The Academy of the Senses

The Academy of the Senses SYNESTHETICS IN SCIENCE, ART, AND EDUCATION FRANS EVERS The Academy of the Senses SYNESTHETICS IN SCIENCE, ART, AND EDUCATION FRANS EVERS Compiled and edited by VINCENT W.J. VAN GERVEN OEI ArtScience Interfaculty Press SYN·ES·THET·ICS n. 1. (used with a sing. verb) a. The branch of esthetics (Eng. aesthetics) dealing with joint esthetics, the artistic effects resulting from bringing together esthetics from different disciplines in one work of art, often as a consequence of the use of new technologies b. In Kantian philosophy esthetics is the branch of metaphysics concerned with the laws of perception. Synesthesia “is a term that refers to the transposition of sensory images or sensory attributes from one modality to the other”(Marks). The word synesthesia is composed of two elements: syn (with, together, alike, similarity) and aesthesia (to feel, per- ceive). In analogy we may describe synesthetics as “joint esthetics” c. Synesthetics, synesthetic art, verbal synesthesia, and sensory synesthesia are all manifestations of a guiding perceptual principle: “the unity of the senses.” According to ethnomusicologist Erich M. von Hornbostel this interrelatedness of the senses can be observed in daily life situations, in new media such as ﬁlm as well as in the unity of the arts which was given from the origin (masked dance) 2. (used with a sing. verb) The study of the esthetics of visual music (Castel), Gesamtkunst (Wagner, Kandinsky), the art of relationships (Mondrian, Moholy-Nagy), synaesthetics and kinaesthetics: the way of all experience (Youngblood) as well as more recent forms of genera- tive art, interactive art and mediated environments 3. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A conception of what is artistically valid or beautiful: conceptual synesthetics (Cage) 4. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) An artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance: “They’re looking for electric music theater, not for synesthetics” (Raaijmakers) viii CONTENTS Editor’s Note Frans Evers: From Researcher to Education Reformer Preface Introduction A Brief History of Synesthetics I SYNESTHETICS IN SCIENCE I.1 Synesthetes 3 I.2 Definition of Synesthetics 7 I.3 Historic Interest in Synesthetics 8 I.3.1 Locke’s Essay and “audition colorée” 10 I.3.2 Hornbostel: The Unity of the Senses 14 I.3.3 Marks: Synesthetic Dimensions and Cross-Modal 21 Interactions I.3.4 Cytowic: Neural Imaging Techniques 31 II SYNESTHETICS IN ART II.0 Synesthetics: A New Esthetics for a New Era 39 II.0.1 Pythagoras, Kircher, Newton, Castel 41 II.1 Remediation – Painting Music: The Transformation of Sound 49 and Music Into Moving Light and Color II.1.1 Le Clavecin Oculaire, Paris, 1725 50 II.1.2 Abstract Cinema – Chromatic Music, Bologna, 1912 59 II.1.3 Lumia, New York, 1922; Farbenlichtspiele, Weimar, 1923 65 II.1.4 Der Absolute Film, Berlin, 1925 71 II.1.5 Komposition in Blau, Berlin, 1935 73 II.1.6 The Sensual Laboratory, London, 1967 83 II.2 Media-Interaction – Music Theater: The Synchronization 87 of the Arts Versus the Juxtaposition of Media II.2.1 Gesamtkunstwerk, Bayreuth, 1848 89 II.2.2 Mysterium, Moscow/Darjeeling, 1911 93 II.2.3 Der Gelbe Klang, Munich, 1912 96 II.2.4 Die Glückliche Hand, Vienna, 1913 100 II.2.5 Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, 1916 103 II.2.6 Untitled Event, Black Mountain, 1952 109 II.2.7 8 Happenings in 6 Parts, New York City, 1959 117 II.2.8 Gaman, Utrecht, 1970 121 x CONTENTS II.3 Media-Integration – Composing Mediated Architecture 125 and Environments II.3.1 Loïe Fuller’s Electric Theater, Paris, 1900 126 II.3.2 Neo-Plastic Music and Light Projections in the 131 Promenoir, Paris, 1922 II.3.3 Tour Spatiodynamique, Cybernétique et Sonore, 135 Saint-Cloud, 1955 II.3.4 Vortex Concerts, San Francisco, 1957 141 II.3.5 Poème électronique, Brussels, 1958 147 II.3.6 Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, 155 Wuppertal, 1963 SYNESTHETICS IN ART EDUCATION: III THE INTERFACULTY, A CASE STUDY III.0 The Third Synesthetic Wave in Modern Art 165 III.1 The Interfaculty – A new Curriculum for Art, Science and 171 Technology III.1.1 The Royal Academy of Art, 1682 173 III.1.2 The Royal Conservatoire, 1826 175 III.1.3 Dick Raaijmakers, NatLab, 1956-59; Studio voor 179 Elektronische Muziek Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, 1960; Elektronische Studio Royal Conservatoire, 1966; Institute of Sonology Utrecht -The Hague, 1966-86 III.1.4 CAM Centrum voor Audiovisuele Media, 1987-89; Robotic 185 Sculptures, 1988; Sonorous Origins: The Flying Rhomb, 1988 III.1.5 Book III – The New Media, a Homage to John Cage, 1988 191 III.1.6 The Interfaculty Image and Sound, 1989 199 III.1.7 The Interfaculty ArtScience, 2004 207 III.2 The Innovation Project: Media Arts and Music Theater – 213 Composed Musical Space, Light and