Last year on my plane home for Winter Break, I happened upon one of those rare conversations with the stranger sitting next to me that was particularly memorable and inspirational. As introductions progressed and I talked about my two degrees, Digital Media Studies and Harp Performance, and how I hope to bring visual media to classical music and via storytelling engage a broader audience in the narratives that already live inside performers' minds. It turned out that my new companion had a varied background as well. Mr. Dangerfield started out studying jazz piano, but then went on to architecture school. His current job was working for a company called The Brand Experience; their clients are companies who ask ask for an experience for their customers that sells the story of the brand. Our conversation meandered across many different topics, but one of Mr. Dangerfield's statements that impacted me most was that he found across every expression of the arts- from music, to theatre, to visual media, there are about ten characteristics/goals that connect them all. I haven't figured out what all ten are yet, but I think one is the spectrum of complexity.
In a course I took last spring, Music and the Mind, we talked about complexity and preference falling along a hedonic curve. You can read about this theory in more detail here, http://www.intropsych.com/ch09_motivation/complexity_and_preference_a_hedgehog_theory.html, but the jist is that there is a sweet spot for individuals of complexity that they find enjoyable- too simple and the content is boring, too complex and it is overwhelming. The more familiarity increases, the more complexity is needed to provide the same amount of enjoyment. Classical music today struggles with how to appeal to two audiences simultaneously. Orchestras have to plan programs that appeal to both the well-versed patrons with high familiarity, but with continued funding crises they also have to draw in new audiences with no familiarity.
As I've ventured into the visual arts this year, I've found that this concept has recurred in critical feedback I've received from my peers and professors. It would seem that most people enjoy when an image is not immediately clear to them, and they have to work at interpretation. In yet another parallel, this seems to echo McLuhan's theories of hot and cold media, promoting that media that give less meaningful information are more engaging. My first photography professor said work that is too straightforward is "too heavy handed." I thought about this balance leading up to my final project in particular, and here are some images that I ended up leaving out of my series in favor of others that were a bit more opaque.
More...
Or less?
So maybe as the saying goes less is more. I think both are beautiful, it just depends what affect and audience you're aiming for.
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