NATCHITOCHES – A collaborative research project between Dear School of Creative and Performing Art faculty Instructor of Music David Steele and Adjunct Professor of Fine Art Josie Rodriguez will be on display in Gallery 2 of the Orville Hanchey Art Gallery at Northwestern State University on March 10-14. A closing reception will be held on March 14 from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend. 

The Exhibition is titled “A New Understanding of Graphic Notation: Dimensions of Physicality and Sound.” Gallery design is assisted by Adjunct Instructor of Drawing Caroline Sheperd with music selections performed by the Northwestern Clarinet Studio. 

Steele said graphic notation began in the early 1900s as a new way of notating sheet music for musicians.  

“Throughout the rest of the 20th century, it expanded to also serve as a method of collaboration between musicians and visual artists,” said Steele. “Our combined research between musician and fiber artist has offered an opportunity to expand the application of graphic scores from music through the ideals of Structuralism to create an aesthetic medium that bridges the gap between music and fiber arts.” 

 Rodriguez said the construction of a woven art piece begins with a weaving draft while the construction of conventional musical notation begins with a music staff.  

“Structuralism involves breaking both the weaving draft and the music staff into its rudimentary parts,” said Rodriguez. “With those results we discovered the following equivalences: the three rudimentary parts of a weaving draft are the threading line, treadling line, and the tie up and the three rudimentary parts of musical notation are the treble line, bass line, and grand staff. Using these equivalencies, we discovered that the threading technique used in weaving lends itself to a melody line because a weaving draft allows for one thread at a time to be used.” 

According to Steele, this technique is how a melody line would be notated, one note at a time.  

“The treadling line lends itself to a bass line because of its ability to activate multiple shafts (or chords) at the same time,” said Steele. “This is similar to how a harmonic progression (or chordal progression) would be notated in music” 

According to Rodriguez, equivalences allowed the researchers to translate a musical composition and notate it into a weaving draft; resulting in a functional woven art object and they were successful in turning a weaving draft into a functional musical composition. 

“While this is the simplest form of working equivalencies between musical notation and weaving drafts, there is a clear path forward to more intricate executions for both new musical compositions and weaving drafts through Jacquard Weaving and commercial looms,” said Rodriguez. “With this knowledge, we could theoretically turn any musical composition into a woven art object, allowing people to experience music and woven objects both aurally and visually.” 

Steele added “Our collaborative research illustrates this possibility through a prepared example and then explores how translating technique can be applied to other musical and woven compositions.” 

For more information on the Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts, go to https://www.nsula.edu/capa/.