Synesthesia video – concept/inspiration

I want to create one more motion graphics piece for my portfolio using Aftereffects. I plan to tie this video into my other project and work collaboratively to create a short music video with Sarah Jerns. The video is going to center around the idea of sound-color synesthesia:

Cytowic calls sound → color synesthesia “something like fireworks”: voice, music, and assorted environmental sounds such as clattering dishes or dog barks trigger color and simple shapes that arise, move around, and then fade when the sound stimulus ends. For some, the stimulus type is limited (e.g., music only, or even just a specific musical key); for others, a wide variety of sounds triggers synesthesia.

Sound often changes the perceived hue, brightness, scintillation, and directional movement. Some individuals see music on a “screen” in front of their face. Deni Simon, for whom music produces waving lines “like oscilloscope configurations—lines moving in color, often metallic with height, width and, most importantly, depth. My favorite music has lines that extend horizontally beyond the ‘screen’ area.” (Taken from Wikipedia)

I want to animate various shapes/colors to move organically and abstractly with the music. My focus will be on create audio/visual sync in which the shapes respond to various instruments, tempo changes, rhythms, etc. within the song.

At this point, I haven’t decided on a song yet. I may see if Sarah can create an original piece for this project, but if not I am leaning towards a song she wrote called Fog Nills (http://www.myspace.com/thepanpan)

Some inspiration for this video:

I was inspired to do this project partly from DSGN 312. We looked at a series of abstract music posters from Josef Muller-Brockmann.

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