Before, I posted about music and mapping. Originally I wanted to connect songs and geographical locations based on memory. But, that really doesn’t serve a purpose. So what if that can be done. It’s pretty much a known fact isn’t it? Music brings you back to a place.
But Amy sort of helped me clarify my thought process a little, the idea of music and mapping. I first became interested in the topic when I took printed books with Aleanna. The project was to map out a sound visually, based on what we heard. I think this is an interesting concept, to combine sound and print. The only time music makes an appearance on print is sheet music and lyrics. But to those who can’t read music can’t comprehend the sound by looking at sheet music.
So where does this leave me? Visualizing music. Mapping and visualizing music in the sense of what it sounds like. Using shapes and curves to give the viewer a sense of what the sound is. This can be enhanced even further by listening and viewing this at the same time (my interest in infographic like designs will come in handy here).
What will the content be? I’ve considered analyzing my top favorite songs this way. Comparing the tempo, key, and visualization of the song can help determine whether or not if there is a relationship between songs I like. Another thing I considered was analyzing the top song from each year (based on the top 40/past 40 years?). Is there a constant relationship between these songs? Can this relationship actually be seen through a mapping of each song?
Why visual? One can argue that you can hear similarities through sound. I disagree. Seeing the visual on paper can give a different perspective to the song(s).
I’ve been looking at Edward Tufte’s book all weekend. Although there isn’t music in it, he gives great insight into the proportion and scale of line weight and lettering. Elements look better together when their relative proportions are in balance. There needs to be a “visual linkage between elements”. Safe to say this book will definitely come in handy when designing these pages.
Material wise I’m looking to make a book with these songs. It’ll make a nice collection of them. I’d love to make some posters as well. These can serve as beautiful band posters featuring the song visualized.