The Book AsMain MenuA Repository of InformationA PerformanceA JourneyJessie CarterA Conceptual Playground for Choice(sagesolar, 2014, “The king of hearts”)A Medium for Universal LanguageA Phenomenal ReadingA Relationship Between Recto and VersoA Vision of the FutureA Repository of LanguageKate Aberman74d96e55dd29b74bef0e0a20c2d79e879fab26ccEmmie Banksd3c00922e17d33400599c8143d1d353f7d36ea7aJessie Cartera6f04f02805133baaf416ab9fcd9a4a2b857b080Deanna Fayed2f0ded76fb9215a15ea7a11b638a892a604843bfGabby Huberta3f266b029aa2bada1c10fd4a31317d37a1bec9dKatherine King6125a92332113f4973e618b8e428aac70a6ed790Carol Leea596a4440954bb8282b044cb431f3d2b8a9a8e75Sarah Richmanbeb66f0b62cd0c55d75ac46cfcf447f52ffe6aa8Matthew Winz5800f51dc1a62f1d2397973f41e4b16a521351b3whitney trettienf2bbb7126b60dc1bee07050dccbd9d30f12d7b2b
Scott Joplin
12016-12-05T19:15:45-08:00Sarah Richmanbeb66f0b62cd0c55d75ac46cfcf447f52ffe6aa8135562Unknown Author, Scott Joplin, 1900, accessed via Wikimedia Commonsplain2016-12-06T10:26:02-08:00Sarah Richmanbeb66f0b62cd0c55d75ac46cfcf447f52ffe6aa8
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1media/IMG_1142.jpg2016-12-05T17:45:50-08:00Maple Leaf Rag by Ellen Banks9image_header3578352016-12-06T10:36:10-08:00In Maple Leaf Rag, Ellen Banks, an artist who has recently begun focusing on the organized nature of music, reimagines Scott Joplin's piano score ofMaple Leaf Rag into a visual coding where different notes and tones correspond to different colors and shapes. One particular example that I noticed is how a half-beat is represented as a triangle, and full beats are represented by full squares, thus employing the half-to-whole relationship between triangles and squares. By analyzing the form of this work, it's clear that Banks strives for her readers to focus on the visual aspects of the piece, such as the geometric shapes and color, but also the functional relationship between the negative and positive space she creates.
I find this book intriguing because what Banks is doing is replacing symbols that represent musical notes--which is its own symbolic language--with other geometric symbols to then represent those aforementioned musical symbols. In this way, Banks makes Maple Leaf Rag more accessible to those who don't know how to read music, due to the geometric aspects of the notes that she's translated. For those who don't know how to read music, they may not be able to recognize, for example, the symbol that represents a half-beat while reading music, but they can read the visual relationship between the triangles and the squares.
However, it is difficult, as a reader, to recognize what the colors specifically represent without some prior knowledge of music.Banks states that the color red (I'm assuming that it comes out more pink on the paper) denotes the key of Maple Leaf Rag. Due to the fact that some of Banks' readers will have musical background and some will not, it is entirely possible for each reader, or viewer, to have a different experience with the visual text, either attempting to read the colors and shapes as notes and tones that guide the music, or perhaps seeing those visual symbols in a completely different way, devoid of musical knowledge.