Transcript Final Paper Presentation

Information Visualization:
Application to Musical
Alphabets
By Jonathan Wesel
Information Visualization
• “Unnatural” graphical representations of
abstract data
– Musical staff example
– vs non-visual alternative?
Musical Representation
• Standard modern musical notation is
credited to Pythagoras (Hall, 1928)
• Representation by human processing
(Deutsch/Feroe, 1981)
Enhanced Visualization
• Gestalt Laws of Visual Perception
– Similarity
– Proiximity
– Continuation
• Color
– Color coding
– Color and sound
• Visual cues
– Music and motion.
Gestalt Laws
• Similarity : group similar elements
Gestalt Laws
• Similarity : group similar elements
Gestalt Laws
• Similarity : group similar elements
problem…
Gestalt Laws
• Similarity : group similar elements
problem…
…solution
Gestalt Laws
• Proximity: group close elements
Gestalt Laws
• Proximity: group close elements
Two groups…
Gestalt Laws
• Proximity and Similarity
– comparison to similarity solution:
• Same result
• Proximity was used to solve similarity problem
Gestalt Laws
• Continuity: group elements to form smooth
curves or lines
– Meaningful color:
• Pitch ascent = rising colors
• Pitch descent = falling colors
Gestalt Laws
• Similarity, Proximity, & Continuity
– Use/Effect requires experimentation
Color
• Pythagoras:
– “Through vibration comes motion;
through motion comes color;
through color comes tone.
• Newton:
– Split spectrum of light into 5 colors, then
added 2 to “complete the octave”
Color
• The color of music (Schloss, 2008)
– Participants chose colors that were most
and least consistent with classical music
they were presented with
– A strong agreement was found between
the colors chosen to be most consistent
with the same musical selections.
Color
• Color in Music-Reading (Rogers, 1996)
– Elementary students were taught rhythm
by using notations in both color and black
and white.
– Hand clapping was used to demonstrate
the students interpretation.
– Students who used the colored notation
scored higher in accuracy as well as noting
greater enjoyment from the lessons.
Music and Motion
• Study, Barnes-Burroughs, 2004
– Students of music would follow the contour
of a melody with their head and neck
producing a negative result in the sound.
– Can this be fixed by an alternative
representation?
Music and Motion
•Suggestion
–Mapped notes to colors
–New representation
Music and Motion
• This visualization seems to solve the
problem, but creates many more
problems. (octaves ect…)
• This visualization is unlikely to be
effective because it is too far from what
is well known.
Conclusion
• Further research and experimentation
must be done to determine
effectiveness of…
– Using Gestalt Laws
– Using Color
– Removing Contour
Sources
Allchin, Douglas. "Newton's Colors." SHiPS Resource Center. 10 Oct. 2008
<http://www1.umn.edu/ships/updates/newton1.htm>.
Barnes-Burroughs, Kathryn, Christopher Watts, Oren L. Brown, and Jeannette LoVetri.
"The Visual/Kinesthetic Effects of Melodic Contour in Musical Notation as it Affects
Vocal Timbre in Singers of Classical and Music Theater Repertoire." Journal of Voice 19
(2004): 441-19.
"Color Music--Found Images and the Second Perfect Number." Weblog post. Ptak Science
Books. 18 May 2008. 10 Nov. 2008 <color music--found images and the second perfect
number.>.
Deutch, Diana, John Feroe, "The Internal Representation of Pitch Sequences in Tonal
Music.” Psychological Review 88 (1981): 504-522.
Doleisch, Helmut. Visual Interactive Analysis Research Group. n.d. 21 Sept. 2008
http://www.vrvis.at/via/.
Ellis, Willis D. A Source Book of Gestalt Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co,
1938.
Hall, Manly P. "The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color." The Secret Teachings of All Ages. 1928.
81-84.
Sources
Havre, Susan L, Anuj Shah, Christian Posse, et al. Diverse Information Integration and
Visualization. n.d. 21 Sept. 2008 http://infoviz.pnl.gov/pdf/SPIE_proceedings_6060_22.pdf.
Keller, Tanja, Peter Gerjets, Katharina Scheiter, and Barbel Garsoffky, “Information visualizations for
knowledge acquisition: The impact of dimensionality and color coding.” Computers in Human
Behavior 22 (2006): 43-65
Lengler, Ralph and Martin J. Eppler. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. n.d. 21 Sept. 2008
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html.
Li, Xuelong Li, Dacheng Tao, Stephen J. Maybank, and Yuan Yuan, “Visual music and musical
vision” Neurocomputing 71 (2008): 2023-2028
Rogers, George L. "Effect of Colored Rhythmic Notation on Music-Reading Skills of Elementary
Students." Journal of Research in Music Education 44 (1996): 15-25
Sahling, Gerald Nikolaus. Interactive 3D Scatterplots - From High Dimensional Data to Insight. n.d.
21 Sept. 2008
Schloss, Karen B., Partrick Lawler, and Stephen E. Palmer. "The color of music." Journal of Vision 8
(2008): 580.