PROJECT 3: SHAPE / GRAPHIC SCORE

Let's flesh out, in it's entirety, a definition of shape, with the aid of some descriptions culled from Principles of Two-Dimensional Design, by Wucius Wong:

Let us first make a shape. Start with a single point (a). Then take about ten steps forward from that point and put down a second point. Connect those two points with a line (b). Let's start at each end of our line and, at the same time, drop down two more lines. Then, we connect those two lines with a fourth line (c). These four connected lines have now made something. Actually, we can look at it as a single line with a starting point and an ending point, that has moved in four different directions at each corner.This path of a line in motion is a plane. Unlike a line alone, it has length and breadth. However, it does not have thickness-- something we will be dealing with when we discuss space. For our immediate purposes, let's just focus on this thing called a plane. We can look at the plane seen above, and we can call it a shape. This shape happens to be a rectangle. Calling it a shape, and then identifying what kind of shape it is, is a means of describing what we perceive. The three visual elements that help us in this process of identification are: size-- all shapes can be compared with one another in terms of how large or how small they are; color-- we are able to perceive a shape separate from what surrounds it, through color, including the use of black, white and gray; and, as mentioned above, texture.

Now, the lines that form the edges of a plane or planar form, may have different characteristics that determine what kind of shape you will have. Based upon these different characteristics, the following is a listing of shape-types:

1) Geometric-- mathematically constructed.
2) Organic-- defined by free-flowing curves.
3) Rectilinear-- defined by straight lines not mathematically constructed.
4) Irregular-- defined by straight and curved lines not constructed mathematically.
5) Hand-drawn-- created by the hand without the aid of tools.
6) Accidental-- the specific result of a particular material in conjunction with chance.

Here are some examples (with matching numbers) courtesy of Mr. Wong:

It should also be noted, as some of you may have discovered in your previous projects, that planar forms/shapes can be suggested or implied with points and/or lines grouped together or arranged in rows, as well as by means of a simple outline.

Now that we have identified the six different types of shape, we can begin using shapes. 

Let's first lay the groundwork for where and how you will be using these shapes in a series of elementary relationships. Mentioned at the beginning of the semester, was the concept of the picture plane. The picture plane, just as in the concept of the plane discussed above, is determined by boundaries, and is a working area or zone for you. The picture plane exists within something called the framal reference, which is the outermost boundary of your design. Consider the framal reference the edges of your bristol board or illustration board. The picture plane is therefore the area or areas that can me marked off within the framal reference, for you to work within, and can be smaller than, or the same size as your framal reference.

It is within your picture plane that you will create shapes, and it is within the picture plane that you will determine how your shapes exist, using what are called the relational elements. These are elements that determine placement and how how shapes interact or relate with one another:

1) Direction-- Determined by how it relates to the viewer, to the frame it is within, or to shapes near it.
2) Position-- Determined by its relationship to the frame o

r the structure of the design.
3) Space-- As a rule, all shapes occupy space. Therefore, space is either occupied or not. it either contains shape, or it is empty. Space can be flat, as we will be dealing with in this project, or it can have depth by illusory means (as we will be dealing with later).

4) Gravity-- Gravity is something that is felt, not visualized. This is determined by a sense of lightness or heaviness, stability or instability associated with individual shapes or shapes existing in groups.

In your first two projects, you have already been dealing with the relational elements as we have approached viewing a work with thoughts or feelings concerning all four of the above issues. Now you need to bring a greater emphasis and focus on them when planning all of your subsequent projects.

