'The Way I See It'
Music and the Imagined Persona
(2022 - current)
‘We claim that sometimes music can appropriately be heard as containing a ‘‘persona’’, a fictional or virtual agent whose emotions are expressed in the music and that this persona can be experienced as expressing more complex emotions’.
Excerpt from the essay Emotions in Music, Written by Jenefer Robinson and Robert S. Hatten.
Stemming from a long-term project investigating the notions of ‘presence’ and ‘embodiment’ through music, 'The Way I See It' explores the role imagination plays whilst experiencing emotions in music. It investigates the concept of music not as a vector for emotion, but as an expressive emotion itself. The artist believes that the emotions expressed in music come from an imagined persona, or an alter ego.
For this project, people from around the world are asked the same series of questions, to depict their vision of music. The shapes, textures, consistencies, proximities and personalities of these depictions are all indisputably personal and unique to the individual answering them. Through the information collected, Neeley creates cyanotype prints, and sound pieces, that explore the important role imagination and emotion play whilst experiencing music. The project has been exhibited at Solaura Studios Berlin in August 2023. The Project is ongoing and if you would like to be a part of the project please contact Bexie via email at bexieneeley@gmail.com.
Exhibition views and link to the sound piece below.