The Audiovisual Experience

Pierre Schaeffer stated that linking music with an image is more complicated than linking a single sound to an image, as there is no cause and effect relationship between what is seen and what is heard1. If a simple sound is paired with its accompanying visual cause, there is an obvious basis in reality for the two stimuli to become fused together. However, with music, the realistic joining of audio and visual elements does not occur, instead the two are fused together in a wholly different way. The relationship between music and the image has a much stronger basis in subjective emotional and aesthetic responses than in realistic objectivity, causing the simultaneous perception of musical audio and imagery to create a whole new experience entirely; the audiovisual experience. Read More