Sights and Sounds Exhibition

- John Asliandis

Image From: http://www.theartscentre.com.au/discover/exhibitions-forums-talks-and-tours.aspx

 In this exhibition we looked at works that had been created whilst listening to a certain type of music or had been matched to music after creation. It was successful fusion of two creative outlets that felt more interactive than your usual exhibition. It went beyond the material limits of art and extended into the room around us, bringing together traditionally respected visual art with the newest form of art, music. It got rid of the hierarchy that exists in creative arts. Art was interpreted as an enduring expression that lasts longer than ourselves, art can be duplicated, music can be handed down.

We got to observe how our body responded to the music, how our mood was shaped by the sound and then expressed in a visual form. The body is then affected again as a voyeur; although not all reactions to art are the same they can be fairly similar if we are told how to feel by the tone of the music, thus by the artist who has made the work. It is an interesting philosophy. Work by John Aslanidis (above) certainly made others and myself quite nauseous when we subjected to its psychedelic, hypnotic visuals whilst listening to frantic, disorganised sound. The experience was similar to watching television or films. Through the use of images and sounds that relate to each other, the body can be affected and an emotion can be extracted from the viewer e.g. horror films- fear, comedies- laughter, romantic comedies- self pity and idolisation.