Intermodal Expression: Visual Sound and Acoustic Image?

Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis

Abstract

In the article, the theory of intermediality as intermodality, de­ veloped by the Scandinavian theorist Lars Elleström and based on Charles S. Peirce’s understanding of sign, is discussed in the perspective of graphic design. Referring to the intermediality approach, which is seldom applied in Lithuania, and using the analogies of music and typography parameters, the author of the article analyzes the musical scores by modern composers of untraditional expression, radical rule­-defying typography, and herownwork. The works of the founders of typographic musical scores, modernist composers John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Cornelius Cardew, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, acoustic typographers Filipp Tommaso Marinetti and Guillaume Apollinaire, rebellious designers Wolfgang Weingart and his students Dan Friedman, Da­ vid Carson, as well as the author of the article are discussed. Applying the intermedial model for the analysis of musical scores and works of graphic de­signers reveals close links between sound and image both in creative practice and the perception of works. The author of the article is looking for answers how sound or music is actualized in the visual art field, how the visual and acoustic perception interact, and what conditions are necessary to make this interaction happen. In the conclusions, the importance of “actualization” of a work through a technical medium and further development of this intermedial relation in the fields of musical scores, typography and visual communication is formulated.