e-xperiment : visualizing the audio

 Ever since the emergence of u-tube, and its subsequent convergence with google, sharing of visual and audio information has undergone a revolution. Adding constructive rotations to this revolution are organizations like TED, which are doing wonderful job of sharing knowledge via online videos. As an offshoot of this technology, exposure to foreign culture has increased, and this familiarity with the ‘other world’ may be the first step towards ‘global integrity and tolerance’ which is today’s doctor order. After I came across the work of Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry on technological sixth sense, and when I heard to Stefan Sagmeister’s talk Yes, design can make you  happy, I realized that experiments with technology can be great fun and concomitantly philosophical. This has inspired me to experiment with internet, and here is my first experiment. I choose an easy path – music on internet because it is now easy to search for a specific kind of music. One common thread which runs parallel around the world is music, and internet does cater to the musical taste of people by providing the required audio-visuals. As a first step, I tried to correlate different images one imagines in mind to different kinds of music on the internet. I should disclaim at the onset, that my knowledge on technicalities of music is poor, so this experiment was purely on personal front. Probably, people with a better knowledge of music can come up with a better correlation. Anyway, this was for fun ! Ok, the nitty-gritty of this experiment was to match the music to a particular scene I can visualize in my mind when I hear to it. I made a note of the vision I could imagine all along the music. To enhance the effect, this experiment was performed in dark with out looking at the video of the song (if present). All are instrumental music, just to keep things simple. I have given links to all the music so that you can hear it…so here I go…

(it is better to open the links in new tab..)

 The Corrs Silver Strand – journey on a boat, cruising slowing on water, twilight, not very sunny, can’t see land very far off, Kerla

Origen Dance of the clounds  – lost in ones thought, body in present – mind either in past or future, sitting numb, calculating, something unveiling, Calcutta

Ian Bouras’s Latte – suspense, surprise, evening, laser (for a specific sound), suddenness, waiting, speeding, haste, sports

Trio Caliente – lots of bright light, lot of people, horse ride, chain reaction, nothing to hide, flash of water on the sea, decisive, Barcelona.

Tender of passion – feeling humble, seeing stars, something coming to end, big hall, helplessness, children, delhi, talking to a true scholar  

Neon Quinlan – morning, out doors, rising sun, vast, walking, bit of cold, green, getting warmer, seeing water from a far off place, slowing down, canopy, bandipur forest

Una fortiva lagrima – of course windy day at the sea, lots of water, pace, running, searching, change, mangalore, Mumbai, goa, bus travel, wine

Quest of Orpheus – slow, snake, karate, monk, wood, gold and sliver, convergence, growth, dilemma, emergence, steps, roads in small city, ornaments, window, Jaipur.

Dreams of Iliad - hard day’s work, slowly walking, good dinner, Bangalore in the evening, internet, soup, realize, forgetting, brushing teeth, small child, IISc

Corrs – Toss of feather – climbing, mountain, edkal caves, good food, coconut tree, wooden barell, control, fish, aquarium, houses in Europe

 The list is by no means complete,and also please remember that this experiment need not be confined to internet, but in this case I would have never come across any of them but for the specific internet search I made with particular words...hence the relevance to technology