And now for project # 3. Pay close attention to the guidelines, as there are many more conceptual, in addition to visual, issues to consider. 1) Create what we will call a shape index. On your sketchbook or gridded paper, you need to plan out at least five examples of each of the shape-types mentioned above. I recommend that you divide your paper up into six sections for each type, and sketch out all of the types that you can think of. Then carefully choose five from each section that you are satisfied with. Your selection process must be determined by whether or not your shape type adheres to the characteristics identified for each type. After you have chosen five shapes for each of the listed types, you will draw them lightly in pencil, grouped according to type, in six straight horizontal rows, on an 10 x 10 inch sheet of bristol card. Measure out six rows first, and then draw them in. After you have drawn them in, you will then take your smallest brush, and you will very carefully color each shape in with your black pen/marker. It should go without saying, that you need to keep your white areas clean and free of unnecessary marks. Here is a student example of a shape index:

2) After making your shape index, you will then return to your sketchbook or gridded paper, and, using your shape index, you will compose a graphic score. What is a graphic score? A graphic score is a means of composing music that does not use traditional notation. Meaning, instead of music notes resting on a five-line staff that represent individual sounds to play, there are shapes on a page with each shape representing a sound, to be interpreted by a performer. So, how are you going to go about making a composition? First, identify each shape with a sound. It does not have to be a musical sound. For instance, one shape could be a car horn, another could be clapping hands, and yet another could be a cough. Once you have identified each shape with a sound, written below the corresponding shape on your index, you may then set about composing a graphic score in which all of these shape/sounds are placed into relationship with one another so that when you read it back to yourself, not only can you see the shapes, but you can imagine a work of sound. Unlike your shape index, your graphic score should be utilizing your shapes with full consideration paid to the relational elements. This means that the position and direction of your shapes should all be changing. Consider the space between shapes, gravity, repetition-- many of the same shapes may be repeated. Consider also the size of the shape in relation to how loud or how soft the sound it represents may be. A shape may be very large in one part of your composition, and yet that same shape may be smaller somewhere else, based upon its  loudness.

NOTE: You may also incorporate point and line, in relation to your shapes, within your score.

So, after you have arrived at what should be a very complex reorganization of all of your shapes in the form of a graphic score, you will need to place that composition onto a sheet of 10 x 10 inches (or larger) bristol card. Again, lay the shapes out lightly in pencil, and then very carefully color them in using your black pen/marker. Here is an example of how the student who made the shape index shown above, created a graphic score using that same shape index:

And here is another student shape index + graphic score:

You may also consider the aid of a computer to plan your score, by generating shapes digitally and creating the composition as a large digital print. You may also create the shapes digitally, each at a different scale, print them out, and then using a lightbox, trace the shapes into a composition onto bristol board with pencil, to then carefully ink.

DUE THURSDAY, MARCH 2nd.

GENERATIVE MUSIC

From the website Generative Music:

"Trope, designed by ambient pioneer Brian Eno and musician / software designer Peter Chilvers, expands further on the ideas introduced by Bloom, their acclaimed iPhone application. Darker in tone, Trope immerses users in endlessly evolving soundscapes created by tracing abstract shapes onto the screen, varying the tone with each movement. Recommended for headphones and external speakers."

Trope, by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers:

On "Scape":

Scape makes music that thinks for itself. From Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers, creators of Bloom, Scape is a new form of album which offers users deep access to its musical elements. These can be endlessly recombined to behave intelligently: reacting to each other, changing mood together, making new sonic spaces.

Can machines create original music? Scape is our answer to that question: it employs some of the sounds, processes and compositional rules that we have been using for many years and applies them in fresh combinations, to create new music. Scape makes music that thinks for itself.

- Brian Eno, Peter Chilvers

CORNELIUS CARDEW: TREATISE

GYORGY LIGETI: ARTIKULATION

A visual transcription of composer Gyorgy Ligeti's Artikulation (1958), by Rainer Wehinger.

GRAPHIC SCORES

An alternative form of music notation.


Images (from top to bottom): 1. - 4. Score excerpts from 'Treatise' (1963 - 1967) composed by Cornelius Cardew; 5. Score to the ballet 'Ornamentik' (1968) composed by Tom Phillips; Score to 'Music for Airports' (1978) composed by Brian Eno; Score to 'Digital Sensation No. 1' (2007) composed by Scott Wollschleger.