which led to the creation of the monochord, which represented a divided string into two parts (Greated, 2009). Through further studies and development of the underlying principle that makes vision and audio to blend, Helmholtz developed the comprehensive theory of sound, which emphasised a complete spectral distribution of sound waves (Maconie, 2001). Today, basing on the general understanding that audio and vision are related because they both have wave properties have led to the birth of an entirely new industry, which is the audio-visual industry, which has also transformed the social perception of art significantly. Having said that visual perception and aural perception are related and can lead to a perfect blend to make the understanding and appreciation of art easier does not mean that there should not be any critical considerations made when combining these two perceptions. Greated (2009, 338) has noted that “although both sound and light can be considered as wave phenomena, their wave frequencies occupy very different bandwidths.” What this means is that for artists in the audiovisual industry, it is very important for them to understand how differently the two perceptions work so that there can be a better creation of correlation that makes meaning to receptors of the products of audio-visual art. Specifically, Greated (2009) identifies that “Audible sound frequencies lie approximately in the range20Hz–20kHz, a bandwidth of almost 10 octaves, whereas visible lightwavesonlycoverarangeofabout4–7 x 1014 Hz, a bandwidth of less than one octave” (338). Technically, using a capturing device to capture sound and vision that is set at the same range of bandwidth would mean that the resulting output would not be a piece of work that shows a visual effect that took place at the very instance that audio was produced. Because light travels faster than sound, there would be a delay in the production of sound (Green, 2006). This technical understanding is therefore very important for industry players, particularly those in the manufacturing of audio-visual instruments such as cameras. The audio-visual industry is largely functional due to the presence and use of colour. It is not surprising that the introduction of colour into typical aspects of audio-visual industry such as filmmaking, television, production of mobile phones, and production of artificial aquariums have seen various transitions with the use of colour. When the very first motion film was made, there was the exclusive use of black and white colours and their respective shades and hues. This was indeed continued for a very long time along the ages till what is now known as colour motion pictures were introduced. In the fig. 1 below, a snapshot from “Roundhay Garden Scene”, which is considered as the oldest surviving motion film is compared with another snapshot from “War Horse”, which is a more modern film. Fig 1: A snapshot from “Roudhay Garden Scene by Louis Le Prince (1888) and “War Horse” by Steven Spielberg (2011) From the scenes above, much can be said of the place of colour in visual interpretation of art. Specifically, it would be noted that in modern forms of audio-visual platforms where there is an expansion on the use of colour to make it possible for the audience to get the actual colour of every item captured in the video, there exists a better understanding and interpretation of art work than there was before. In a black-and-white scene as shown in fig 1, such interpretations as the state of plants around, the actual colour of aprons adorned by actors and even the state of the land on which the actors were standing on cannot be appreciated well by the audience. Once this happens, there exists a great defect in understanding works of art from the perspective that the artists intended for. Another aspect of colour in the visual interpretation of works of art has to do with the ability to use different colours to give different interpretations and understanding to a single work of art. In fig 2, there is a single draw that is interpreted from three different perspectives using three different colours. The colours are magenta, green and cyan light. The application of these colours each gives the drawing differentiations in the character that is represented in the drawing. What this means is that in the promotion of audience participation in a typical visual art display, artists must be mindful of the combination of colours they use in relation to the original ideas they seek to address or portray to the audience (Kinsler, Frey, Coppens & Sanders, 2000). Fig 2. Paintings illuminated with (a) magenta- (b) green- and (c) cyan-coloured light. (Source, Greater, 2009). Due to the illuminating of the drawings, differences in the character is seen by way of the contrasts that the various colours create. For instance the magenta colour shows the greates contrast, making the first picture stand out from the remaining two. Again, there is the presence of red colour in all three colour illumination but the dominance of magenta and green makes the red colour clearer in areas such as forehead and under the eyes on the left hand picture and above the temple on the right hand picture dominate, but in the last picture, which is picture C, the red colour is showed as black (Greater, 2009). Conclusion In conclusion, let us ask ourselves this question for further discussion: “how deficient would art work be if they were all presented from the perspective of the artist without a thought of the audience and how they would participate in mind?” With this question answered, the importance of participatory art will be exemplified. In most cases audio-visual art works are seen as the result of artists’ unique talents and gift. They therefore present these works as refined products, living very little room for the works they produce to be critiqued or evaluated before they become public. A measure of the level of participation of the audience therefore serves as a very strong basis for assessing and analysing the genuine opinions of the works of art that are produced. In effect, participatory art opens the artists up for public feedback to be received, as well as an assessment of the work that they produce. Based on the kind of feedback that the audience participation sends therefore, it is possible for the artists to make any necessary adjustments and changes to future productions. It can also be said that whenever audience become part of a piece of art work, the level of passion that the work carries becomes different. In sum, participatory art is an avenue for making audio-visual art enjoying. References Barthes R. 2007. Image music text. London: Hill and Wang Calvert GA, and Lewis JW. 2004. Hemodynamic studies of audiovisual interactions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Campenhausen C and Schramme J. 1995. 100 years of Benham’s top in colour science. Perception 24(6), pp. 695–717. Feisner EA. 2000. Colour. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd Gonzales J, Gordon K, and Higgs M. 2005. Christian marclay. Phaidon Press Limited. Greater M. 2011. The nature of sound and vision in relation to colour. Optics & Laser Technology 43, pp. 337–347 Green O. 2006. More than ‘just a hammer’: critical techniques in electroacoustic practice. London: Department of Music. Hay K. 2006. Sound: The neglected art in theatre, Edge Hill and Leeds University; Paper from conference: sound as Art, blurring of the boundaries, University of Aberdeen. Ihde D. 1976. Listening and voice: a phenomenology of sound. Ohio: Ohio University Press Kinsler LE, Frey RA, Coppens AB & Sanders JV. 2000. Fundamentals of acoustics. New York: Wiley Maconie R. 2001. Stockhausen on music: lectures and interviews. London: Marion Boyars Publishers Oboussier C. 1995. Synaesthesia in cixous and barthes, Nottingham: University of Nottingham. Shams L, Kamitani Y and Shimojo S. 2004. Modulations of visual perception by sound. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Read More