MONA to host exclusive weekend-long synaesthesia event

http://mona.net.au/what's-on/events

Goodness me, it going to be quite a musical production in the controversial Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, that island hanging off the bottom of Australia (it's a part of Australia I believe). The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will be there, playing works of the synaesthete composers Messiaen and Ligeti, and also something by Mussorgsky (was he a synaesthete?) Kate Miller-Heidke and many other talents will be there too. Sounds interesting. Why does nothing remotely like this ever, ever happen in the state where I live? I'll bet if I went along to my local big marble and stone art museum and and asked a guide some question about synaesthesia and the arts, the response would be "Huh?"

I don't have a spare $605 and a plane ticket to Tassie. Nothing like it. I guess I could just stay home and experience some cheap and natural synaesthesia by playing some rock music nice and loud. I guess that would also be an exclusive synesthesia experience.

I shouldn't be too envious, because a few years ago I saw an artsy musical-visual event that had stacks of synaesthesia in it, at a bargain price, in my home city. It was Ed Kuepper's MFLL. The MFLL stands for Music For Len Lye. At the time I had no idea that Len Lye's pioneering animation films were synesthetic synchronization between vision and music. I just went along to see Ed Kuepper, and to show my kids what a legendary rock guitarist looks and sounds like. The drummer was pretty amazing too. I think he might have been Jeffrey Wegener. There was more to the evening than the MFLL, there was a number of experimental films, which the famous guitarist and drummer played along to live, next to the screen. There was explosive drumming to go with violent explosions of light on the screen (I think that film might have been Pangaea), and also a very weird bit of psychedelic cinema. I've never seen anything like it before or since. I couldn't believe how small the audience was. You put on a show that is different and interesting with great music that doesn't have any singing in it, and the folks won't go. That's the way things are in this town.