VC Projects is delighted to announce that the multi-sensory experience, "The Sounds of Color" will be held within the gallery walls of the Forest Lawn Museum as part of the group exhibition, "Shaping Gravity: Abstract Art Beyond the Picture Plane."
Immerse yourself in a distinctive music performance inspired by the featured paintings of globally recognized artist, Shane Guffogg, with renowned pianist, Anthony Cardella. “The Sounds of Color” is a unique fusion of visual and auditory experiences in a groundbreaking collaboration, bringing together the worlds of abstract art, music, and AI.
Saturday, March 9th
2pm
Forest Lawn Museum
1712 S. Glendale Avenue, Glendale, CA 91205.
Guffogg’s “At the Still Point of the Turning World - The Conscious Occupation of a Praying Mind”, oil on canvas, 78 x 108 inches
THE MUSIC COMPOSITION
AI TO MUSICAL COMPOSITION
The video captures a profound moment as Shane Guffogg experiences, for the first time, the music created from the intricate layers of his artistic process. Guffogg has what is called, synesthesia – when the brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses, causing him to experience more than one sense simultaneously; he hears color. The painting, "At the Still Point of the Turning World - Words Move, Music Moves," comes to life through a unique synthesis of Guffogg's movements, color recognition, chord assignment, artificial intelligence, and Anthony Cardella's interpretative musical score.
This convergence of art and technology, where the visual journey of the painting is translated into a musical composition, is a testament to the innovative possibilities within the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence. Guffogg's reaction to hearing the music mirrors the awe and wonder of witnessing the transformation of visual expression into an auditory masterpiece.
“In the past year, Guffogg and Cardella embarked on a journey to translate the colors in Guffogg’s paintings into musical notes. Guffogg shares, “When the right notes are played, the colors visually vibrate. That is when I know it is the correct sound for the color.” This initial mapping of sound serves as the foundation for an innovative exploration.”
Taking this exploration a step further, Guffogg teamed up with AI software programmer, Jonah Lynch, to introduce artificial intelligence into the creative process. Lynch, who visited Guffogg's ranch in the summer of 2023, studied videos of Guffogg's painting techniques. Based on these observations, he crafted a program for the AI to recreate Guffogg's brushstrokes, mapping out the colors on the canvas and correlating them with musical notes.
The result? A mesmerizing collection of beautiful and astonishing new musical compositions. The performance set within the Forest Lawn Museum, allows attendees to immerse themselves in the visual and auditory experience. Witness the paintings on display, which not only inspired the music but are also part of the current exhibition titled "Shaping Gravity: Abstraction beyond the Picture Plane." This event promises to be a harmonious celebration of the intersection between art, technology, and the senses.
“At the Still Point of the Turning World - Words Move, Music Moves”, 2021, oil on canvas, 78 x 108 inches
THE MUSIC COMPOSITION
ANTHONY CARDELLA, COMPOSER, PIANIST, WENT BACK INTO AI NOTES TO CREATE A COMPELLING MUSICAL COMPOSITION
THE PROCESS - HOW WE ARRIVED
“Cannac #2”, 2001, oil on canvas, 96 x 78 inches - On March 9th the musical score will be revealed for this painting as well.
Above (click on the image to view) AI computer programer, Jonah Lynch, shares a video about the work he is doing on “Cannac #2”.
“This gives the viewer/listener an idea where we are, and where we are headed.”
PROGRAM NOTES FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 9TH
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Shane Guffogg
My work looks through the lens of humanity at civilizations, both past and present, and views time as threads that connect all people. My visual language is informed by the spiritualism of abstraction and the realism of the old masters. These two ideas are usually seen as separate but for me, they fuse to transcend, creating moments that become testaments to thoughts that inform us of who we are in the 21st century.
Shane Guffogg was born in Los Angeles, California and raised on an exotic bird farm in the San Joaquin Valley. His interest in painting began at an early age and by his late teens, he traveled to Europe to see the works of Leonardo d Vinci, Rembrandt and Caravaggio in person, absorbing their techniques, and recognizing them not only as great artists, but alchemists. Upon his return from Europe, painting became his full-time obsession as he appropriated styles of artists from the past 500 years to learn and understand not only their techniques, but their reasons for translating their world through art. Guffogg received his B.F.A. from Cal Arts in 1986, and during his studies he interned in New York City. In 1989, Guffogg went to the Soviet Union on an international peace walk, which became the catalyst for the collapse of the Berlin wall.
