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Category Archives: Visual art

How has the representation of the human body changed in modern and contemporary art over the last 100 years?

Big question! First, a little philosophical throat-clearing: I don’t believe that modern/contemporary art is as radical a break with the past as it likes to think. I had an art professor in college argue that, really, all abstract art is representational, and all representational art is abstract. Any abstract art has to refer to particular [...]

How do I learn to draw?

Draw a lot. Don’t be precious about materials. Don’t use fancy art board or moleskines. Get a big newsprint pad or a stack of cheap legal pads from Staples. You want to draw as much and as quickly as possible, without being worried about wasting expensive paper. Draw fearlessly. Use a pen or Sharpie. No [...]

Is music the most abstract art form?

The Quora question that prompted this post asks: Why has music been historically the most abstract art form? We can see highly developed musical forms in renaissance polyphony and baroque counterpoint. The secular forms of this music is often non-programmatic or “absolute music.” In contrast to this, the paintings and sculpture of those times are [...]

Visual remixes

Long before I got interested in electronic music, I was a fine arts guy. It bothers me that unauthorized appropriation of a music recording will get you sued, but visual artists who appropriate pop cultural materials get into museums and art history textbooks. Marcel Duchamp In ancient times and more traditional societies, there was never [...]

Visualizing music

Update: check out my own newest visualization scheme, the radial drum machine. See also a more scholarly review of the literature on visualization and music education. Computer-based music production and composition involves the eyes as much as the ears. The representations in audio editors like Pro Tools and Ableton Live are purely informational, waveforms and [...]