Denman Ross: An Early Theory of Perceptual Correspondences of Sound and Visual Qualities

and the VFAIR directs attention toward the ‘event’. If an ‘event’ is merely an abstraction that provides a useful model for dividing up experience , which is continuous, the viewer is solely responsible for its duration . These qualities in the work have recently led me to offer the VFAIR as a therapy aid for disturbed children. In any case, the interactive nature of my art and my fascination of working with mirrors are a guarantee to me that my work will continue to evolve as I explore the implirations of each stage of develop ment of the VFAIR [21. References and Notes 1. Valerios (;alouuis, “KineticA ~ I : The Kinoptic System”,in FrankJ. Malina, ed.. KincItrcAr?. Theor; and Aarlira: &krlion>/rom IhPJournal Lmnnrdn (New York:Dover, 1974) pp. MI. 2. As a recipient d v a r ~ o u ~ awards.I recently had work exhibited at the Viridian Gallery, New York. as part of its second national juried exhibition. In 1991 I will take part in a major Swict and American exhibition of kinetic art in Kiev. Rue sia, as Senior Kinetic Artist. along with five other American and six Soviet kinetic artists.This exhihition will travel t o the Ilnitcd States in 1992. DENMAN ROSS: AN EARLY THEORY OF PERCEPTUAL CORRESPONDENCES OF SOUND AND VISUALQUALITIES HaroldJ. McWhinnie, Department of Housing and Design, University of Maryland, Room 1401, Marie Mount Hall, College Park, MD 20742, U.S.A. Receiued 26 Seplember 1989. Acceptedfor publication by Roger F.Malina. Denman Ross was one of the earliest teachers of what we now call design theory. In 1907he published Towards n ?‘hemy o f Pure Design [11.This little book, now long out of print, was one of the first texts published in the field of design, pure design being the term in use at the turn of the century for the exploration of abstract language in the visual arts. In this book, Ross further developed the idea of design and transformed it into a theory of pure art, by which he meant, abstract art or nonobjective work. His concep tion was that art has its own visual language and the elements of that language can be taught as a series of exercises in pure form. Ross wrote about a system of design that speculates on the correspondence of musical and visual forms. He outlined quite clearly how colors could be equated to musical qualities and how forms could be equated to sounds and used to create abstract compositions according to elements and principles of design, in much the same manner as the computer is used to arrange music according to the principles of music theory: “By d e s i p I mean order in human feeling and thought and in the many and varied activities by which that thought is expressed ” [2]. “By deszp I mean simply order, that is to say, harmony, balance and rhythm in lines and spots of paint, in tones, measures, and shapes” [81. In his discussion of the rhythmic nature of lines, colors and shapes and their directions in terms of musical equivalents, there is no hint or suggestion of representation. For Ross, design was an abstract language and not a series of antique styles lifted from previous artistic periods. In other words, design was not style but rather a conceptual mode of relating oneself to the visual form and to the visible aspects of the world. It WAS the development of an abstract language. His theory of pure art was basically a gestalt approach to design and a gestalt analysis of perceptual process, though he arrived at this conceptually rather than empirically. This conception of pure design came earlier-in the history of the development of the modern movement than that time period after the first World War when art educators began to write about the use of pure form. But in Ross’s time, the idea of teaching art as separate from subject matter was indeed innovative. These ideas about the nature of visual forms and how they can be translated into both human and musical equivalents entered into the literature and language of art and art history not through the writings of Ross, who deserves the...