Click on Image to View File- File Size: 4.64 MB.

*Note - Unfortunately, until I can find a better way to host the original file which is currently 44.8 MB, the only method of viewing this project is through a format that has a fair bit of quality cut from the original as well as some odd distortions. However, the main idea behind the project should still be there even if the graphics are not perfect.
TITLE: Musical Muse 2 MEDIUM: Adobe Photoshop, Flash
Exploring the idea further with Musical Muse, which was primarily a photoshop collage project created from a "grab bag" of various images, I decided to make the project more dynamic as not only a an exploration of images and color, but of music as well. Using Flash as a tool, I was able to add musical clips from yet another "grab bag" of songs chosen by various students (around 70 tracks in total) to each of the individual 8x8 squares, each conveying a certain mood or lyrical approach to the color and image content.

Originally I took a look at each square by themselves while listening through the entire collection of tracks until I found the music that I felt best fit the design. For the first square, Fire, I chose a song that feels orange to me and actually talks about light and fire in the lyrics. The second square, Distortion, is accompanied by a song that has a significant amount of musical distortion. The third square, Ice, has various harmonics that sound like bells to me that I correspond to a cold mood and water drops falling off icicles. The fourth square, Radio Head, is possibly a bit of a stretch, but because the image is mainly comprised of a giant head of a woman listening to headphones, I immediately think of the band Radio Head and I chose the only Radio Head song from the bag. The fifth square, Tribal, is what I considered upon seeing this image as it looks like a type of mask that might be worn during a tribal-esque dance and there was a track available that fit this perfectly. The sixth square, Devil, felt very cold and almost solemn to me while having a design of the woman portray something out of various mythologies, including that of the devil with horns and seduction. There just so happened to be a Smashing Pumpkins song that I felt accurately portrayed this type of mood and actually mentions the phrase "the devil made me do it" during the song. The seventh square, Techno Rock, has a design that looks as though it is made up of something that looks like it came from the future or from some cyber-punk-esque world and I chose clips of a particular song that had a guitar solo with electronica music as unfortunately there were no full electronica tracks available. The eighth square, Night Life, with its twilight violet hue and mysterious figures within the design made me feel like I needed something mysterious and seductive and well... dark. Fortunately the track called "Sex Born Poison" accurately fits this theme quite well. And the ninth and final square, Funky, had something of a swaying, dancing, groovelike quality to it as the arms of the woman are flowing from the left and right in a colorful motion. I chose a track that had an intro that seemed to best fit this type of funky beat and sway.

After choosing all of the tracks, edited clips and images, I made flash music videos to each of the squares that could clicked on through the Musical Muse menu interface. At any time during the viewing of one of these music videos the user can press the spacebar to stop the video and return back to the Musical Muse hub. To finish everything off, I wanted to see what all of the tracks might sound like if they were placed together into one sound and so I made a separate flash animation that can be accessed when pressing on the word Convergence.