Abstract

In Vein Pulse and Painkiller, the audience will be encouraged to interact with the piece. When you place your finger on the sensor, connect yourself with the veins, and see your blood pulsating through while still hearing the sound of death, what does it make you feel, do you feel confused, do you feel that your existence is being denied, do you struggle, do you strive, do you struggle to get out, do you still feel that the essence of your existence is defined by your heartbeat, your pulse, your blood, and your vitals? Is the result what you expected, are you satisfied. And finally, as the led strips are moved and music plays, do you feel alive, do you see life, do you feel rescued? When you walk away from the installation, do these questions still tangle.

Research

In his book "The World as Will and Representation" published in 1844, the German philosopher Schopenhauer stated that…“exclusive as it is to music, together with the most exact precision gives music its high value as the panacea for all of our suffering.” What is it about music that sets it apart from other art forms, which could liberate us from the horrors of existence. “In every age, people have played music without being able to give an account of it: content with an immediate understanding of music, people did without an abstract conceptualization of this immediate understanding.” Music is by no means a copy of the ideas, instead, it is the copy of the will itself, this is precisely why the effect of music is so much more powerful and urgent than that of the other arts: “the other arts speak only of shadows while music speaks of the essence.” But what is music as an art form, what does music mean to us, and what do we perceive when we hear music? Themes in the Philosophy of Music by Stephen John Davies, published in 2005, argues that music is a dynamic movement. When we hear a single note in isolation, we do not necessarily consider it as music; however, when we hear a sequence of designated sounds, we perceive the movement from one note to another, we discern the relative highness and lowness between the notes, and we begin to define the music. This movement is similar to the movement we experience in everyday life, such as opening a can, waving a hand, or knocking on a door. These movements create dynamic patterns of relative highness and lowness in space, which can also resonate in music.

Technical Details