Event Blog 2: Sound and Science Symposium 2.0 (Friday), Sarah Brandy and Jocelyn Ho
I attended Sarah Brandy's talk on "Sound as Extruded Form." Sarah is a professor at UC Santa Barbara whose work heavily centralizes around data visualizations. She uses her knowledge in coding to focus on how glitches can be perceived as art.
Sarah Brandy's representation of glitches as art
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| Sarah Brandy's "Acceptance of Injustice" |
She likes to combine her work with sound to bring the intensity of what she is depicting to life for her audience. Perhaps her most sensational piece is her data visual on hate crime, which ultimately was the inspiration for my midterm project. On data.gov, the file she created is formally known as B5GS.csv, but she nicknamed it the "Acceptance of Injustice."
Sound has a way of exciting neurons within the left side of the brain in the same way as some of the world's most powerful drugs, according to The National Science Foundation. She presented the visual with unsettling noises in the background, which really provoked some powerful internal emotions. I am extremely agitated on how the U.S. treats hate crime. Even after I submitted my midterm presentation on this topic, there was a news report on NBC regarding another school shooting incident, involving a gunman who was targeting Mexicans in his literature class. Overall her work on how sound and imagining can evoke strong inner sensations was ground-breaking for me in changing the way I perceive art.
Following Sarah Brandy was Jocelyn Ho, whose interest focuses on embodied cognition and synesthesia. She attempts to intermix the five senses, similar to how a synesthete can see sound visually. According to WHO, less than 0.01% of the world's population has this "disease," classifying it as an extremely rare condition. To bring this intertwining of one's senses to life, her performances are very interactive, turning her audiences' own personal objects into musical instruments. She had us download a link onto our phones for the purpose of associating sound with action. This technique, first introduced by Dr. Ivan Pavlov, is commonly referred to as "conditioning a reflex." I find this exercise a way for the audience to interact with their own self-conscious, reminding us to always be in the moment.
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| One of Jocelyn Ho's interactive phone demonstrations; when you tap the screen you can hear a crackling noise |
This class continues to change the way that I view art. First I saw art as a form of science, then as a wave of technology, and now I see it as a integration of visuals and sound. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience, and if this event is ever held again, I would definitely recommend attending because you are able to see art in a whole new light.
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| Me pictured with Sarah Brandy |
References
Takamiya, Tomoko, et al. “World Health Organization-Defined Synesthetia.” Diabetes Care, World Health Organization, 1 Dec. 2004, care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/12/2977.
Mcleod, Saul. “Pavlov's Dogs.” Pavlov's Dogs Study and Pavlovian Conditioning Explained | Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 8 Oct. 2018, www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html.
Fieldstadt, Elisha. “Suspected Colorado STEM Shooter Joked about School Shootings, Students Say.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 10 May 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspected-colorado-stem-shooter-was-bully-made-jokes-about-school-n1004181.
“Data Catalog.” Data.gov, 10 May 2019, catalog.data.gov/dataset?res_format=CSV.
Larssen, Benjamin. “Understanding How the Brain Makes Sense of Sound.” NSF, 17 Jan. 2010, www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=297993&org=.
Ho, Jocelyn. Tickle Bubbles When You Feel Any Muscle in Your Body Contract. Photograph. 03 May 2019. Taken from my Iphone.
Brandy, Sarah. Glitch as Art. Movie. 03 May 2019. Taken from my Iphone.
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