They way I see it, the still surging popularity of last week's post about the distance to the Sun* relies on one phenomenon; the human mind, powerful as it is, has trouble 'picturing' certain ideas.
Whether it be the space between here and another celestial body, the true odds of winning the lottery**, or how quickly the planet's population has grown, the brain often needs a little visual assistance before very abstract or overwhelmingly large concepts can be grasped. It's when this happens that infographics can be so helpful.
Now I'm certainly no Neurologist, so I don't want to get into 'talking out of my bum' territory here, but I chose the word 'picturing' very carefully. While I can't ever describe the subjective experience of some other person, my mind likes to create a sort of mental 'image' out of abstract ideas whenever possible. The distance to the Sun is represented by a number so huge that it becomes an abstract concept to us. Infographics like the one I shared simulate a real, physical relationship between the two astronomical bodies that our mind can 'see', bridging the gap between the number and our built in spatial sense.
Same as here and here and here. Infographics are capable of taking mountains of data, data that would seem like noise to anything but the the untrained eye, and construct a brand new, one-time visual language with which the mind can understand them.*** Again, I don't want to talk too much about a field I know little about, but it seems likely that our brains evolved to value sight as it's most useful sense, and therefore it makes sense that cognition be tied very closely with our sense of 'seeing'.
Anyway, I say all that to say this: when it comes to music, I'm as blind as a bat.
I can't play an instrument, keep a beat, or dance with anything that approaches rhythm. When I encounter complicated classical music I can sense that I'm listening to something very complex, but I can't understand how or why it's complex. The musical 'data' rushes into my brain so quickly, and my brain has so little ability to decode the different parts of it, that all I'm left with is some sort of pleasing version of sensory overload. Very quickly my mind stops trying to hear a cello here, a french horn there; and instead gets lost in the musical narrative that the creator of the piece intended me to follow.
That's why I find the following infographic videos so fascinating. While I believe they're intended to help musicians learn to play the pieces, to me they somehow allow me grasp the music; to see all it's moving parts, and therefore appreciate the magic at work within. Somehow by translating the musical pattern into a visual pattern, I feel like the curtain is pulled back, and I can more easily appreciate the master at work. To those who aren't musical half-wits like myself, I'm sure sheet music does the same.
I seem to remember these animations popping up around the net a long time ago, so apologies if this just seems like ancient history here. Don't feel the need to listen to the full durations, but do skip around a bit within the clips to see all the various zigs and zags the compositions take. If you enjoy them, there are all kinds of similar examples around the net to check out.
In this second clip it's important to note that Beethoven wrote this piece while deaf. While I'm not a huge fan of this piece, the complexity alone is something to marvel at.
*Thanks Stumbleupon
**You really HAVE to check this out. The link again here.
**You're supposed to treat the word 'data' as plural, even though I'm struggling against a lifetime of belief that the word was singular. Must... fight... urge... to singularize...
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar