This is an interesting device that I have been trying to use in the same fashion for what it was designed, with a twist of how it is laid out. The standard color wheel divides up and clarifies where every color visible to the human eye can be placed on a map of how to get there. Thus I concluded it would be wise to try and use it for this same purpose.
The way that the wheel is laid out allows for the most important "heads" of categories to be displayed as new colors that are a result of the combining of other colors on the wheel. This allows for dividing the complicated multi-genric categories in authority position, for when art and music are equally mixed we get Green, or Animation which would be an artistic film with just music.
Then, the next important thing to note is that the Tone qualities of color can be utilized to divide up all of the sub-categories or sub-genre's of the staple title colors. Thus when it is brought up that there are many genre's within "Music" it can be easily clarified that they are just seperate tones, not seperate colors.
What are your thoughts on this concept?
I responded to your post.
ReplyDeleteKim's Post:
ReplyDeleteAlex’s post was very helpful in increasing my understanding of the theory he has been putting forth which I think has some quite positive qualities. It seems to leave art relatively open as there is no overarching definition and instead art is defined as the whole made up of variant parts. Each part consists of a spectrum of further parts in an effort to break down categories of art into their varying members. So art is somewhat defined as all instances of visual art, writing and music. I believe the largest circle, which is unlabeled is art, but a subcategory is called art. Since he says this category plus music can be combined in such instances as animation I believe he means visual art and is not categorizing art as a part of art. If this is true then writing is probably a sub-genre of visual art. Also could, for example, perfume creation be considered art? If it can then that would have to be a separate sub category of art because it is neither visual nor auditory like music. Spoken poetry would also be a separate category if music is the title of the subgenre because it is auditory, but not music.
The breakdown of music into a color spectrum is interesting and could mean one of two things in my mind. Either each shade of blue, to use his example, is an equally good shade of music and simply differentiates the two or each shade of blue delineates a quality distinction of art. I am inclined to think that he is going in the second direction because he marks two example genres. One is classical and one is electronica. They are marked on almost exactly opposite ends of the spectrum. Since classical is the more respected of the two genres of music I am guessing that the darker end of the spectrum is the music that would be judged better. Also the way the diagram is designed it looks like animation is outside the circle of art which I think, since it a combination of two parts deemed art, is not intentional. I think that animation can exist without music but not without visual art so maybe animation should be a circle drawn almost like a Venn diagram but with no part singularly in music only with the overlap. (I apologize if that is unclear. I do not know how to draw diagrams on the computer.)
If I am confused on any aspects of the theory please feel free to correct me.
Can art be defined as the sum of its parts? If so how do we recognize when something should be considered a part?
Response:
Alright,
before I make a post to answer your question, I want to give you the minor adjustments that I need to fill in on the description side of things. For starters, to elaborate on the things that are outside of the the three top categories. The shade of green that I put up as "Animation" was a poorly titled way of trying to say -Art that relies on Music- for an animation without sound would be just art, but adding the music tells part of the story, thus they are perfectly equal in both traits. This example works for the spoken word aspect as well, for it would be a shade of purple somewhere between writing and music (since it incoorporates rhythm and writing). This example is particularly nice though for the spoken word color would be more towards red while "Songwriting" would be the central purple point between red and blue.
As for the Shades of colors, the premise of that thought was that all of the big categories (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Purple, etc.) could be broken down into genre's of that category. Thus, in music, the shades would be different styles of music, however in the yellow subcategory the things listed for the shades would be things like: paint, pencil, sculpture etc.
The argument you put that was most fascinating to me though was the comment on scent being part of the chart. Technically I had not been considering this as part of the art forms, but I will have to contemplate on this and get back to you. Either way, how do you feel about this now? did this help at all?
