Optical Sound

Klankenbos Residency, Belgium - Optical Sound 2012

‘Klankenbos’ is situated in the district of Neerpelt in Belgium. It is part of the Musica organisation and has ten permanent sound sculptures set within a forest. My proposal was to create a painting that was inspired by these spaces and sounds. During my initial research I discovered that sounds and colours have a relationship. Both can be compared by their frequencies or wavelengths and audio tones or musical notes can be converted to the visual spectrum of light. My preliminary idea was to complete a painting relating to this, but after spending time by each sound sculpture I realised that there was more than a direct translation. The nature that surrounded each sculpture affected how the colour could be translated. In the silence a pine cone created its own sound as it fell on the sculpture; the ravens nested outside the canary installation and made a greater noise and the silence of one of the broken sculptures was only broken by the fall of the oak leaves around it. This inspired how I used the colour, not just by representing the sound of the sculpture but also by using the nature around them. A pine cone painted blue became the visual sound of not just the sound sculpture but also the forest, an oak leaf was painted red to mimic the sound of another and I made a nest for the sound of the nature by another. These were then installed in or nearby the sculptures and became part of their space.