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Themesicon: navigation pathSound and Imageicon: navigation pathSound & Vision
 
 
 
 
 

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here, beyond the subjective classifications that identify ‹warm› or ‹cold› sound colours, for example. Hence it is not possible to find the secret of such a cosmic harmony because it runs counter to the current state of physics. There have been scholarly treatises about this, and even early pieces of apparatus, from ancient times to the Baroque era. [5] For example, from 1725 onwards, the Jesuit priest Louis- Bertrand Castel published several descriptions of a so-called «ocular harpiscord.» It brought him some considerable fame without anyone knowing whether it ever worked. Castel's interest was above all epistemological, not directed at realizing the device practically.

[6]

In fact there was a direct colour-sound link before any media technology, but this is found only in the perception process itself, it cannot be explained or observed, except by the people affected, who experience it themselves. Many people are able to experience or feel compelled towards syaesthetic perception throughout their everyday lives. When they hear music the world seems coloured to them, the see

 

bright patterns. Works of art then appeared to make it possible to share this with other people (cf. the depiction of synaesthetic experience of a Shostakovich piano concerto by Matthias Waldeck). This seems to be an innate ability; as children they feel it to be normal, they are not aware that other people do not see these colours until later. They then keep quiet about their experiences, so that people will not think they are mad. Neuro-biologists have been investigating these psychological phenomena since the 1990s. [7] They use synaesthesia as a model for researching the way human perception functions, and also help people who experience it to enjoy their colourful world, rather than suffer.

Culture industry—media technology—avant-garde

The opposite pole to this inner, sometimes even secret combination of music and image is provided by the media industry's mass-media marketing strategies; these make a considerable impact on the public: no chart hit without a video clip, title songs on CD for every blockbuster film, television seeks out ‹superstars› etc. We live in an audio-visual commercial culture today,

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