Experience Synesthesia: Google Tools allow you to “listen” to colors and shapes

When the painter Wassily Kandinsky saw yellow, he heard the trumpet. Looking at the red color, a restless violin was played in my head. Blue gave him a soothing organ sound.

Pioneering Russian abstract artists and art theorists had a synesthesia of neurological states. This allows some people to hear colors and shapes. Imagine a peculiar symphony played when he splashed paint on a brightly colored canvas.

New project of Google Arts & Culture Play Kandinsky Beyond imagination, you can hear what Kandinsky might have heard when he saw the colors. In the interactive tool, you can experience his abstract 1925 masterpiece yellow-red-blue by clicking around the artwork and listening to the composition of seven movements that move colors and moods as Kandinsky explained. can also do.

Experimental musician Antoine Batin And NSDOS In collaboration with Google, I researched a book detailing Kandinsky’s extrasensory perception. Next, Google applied machine learning to create a tool that simulates what Kandinsky heard when he created yellow, red, and blue. Depending on the color and shape of the hover, the work can be subdued, dissonant, simple or complex.

This painting is part of Sounds like Kandinsky, an extensive online effort by the Pompidou Center in Paris and Google Arts & Culture. Protect the life of the artistWork and heritage, by immersing you in his world. A His 1940 oil painting sky blue tour Enlarge the details, Photos and descriptions of his Paris studio On the banks of the Seine, he takes you to the space where he painted his final work.

But Play a Kandinsky brings you to life in a whole new way by immersing you in the synesthesia that played such a decisive role in his creative process. Other artists such as Rambo, Billie Eilish and Pharrell Williams also say they are in this state.

“The color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmony, and the soul is the piano with many strings,” Kandinsky said. “An artist is a hand that touches and plays one key or another to cause vibrations in the soul.”