Sounds are a series of exercises in sound that can be seen but not heard. This project initially began as a very casual series of explorations on intuition. During my initial studies, a good friend of mine commented that when viewing these, he thought he could “hear” things. When I first heard this, I was at first fascinated and then it hit me. This was freedom. In fine art, design, architecture, everyone seems to be thirsting for meaning. For everything we do, we need an equally rational explanation that can somehow give context to the visual output we make. To be very honest, most of the time I think that this kind of rationalization is insincere and sometimes contrived and constructed. Not coming from an authentic place. This has long been an inner battle with me. So when hearing that these felt like “sound” or that these visuals could be “heard,” I suddenly became liberated. I began to think back to music and watching interviews with some of the musicians that I adored. And I began to see that actually, nobody was asking them about specific meaning or rationalization. People tend to just “feel” these songs. It is a bodily reaction. Atmosphere.
Where this series will go I am not yet sure. But I do feel liberated and I do feel like I am working much like how a musician might work. And my hope is that perhaps, if I engage in this activity for many years, I may be able to pull my “soul” out every now and then and share with people I enjoy.
Please click on any of the above links within the ‘sound’ section to see an archive of these exercises.
©2008—2022 Chris Ro