Color, Human Interfaces, Language III.2.1 The Academy of Light, 1993 219 III.2.2 Die Glückliche Hand – Geö!net, 1993 227 III.2.3 Fort Klank, 1993 236 III.2.4 Mondrian’s Promenoir, 1994 242 III.2.5 School for Soundmen, 1994 253 III.2.6 Scheuer im Haag, 1995 257 III.2.7 Sonic Acts – Festival of Sounds and Images, 1994-2003 267 Appendix: Alessandro Romanini and Frans Evers: 271 Art and Technology, a Multi-Century Dialogue Bibliography 285 Index 293 Credits 299 xii EDITOR’ S NOTE FRANS EVERS’s The Academy of the Senses is a book wanting to be three books at once. A study of the scientific approaches to synesthesia, related to the psycho-physical research conducted by Evers during his studies at the university; an alternative art history of the twentieth century based on the double paradigm of Castel’s clavecin oculaire and Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk; and a full account of the genesis of the Interfaculty Image & Sound, which Evers headed from 1989 until 2007. The range of subject ma!er, approaches, and writing styles—from “academic paper” to “autobi- ography”—might confuse the reader who is unfamiliar with the contagious enthusiasm that Evers had for his passion: art education. I have nonetheless decided largely to refrain from editing out “non-academic” phrasings or vocabulary. With Evers’s argument in favor of the “unity of the senses” in mind, I would like to propose here the “unity of styles.” Frans Evers was an experimental scientist, an artist, and an educational reformer all at the same time, and it would not do justice to him to privilege one particular writing style over the others. Nevertheless, the reader should be informed that Evers, sometimes favored the esthetics of his argument over factual truth. An anecdote may illustrate the extent to which Frans’s own “synesthetic lifestyle” conflicted with the “distance” implied by scientific rigor. When confronted with a factual account of the genesis of the Poème électronique (see section II.3.5) at a conference, he told the speaker to go sit in the grass of the place where the Pavilion once stood; then he might be able to feel what the Poème was truly about. The long history of the text that lies before you stretches from Evers’s studies at the University of Amsterdam as a researcher in the field of experimental psychology, to his lecture series The Language of Image and Sound at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, to his Synesthesia courses at the Interfaculty Image & Sound, and to the unfinished research for his dissertation under the heading Synesthetics at the Academy of the Creative and Performing Arts at Leiden University under the supervision of Remko Scha and Frans de Ruiter. The most recent versions of parts of the manuscript date back to June 2009, and other material has been gathered from manuscripts dating from 2008, 2007, and even as far back as 2004. I have reorganized the material along the lines indicated by Evers in his final table of contents, even though the first part in particular had to be restructured extensively. Part II, and to a lesser extent part III, have been largely included as is. There were several sections that Evers was unable to complete. These include a discussion of Eisenstein’s concept of “vertical montage”; “synesthetic cinema” from Los Angeles during the 1970s; a description of the Pepsi Pavilion designed by Experiments in Art and Technology and Billy Klüver for Expo ’70 in Osaka; and a historical over- view of the Bauhaus, from its inception in Weimar until the New Bauhaus in Chicago. However, most of these subjects are all referenced and discussed in other sections of the book. VINCENT W.J. VAN GERVEN OEI studied composition, linguistics, conceptual art, and philosophy. He translated The Academy of the Senses is more a “source book,” a work of inspiration, than a rigid account of Dick Raaijmakers’s Method (Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2009) and The Destructive Character (Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2011) into English, and published Follow Us or Die (New York: Atropos Press, 2009) in collaboration with artist Jonas historical facts. That it may inspire the reader to search for further knowledge in both the cold Staal. Van Gerven Oei teaches philosophy at the University of New York in Tirana and art theory at the Royal Academy realm of facts and the warm environment of synesthetic experience, which, as this book shows, of Arts in The Hague. www.vangervenoei.com do not contradict, but complement each other. Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei Tirana 2011 xiv FRANS EVERS FROM RESEARCHER TO EDUCATION REFORMER IT REMAINS A QUESTION if Frans Evers ever planned to become an instructor in the field of art the way in which students functioned in the di"erent collaborations.

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