Responded to your post :D
ReplyDelete(Forgot to tell ya)
Kurtiss Said:
ReplyDeleteTo start things off I would just like to reitterate what you described in your blog, so that everyone reading can be on the same page. What we have here is a reformulation of the color wheel used in showing colors visible to the human eye, and how to create them; for example, purple resides between blue and red since those colors combine to create it. The primary "head" colors can be used as the main categories of art, such as writing and music, and the secondary "head" colors can be used to view combinations of the primary; for example, visual art and music combine to create animation. The sub-genres of art can be described using tones; for example, music can be broken up into several tones ranging from classical to heavy metal to electronica, etc.
Now that we have a basis we can begin to discuss this theory in depth. First, off I would just like to point out that "Art" should be called something else, such as "Visual Art", since all of the colors fall under the title of "Art". Next, I'm having trouble with what constitutes a primary or a secondary "color" of art. It is true that Visual Art and Music combine to create Animation, but what do Writing and Music create? I am not saying the theory is wrong, but it might take a bit of thinking to figure where different types of art fall; for example; where would the Culinary Arts fall on the wheel?
The idea of tone bar becoming the tool for depicting sub-genres is pretty clever. Again the only problem that arises is what constitutes a "light tone" and what constitutes a "dark tone". I this can be viewed emotionally/symbolically where something that depicts/symbolizes hate, fear, or other negative emotions can be viewed as a "darker tone". A happy/comedic/light-hearted piece would fall under a "lighter tone".
Your visual is a very good depiction of how the different genres of art can be formulated and applied to the idea of a color wheel. The only thing to do now is try to find a way to add in a "layer" for good and bad art (maybe something outside the realm of visual color depiction; i.e. using ultraviolet rays). There is also still the question of what art is. If this wheel is supposed to depict each and every object/creation/artifact/(action?) as art, then there is a lot of things that would be hard to depict (such as the "Culinary Art" example from above). If not, then then is there another visual for the depictions of non-art objects?
Again, great visual and hope that this critique helps in creating an even more "secure" depiction of art in the future.
What are your thoughts on Massar's theory?
My Response:
ReplyDeleteAlright, I want to preface this response with the comment that I am excited about some of these things that you have brought up. I feel that the way that I have been thinking of this chart I did not give full credit to it's qualities in the display that I put up.
So let's clarify and discuss a few things:
The first point that you mentioned was this issue of the yellow categories title being "Art". Taking your point into consideration, I would argue that it should still remain just art, for I observe this level in the chart to be underneath the overarching title of "Fine and Performing Arts".
Now to approach the second question that was arrisen, to which you were stating the lack of things to fill in as the secondary colors on other parts of the chart. To give one example that I have come to enjoy, I will fill in the seconday and tertiary colors of the chart for you: Starting at Red: Writing, Red Violet: Rap Music, Violet: Songwriting (songs with lyrics), Blue Violet: Musicals, Blue: Music.
This displays some topics that could properly fit these descriptions, for they are subjects that are more than just writing or sound; they combine in one way or another, utilizing different strengths of the subjects at different levels.
Next off, to cover two concepts at once, I would like to point out that I would consider arts that apply to our other two senses (smell and taste) to be represented properly by ultraviolet and infra-red. These are senses that are periheral to the three that we use most commonly, which can be loosly related back to our three pillars (art:eyes, music:ears, writings:touch). Seeing as they are peripheral, it would be a comical extension to the concept, seeing as they would not need to be related to the colors on the actual wheel.
Next up I noticed you had mentioned that the tones of a color would be something difficult to layout according to the symbolic representations of tones in color. To this I would explain that the concept of organizing the furthur genre classifications with the tones is actually a variable for a few ways it could be displayed. To elaborate, the tone chart of music (the blue category) could be divided be historical era's (i.e. classical to romantic to modern), or styles (i.e. rock to punk to techno), or even timbre (i.e. electric guitar to classical guitar to piano to flute). however you need to display a set of categories to what you are difining with this chart, the tone chart can be molded to fit your description however necessary.
Finally I would like to answer your last point by saying that the definition of art from this standpoint would be: I am not defining what art is, I am trying to figure out what things are art so that I can hopefully achieve the original questions answer somehow.
A great conversation.
ReplyDelete