Hard Feelings/Loveless

Hard Feelings is a hard one to describe. This project is different from all the other projects I’ve written about because it is the only fine art project I have created that was completely of my own volition. In the past, I was given a prompt as an assignment and went from there. Hard Feelings is a completely self-directed project I have worked on this semester. It has been both terrifying and exciting to do this, because I don’t have a teacher or class to fall back on. This is completely my own. This can be exhilarating, though. For some time, I have been interested in how music can be represented on the visual plane. I taught myself to play four instruments, so from the time I was in my first year of high school I have been very interested in music theory and musical expression. Specifically, I am interested in how some songs can elicit such an emotional response from the viewer. That response can be positive or negative, but it is usually very strong. Additionally, I am interested in how music and art conform to very similar rules. Both have ideas about structure, dynamics, emphasis, medium, and the list goes on. As someone with a foot in both camps, I was interested in what kind of overlap could exist between the two mediums. Specifically, I wanted to investigate how music theory and musical properties can be presented in a visual way. In order to do this, I went through several potential ideas, but ultimately settled on analyzing a song that is a good example of strategic use of music theory to communicate a mood or theme. Eventually, I chose the medley of Hard Feelings/Loveless by Lorde. Lorde both wrote and produced this song, along with Jack Antonoff. I think this is important because it means she had complete creative control over the whole process. Without getting too much into the music theory that supports this quality song, I will simply tell you that The composition of the digital painting I am currently working on is based on the chord progression of the song, and the four featured dancers are representative of the progression of moods or movements throughout the hard feelings part of the song. I intend to make this a triptych comprised of this painting, a middle piece that represents the interlude, and a final pale representative of the Loveless portion of the song.