'Mona Lisa' among artwork reimagined in music for the sight-impaired

The Manila Times

'Mona Lisa' among artwork reimagined in music for the sight-impaired  Iconic masterpieces including Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' and Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' have been transformed into immersive audio experiences for those with visual impairments.  The project, dubbed 'Sound of a Masterpiece,' is the brainchild of visually impaired composer Bobby Goulder, in partnership with award-winning composers from the New Radio Phonic Workshop.  REUTERS / DOLBY VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net   Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion   Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #worldnews  #monalisa  #music

Transcript

00:00My name is Bobby Golder and I am a visually impaired musician.

00:11This opportunity to use music as a way of shedding some more light on works of art for

00:17other people with low vision has been very close to my heart.

00:21So the first hit appears there and then it throws up to the back.

00:34Yes.

00:46It's that one.

01:03It's that one.

01:34So with the sound of a masterpiece, we were aiming not just to kind of write something

01:42based on the piece, but actually bring people further into the painting.

01:47And you can do that very effectively through music and soundscape, but with Dolby Atmos

01:55and the surround sound speaker system, you can really kind of immerse yourself in the

02:02sonic experience.

02:04And, you know, with kind of several dimensions of sound, kind of, you know, with a spectrum

02:10of sound across, you know, from left to right, up and down, forwards and backwards.

02:17So, yeah, we tried from the start to think, what can we do with sound now that we couldn't,

02:24you know, even five, 10, 15 years ago?

02:34There in the back.

02:35Yeah, it's so quiet.

02:54There are amazing examples from the history of music of composers writing music based

03:21on art, but we were trying to bring people closer into it.

03:26So the idea is hopefully to view and listen at the same time and get a whole kind of,

03:32yeah, a whole extra dimension to the picture.

03:52What we wanted to do here was really to use immersive audio to reimagine those artworks

04:06and bring them to life and give people really a new sense of understanding.

04:12If you can't see, for example, artwork, how might you depict it if you're using music,

04:18for example?

04:19You know, that might be something like the Water Lily Pond by Monet, or it might be,

04:24you know, the Scream by Edvard Munch.

04:27You know, it could be a range of different pieces of famous artwork brought to life with

04:333D immersive audio and just really enabling people to appreciate the richness and the

04:39texture and the sheer immersion that's possible when you enjoy art.

04:50This museum has been working hard over the last century to get those things inside their

04:57walls.

04:58Oh, that's not good to talk about.

05:49So there's so many things to consider when you're working with artwork and trying to

06:08kind of create parallels with music and sound, because we were trying to take into account

06:15not just the subject of what's kind of, you know, viewable on the canvas, but also the

06:21context in which the painter was working and perhaps some of their character and some of

06:26their wider ideas and really draw out those emotions.

06:32And it was also the first time for me working with a team of sound designers.

06:39Yeah, so we had a really interesting kind of collaborative approach to it as well.

06:57You know, art is a multisensory experience, and I think for us, you know, we're offering a

07:02kind of whole new way to experience art through the immersive power of music.

07:07And once people experience this and kind of build their own understanding of what it means, I

07:12think it will fuel interest and excitement in this.

07:15So we'd love to see a lot more multimodal, multimedia art and really taking what Dolby have

07:22done here and building it into something that can be applicable to any artist's work.

07:29I hope that these pieces will inspire people to keep playing around with sound and keep

07:34playing around with music.

07:35That's how our creative world develops, is by playing with new ideas and seeing what sticks.

07:40That's what I hope.

08:05Yeah.

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