Scratch Video a mutant hybrid of scratch DJ music and guerrilla TV
scratchvideo/theory/seeing_music
Scratch video is the visualization of electronic music or hip hop, plugging in images rather than sounds or beats. Why would anyone want to see music?
Marshall McLuhan theorized that before the alphabet was invented, human beings had a totally different way of understanding the world. We lived in acoustic space, which McLuhan imagines was "magical" -- sound has no start or end. (McLuhan 1967, 44)
Creating an alphabet changed everything. It was a turning point in the hierarchy of our senses -- looking became more important than listening, and the linear structure of writing and reading formed our new consciousness. Our eyes were now the main entry point to understanding the world. We wanted to see everything, deep into space and down to the molecular level. Building tools like the x-ray machine, we now use tools to turn things visual so we can understand them better. Part of this transformative shift was the quest to see music, taking vision into the sweetest part of our acoustic past.
Canadian animator Norman McLaren is just one modern example of an artist seeking to link image and sound. Hand painting each frame of film (there are 24 for every second), McLaren made films that gave visual counterparts to the jazz of Oscar Peterson, and the music of composer Glenn Gould. McLaren wanted to paint the images he saw in his mind as he listened to music. (Richard 80)
Music video director Chris Cunningham makes images to match up with electronic music.
"Music is the most important art form in my opinion, but I think the only thing that can be superior to it is when an image and a sound come together perfectly. Something new is created out of it." (Chamberlin 38)
Technology is creating new ways to "watch" music. MP3 music files on the web are played through interfaces such as Sonique or Winamp. Sonique feature a "visualization mode" in which a screen displays "audio sensitive graphics", which fluctuate along with the music, giving "visual feedback to the music you play." The Sony Playstation also contains a visualization application, after inserting a music CD into the console. The Playstation will generate corresponding visuals for the music, which can even be manipulated using the game pad.
Scratch Video is using tools to transform music into something we can understand visually. With digital technology, artists can now interpret music in realtime. The non-linear nature of the medium mimics the magical world of sound, using repetition of images and manipulating time by scratching it back and forth, reaching from our present linear visuality back to our past in acoustic space. It is creating music for the eye.
Copyright 2000© Hart Snider