Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 3/12/03 Kit McChesney | acmefoto wrote: > >The point is, Beethoven "heard" the music in his head and made notations on >paper which was later translated into sound by an orchestra. What is the >difference between his doing that, and someone who can't "see" with their >eyes creating an idea in the mind, and "representing" it on a piece of >photographic paper using a camera as a tool for drawing? And suppose someone >could create a digital image in a similar way, and later "translate" that >digital information into sound, into a musical representation of the image? >If Mozart "thought" up his music and wrote it down, how does that differ >from a blind artist's "thinking" an image and using a camera to represent >that thoughts? Conceptually there is no difference. > Well there are some seriously distorted statements here. First, of course, Beethoven wasn't deaf from birth. He composed a substantial amount of his work when he could hear. Many criticisms of his later work involve his inability to handle dynamic range, esp in the 9th Symphony. He did much better in his small work. Music, of course, is fundamentally abstract. I'm going to make a distinction between "blind" and "visually impaired". There are many legally blind who can still make out light/darkness. I was taking "blind" to mean those who cannot see or distinguish any measure of light and darkness at all and perhaps those who never could. BD has it right, I think. If you have never seen light, never perceived value, color, visual texture, then working with a photograph is potentially a curiosity but I'm not sure it qualifies as anything other than performance art. If I hear "politically correct" again in this context I'll barf. Screw it. Just let the blind person be the judge of the work, critique it, and improve it based upon critiques of the blind. I think it's no different than having me attempt elegant mathematics. I KNOW I no appreciation for it and no ability and no insight into it. I'm "blind" to it. It's just a fact of life. Adam Bridge - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html