Synthesis, an audiovisual experience and exhibition by Joanne Dramko and Lyford Rome, is now up in the Rose Art Gallery.
The show is on display from October 21 – November 23, 2014.
There will be an opening reception at the Rose Art Gallery for the artists Saturday November 1, from 6-9PM.
The Synthesis exhibit creates an integrated environment in which to experience art by flipping the typical temporal frameworks associated with visual and audio media. Paintings are often taken in all at once. The sensory experience is immediate, lasting only a few minutes before a viewer moves on to another image. By contrast, experiencing music requires time, and each work has a specific duration. In Synthesis, music becomes more atmospheric, more “all at once,” with tone and timbre taking precedence over melody. The gallery space has been modified to invite the viewer to take the time to really listen to the paintings.
The creative process for the Synthesis artwork begins with the energy of a brushstroke or a splash of pigment on the canvas. The process is fluid; the chance interaction of form and color harmonizes with controlled composition. The images evoke a sense of space and motion without use of traditional visual cues.
Several different musical processes are used in the creation of the Synthesis audio pieces. Often the actual performance is not so much a musical act as it is acoustic data entry. The creative action happens not in real time but with the mutation and combination of these elements using sequencing and editing software, a technique more similar to collage than to a concert performance.
Both methods allow a freeing of traditional form, allowing fluidity and improvisation built on a foundation of traditional music and color theory to become part of the composition. While chance and technique is used as part of the creative process, the outcome is ultimately fixed in both media. In some instances, the audio and visual pieces were created independently, while others were created specifically in conjunction with one another. Ambient scores encourage a prolonged view of each painting and open up to different ways of bounding (or not bounding) both physical and metaphorical space. Longer exposure encourages random thoughts and emotions to bubble up to the surface, catalyzing associations to synthesize a new experience.
“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, and the soul is the piano with many strings.” – Wassily Kandinsky
Joanne Dramko received her Bachelor of Arts from New College of Florida in 1991, with a major in Fine Art. The curriculum included life drawing, 2-D design, sculpture, color theory, art history, printmaking, and studio painting. She has also taken classes in scientific illustration at the University of Washington. Her baccalaureate thesis focused on using color theory to express emotion and symbolism in non-objective art. Dramko explores themes of balance and tension using color, depth and contrast. Just as the creative act transforms perception into awareness, Dramko strives to create paintings that transcend the tangible surface to bring an intangible experience to the viewer and create a unique visual realm. Joanne’s website.
Lyford Rome received his BA in Liberal Arts/Philosophy, and a Masters in Educational Technology. Rome is Parker’s Director of Information Systems, and also teaches in the Middle School. Rome’s approach to music uses a variety of techniques. His work for this exhibition is almost exclusively computer synthesized, with one or two pieces also using heavily modified guitar and sampled voices. His sounds complement and extend the experience of viewing the paintings; that the same image might provide a different response in a viewer if different musical pieces were playing. Rome’s music is intended to affect the subconscious more than the conscious, to surround the listener rather than engage them directly. Lyford’s website.
Arts at Parker 