Hybrid Art Forms: The Way of Seeing Music

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What fascinates people to use visual elements in a musical thinking? Throughout the centuries, musicians and image-makers had suggested new kinds of representation combining music and visual elements. For instance, in Romantic era, color had its leading role to carry out a desired aesthetic. Even as it was in painting, the idea of using color in a musical piece was realized by the inventions of some specific instruments, like color organs. However, it can be stated that the collaboration of seeing and hearing is not confidential among musical sounds and colors. It flourishes other senses with a cross-modal relationship. Beginning of 20th century is the time when this interaction between music and visual art became more intensive. It drives new perspectives for existing arts and made the development of hybrid art forms such as visual music, abstract animation and installation art, possible. By offering new perceptual experiences, these art forms inevitably engaged a relationship between scientific developments and the culture in change.

This paper will focus on relationship between music and visual arts through the idea of hybrid art forms. Within this interdisciplinary approach, it aims to consider scientific and cognitive developments and their effects on art and perception. In this context, examples with regard to some of hybrid art forms will be analyzed and finally compared with recent multi-media works.