Journal - "Finding Order. Finding Beauty." Harmony is when a network of elements are balanced. It can be a simple dichotomy, black and white, right and wrong; but nature is rarely a pure dichotomy. When our bodies are healthy, there are a plethora of things working in harmony. Same with our minds. In the art and design world, when I ask myself what is right, what I am specifically looking for is harmony. So what is visual harmony? Since I was a schoolkid, I believed it was the same as music harmony. That was my gut feeling, but I could not find visual harmony books that were written in the precise manor of music theory books. Why is that? Perhaps because we do not experience light harmony as acutely in our bodies as music harmonies. When I hear something off in music, I cringe. If I hear something right on, I can get goosebumps of joy. I have not studied music, so I cannot explain why it feels right or wrong, but my body just knows. My body feels lines, shapes, patterns in music, which in turn, I see in my brain. In the video below, a completely deaf woman had an implant put in her ear, so she heard sound for the first time. She explained that "when the sound is off, the body is still". When the sound was turned on via the implant, it felt like "electricity" in her. "All of a sudden, I felt my body moving inside." As a deaf person, one can feel vibrations that sound waves transfer into other objects, but only when the brain receives the sound messages does the body become acutely alive with sound waves themselves. The other thing the video demonstrates is harmony. The author was looking for song qualities in voices. Specifically, when asked about happiness. Turns out that happiness is sound harmony. Happy = Content = Balanced = Harmony   The next 10 minute video explains music harmony, and how we perceive sound in our ears. It explains how Pythagorean proportions are physically linked to ear construction. What's up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency and Pitch)   Our eyes have a perceptual mechanism which defines things by creating optical illusions, so we see crisper lines and vertices than are actually present. If we did not, all images would be blurred together. A rainbow is seen as bands of color, even though in reality it is a gradation of color. The mathematical order of sound stimulus, are similar to visual stimulus, and our brains seem to process the complicated stimuli the same way. I'm exited of this mathematical parallel, because I find it easier to understand theory of visual harmony through music harmony. I can test things with sound, because my body comes alive with it. It's ironically, that light waves, which include the spectrum beyond the white light we can see, can actually do harm to our bodies, but we do not feel it right away. Sound waves are harmless, but we DO feel it right away. Light stimulus I see and understand to be in harmony or not. Sound stimulus I hear and feel to be in harmony or not. Either way, when we tell our stories within the guidelines of natural maths, we are happier, and therefore more receptive to what is said. Finding Order. Finding Beauty. Happiness. Love  - It's all the same thing!! blog by Anda, October 2011 Journals Home