Synesthesia is very commonly seen in contemporary art and I think it plays an even bigger role in the context of live coding. In the narrative of the artist-musician/musician artist, being able to interact with one form of sense as an artist and another as a musician becomes particularly potent when the tools themselves facilitate this blend.
Abstract motifs in music and visuals and especially the idea of counterpoint in visuals as well as musically is something that I would look into as a tool for expression, as artists sought a universal language beyond representation. Just as musical counterpoint involves the interplay of independent melodic lines, visual counterpoint can be looked at through the juxtaposition and interaction of distinct visual elements like colour, form, or rhythm within a composition like Hans Richter’s work.
Programming personality that moved into music. This is something we see greatly in the live coding community, again going back to Orca and Devine Lu Linvega from earlier in the semester, we see a lot of individuals being really good programmers and creating tools that help them bring musical ideas and motifs they inherit. The ability as a programmer to be able to wield coding languages as instruments for their artistic voice have made these individuals really good musicians/performers too. So in a sense in the scope of live coding, it goes beyond just touching on the two disciplines but for one ability to really be able to nourish the other.
In the very wide scope of topics that the article covers, art as an expression and art as a tool for fun is explored. Like in Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) there is one section where the dance looks entirely performative, while this may be besides the point. I think its very cool to see the performative side of the English club scene, in the same way as there are youtube tutorials on how to dance at a rave.
The reading challenges the traditional separation between artistic disciplines by showing how deeply interconnected music and visual art have become, particularly through the lens of artist-musicians. What stood out to me was how necessity, personal affinity, and cultural shifts dissolve the boundary between “art” and “music” as fixed identities. It becomes clear that being an artist today often means being multidisciplinary by default — especially as digital tools and cultural platforms blur creative categories. The reflection this invites is that creativity is not just about mastering a medium, but about navigating between them. In many cases, the most radical or resonant work emerges not from staying in one lane, but from embracing the ambiguity and hybrid nature of contemporary artistic identity. It prompts a reevaluation of authorship, originality, and even professionalism — not as barriers to cross, but as areas to explore fluidly.
This made me reflect on my own creative practice and how naturally I’ve gravitated toward working across different mediums. It made me feel seen in the messiness of experimenting, switching roles, and being curious about tools outside my comfort zone. Especially in a time when digital platforms allow for cross-pollination so easily, it’s not about fitting into one box, but about finding the language that best expresses the idea — even if that means inventing new ones. This encourages me to embrace the in-between more fully, and see it not as indecision, but as potential.
This article made me rethink how I separate art and music. I always thought of painters and bands as two different worlds, but the text shows they have been mixing for more than a hundred years. I liked the story about Paul Klee using music ideas like “fugue” in his colors, and later how punk students turned art school energy into noisy songs. It feels honest when the authors say money often decides whether someone is called an “artist” or a “musician.” That line hit me, because labels still matter today even when people switch tools on the same laptop. The piece also reminded me that raw spirit can beat perfect skill; three punk chords can share a gallery wall with video art. After reading, I feel freer to blur my own projects instead of picking one box.
I was struck by the way the text traced the journey of creative individuals blending art and music across time. The portrait of Leonardo da Vinci as a pioneer of all-round artistic practice felt like a sturdy anchor for later movements that dissolved strict boundaries between fields. I found the chapter on abstraction as a means of communication especially moving since it showed how pioneers like Klee and Kandinsky drew on musical principles to shape visual work. Their view of composition as a polyphonic surface opened a new door to seeing pictures as dynamic arrangements of tone. I also appreciated the insights into how economic factors shape choices about identity. The idea that success can tilt someone toward calling themselves an artist or a musician felt candid and profound. This reading inspires me to question my own labels and to explore bringing multiple passions into my creative life, which I hope to incorporate in my final performance for this class.
This reading unexpectedly turned out to be one of my favorites from this semester, because exploring the relationship between a musician and an artist has always intrigued me. As someone who was always closely linked to both musical and artistic worlds since I was young, there were moments when I was confused which one I wanted to choose/was a “better fit” for in terms of career paths; and to be frank, I’m still standing at a crossroad with this decision. This was probably why this reading had many relatable and intriguing aspects, because it talked about how the boundaries between different categories of art are becoming blurred, especially with the rise of technology usage in both music and art — this allowed many artists to become “multiple artists,” or artists who refuse to be confined to a single category.
I found it particularly interesting how club spaces in the 1990s became the new “institutions” that acted as new forms of galleries and museums where hybrid work could get done. Reading about this also reminded me of my time in Berlin, where we got to learn about underground art scenes during the early 1900s and the evolvement of the club culture in Germany throughout the 20th century. It was also around this time when works in which music and visual art that are conceptuallyand technologically intertwined were starting to become popular, thus showing how digitalization didn’t just provide new tools, but moreso fundamentally redefined the relationship between music and visual art, as well as artist and audience.
I liked how the reading showed that moving between music and visual art can happen naturally. It didn’t feel forced – it made sense that artists would want to use whatever way helps them express their ideas best. I thought it was cool when they mentioned how Paul Klee used ideas like “polyphony” from music in his paintings. It showed how deeply connected the two worlds can be.
The part that stood out most to me was the section on techno and club culture. I liked how clubs became spaces for both music and art, and how computers let artists mix sound, visuals, and performance together. It felt like a real shift in how creative work was happening.
I also agreed with the point that today, art and business are closely tied together. Like the reading said, success and money often decide whether someone is seen more as an artist or a musician. I think that’s just the reality now – everything is connected to capital.
Finally, the idea that energy and passion matter more than technical perfection really resonated with me. I liked how punk made it okay to be intense and imperfect. It made me think that sometimes the strongest art isn’t the most polished, but the most honest.
Overall, the reading made me appreciate how free and open creative work can be when you don’t stick to one label.
For the peformance we wanted to go in with a theme. We decided to center our performance around a drum and bass vibe, however, when we met up and started our first jam session, it all kind-of deviated and became more of a robo-core or break core type of sound and we decided to just let our creative juices flow.
Mohamed was in charge of the hydra and P5 visuals, while Aadil and I were handling the Tidal parts. We decided that this was probably the best workflow as a group because going back and forth from coding in Haskell to Javascript resulted in us doing alot of run time errors and keeping track of the syntax was quite difficult.
We used tried to play and experiment with cutting up whole samples and to try to create some sharp and distinct sounds that we thought would go well with a DnB energy. While for the visuals we tried to flow into something more distorted and bring out a sense of entropy.