In search of the correlation between sound and colour
In 2015, I embarked on a study to find a way of possibly creating images by using sound.
My research ranged from purely psychological and instinctive associations, started at the beginning of the 20th century by Wassily Kandinsky to more rational approaches based on the research made by Ernst Chladni. At the end of the 18th century, he developed his work based on the formation of cymatic patterns. To produce them, he used a metal plate and a violin bow. Using the bow, he made a rigid surface covered in sand resonate and as a result, the sand would form nodal lines on the surface. These drawings were soon to be called Chladni’s figures. The same technique produces visible results when water is used as the medium and an amplified frequency is transmitted through it.
While continuing my studies in oil techniques and the flexibility of its layers, I decided to try and combine the ancient marbling technique first developed in Asia and the water variation of Chladni’s technique.
The results were incredible, the frequency’s vibration managing to make oil colour bend and follow its pattern.
Soon, the cymatic patterns that formed on the water became the engine for the creation of abstract shape in my work. While imprinting them on paper, I try to capture the whole frequency movement, but also to create multiple variations by using large gestures and sometimes superposition.
Synaesthesia and the expanded sound-light correlation
Since my work is directly connected to the senses (hearing and sight mostly), we could assume that I am adopting a personal approach to understanding synaesthesia.
In continuation of my research based on scientific experiments, I decided to also include mathematical equations when introducing the third component: light. The colour would ultimately become its representation as the visible part of the painting, the static graphic result of a fluid, dynamic mix of colour and a constant frequency.
To have a proper translation from light to sound and vice-versa, I engaged in calculations based on the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum and the audible part of the sound spectrum.
This decision was based on Isaac Newton’s 17th century hypothesis on the possible existence of a correlation between the seven colours in the segmentation of the White Light (obtained manually through a triangular prism at the time) and the musical notes found in an octave. In conclusion, that Do/Ut was connected to red, Re to orange, Mi to yellow, Fa to green, Sol to blue, La to indigo and Si to violet.
While following and combining both directions, I created, at the end of 2015, works expressed in various colours, introducing black as an indication that a low frequency was used during the process of creation.
The 24 Hz series was one of the first series of this kind I made, in which I added a couple of spoons of metal powder to the colour. This method, in combination with a new way of creating impressions on paper enlarged my artistic language in regards to shape and surface. I explored working only on parts of the paper, letting the painting breathe.
Multiple impressions on the same surface have become more present in my work, ranging from almost transparent thin layers to deep dark ones, sometimes oversaturated with metallic powder.
Other directions
My work does not position itself solely in the realm of painting. Even though my work has been focused on the continued improvement of my oil painting techniques, I, as an experimental artist, tried to explore many other different fields of expression.
Starting with sound design in the fourth year of my university studies, I’ve continued to explore the universes of photography, installation, video, screen printing and many others.