Visual Music: Searching for an Aesthetic

If the nonverbal and emotionally evocative aesthetic of music is to be extended to visual art, we must examine the psychology of sight and the intuitive uses of this psychology by visual artists. The structure of the eye, the nerve connections between the eye and the brain, and the visual cortex can give us clues as to how human perception is uniquely sensitive. These sensitivities, amplified through the self-expression of artists, can induce emotional responses that are more related to the form of the expression than to the content of the imagery. Works by the author and by other artists who influenced him are used to illustrate these points.