Jasmine Jones

10 October 2021

MUSIC 256A

Reading Response: Show and (No) Tell

This week, I want to focus on one of the many principles listed in Chapter 3 of Artful Design. For this reading response, I’d like to respond to Principle 3.11, Pragmatics:

    “Elements should be arranged to allow us to make sense of their purpose and relationships in the design. It’s kinda like telling a joke-- you don’t get to explain it afterward!”

This relates back to the main theme of the week of the week, extremely important for our Audio Visualizers for Homework 2: show, don’t tell! I didn’t realize how important it was to hold this concept at the center of my work until it was highlighted in lecture. We talked about how good art moves you, and how outstanding art stops and makes you think. For both of those, no explanation is necessary in order to make you feel something. We also talked about how important it was for the viewer of your design to be able to explore your piece on their own, and not just a rigid, linear path set forth to be followed. I think this concept in general is characteristic of great art, which lets everyone have their own interpretation. 

I appreciated this analysis and discussion in class because initially, I wanted to have a very straightforward approach to my audio visualizer. I wanted to create a narrative where the viewer would feel my emotions toward a subject without much room to explore their own emotions with the design. This narrative, in my head, would be supplemented with an explanation where I would explain the exact feelings I intended on portraying, since it might have been unclear at first. After our discussion I was hit with the realization that the best art allows you to explore, and I immediately had to rethink my entire design! It was most difficult for me to remain true to the concept of showing and not telling, so I revisited the in-class examples many times. I remember feeling strong emotions towards some of the examples, like the Sauron eye to the trippy rings of Saturn. Trying to allow the viewer to have their own reactions to the piece led me to go through many design iterations until I landed on one that seemed satisfying to me for the time being.

I hope that my design resonates with people to a point where it doesn’t need to be explained afterwards, and I’m also hoping to get valuable feedback on how to strive towards that goal since I feel I’m not quite there yet. I’m most excited to see what my classmates have been working on, and how we’ve all incorporated the design principles we’ve read and discussed in our own unique ways!