Guffogg relocated to Los Angeles, where he lived in Venice Beach and worked as a Studio Assistant to Ed Ruscha from 1989 until 1995. During his time in Venice Beach, he was immersed in the visual and verbal history of the LA Cool School. His work began to fuse the light and space movement of southern California with the techniques of Europe’s Old Masters, while also exploring acting for two years with the acclaimed acting teacher, Sandra Seacat. Sandra’s theories of the interior world of the subconscious and how it manifests in the conscious world became a third element that was added to his language of painting.
The human form gave way to sweeping brushstrokes that are an extension of the artist’s physicality, but also serve as a visual bridge between the subconscious and consciousness. His work began to fuse the iconography of Ancient, Classical, Renaissance, Modern and Contemporary cultures, and the relationships among the various times and peoples. The resulting works contain their own language of sign and symbol through patterning and visual depth. They are the embodiment of human emotions while being informed by the unseen worlds of Quantum Physics. Guffogg is a multi-media disciplinarian, working in oil, watercolor, gouache, and pastel on paper, sculpture in marble and glass. His interest in the world of science has also led him to begin working with Augmented Reality and AI, where the audience can see his imagery not only in our 3-dimensional world, but beyond in what Guffogg refers to as the portal into 4th dimension, otherwise known as a Smart phone.
A final element is sound, which plays an important role in Guffogg’s studio practice. Guffogg has what is known as synesthesia – he hears color. Guffogg is currently working with a pianist in Los Angeles to create a visual alphabet of musical chords that correspond to the colors he uses in his paintings. This collaboration will result in a musical score created by the painting.
Anthony Cardella
Anthony Cardella is a dynamic and compelling, active performer who has performed in esteemed concert halls across the United States and Europe and has won regional and national performance competitions in the United States. A Wisconsin native, Anthony moved to Los Angeles in 2019 after completing his undergraduate studies at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music. Since then, he has been performing, teaching, and collaborating in the Los Angeles area while pursuing further studies at the Thornton School of Music.
Anthony is an award-winning performer who has been praised for his virtuosity, exceptionally delicate touch, and colorful playing that connects with his audiences on an emotional level. Anthony is known for assembling programs that showcase the full extent of his technical abilities and vulnerability at the piano in tandem, while actively seeking out music written by living composers to program and showcase in addition to standard Classical repertoire. Anthony’s performing career has recently centered around a combination of abstract art and Classical/Contemporary music, creating interdisciplinary experiences for audiences.
Anthony holds a Bachelor of Music with honors in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Lawrence University and Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and is a Doctoral candidate at USC, teaching at the collegiate level while also doing research in musicology and pedagogy.
Anthony’s passions in pedagogy include modernized teaching approaches that value many genres of music to adequately prepare students for multifaceted careers and opportunities ahead of them, as well as injury prevention at the piano with specialized work and research done in Taubman Technique and ergonomic piano playing.
Jonah Lynch
Since childhood, Jonah pursued the ideal of the renaissance: competence in many fields, endless curiosity. He began his search for knowledge about origins and destinies as a Physics student at McGill university, and later broadened into humanistic interests, including studies in philosophy and theology and service as a priest for 15 years. Today he resides in Italy and divides his time between scientific research, consulting, and teaching.
Since age seven he has been a computer programmer, and wrote a best-selling book about technology and human relationships, The Scent of Lemons. His data science highlights include creating an algorithm to predict hospital emergency room overflow 24 hours in advance, developing visualization software for complex knowledge graphs, and using Natural Language Processing to map the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia.
Jonah has a longstanding interest in art, and has collaborated with musicians, mosaic artists and painters, and has directed several documentary films and museum exhibits. Currently, he is working on two AI-based art projects, including the land-art Compos[t]ing project with Ingrid Ogenstedt and Ingrid Mayerhofer-Hufnagl, and the translation of a selection of Shane Guffogg’s paintings into music.