
Ninghui XiongFUNDACIÓN INTERNACIONAL ARTECITTÀ no 743 · DEPARTMENT OF INVESTIGATION, DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION
Ninghui Xiong
Independent researcher and artist
About
50
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Introduction
Ninghui XIONG, independent researcher and artist for painting and installation, board member of China’s Society for Musical Iconology; visiting lecturer of Politecnico Milano School of Design; collaborator of Group HUM1014 SYNCREART Universidad de Granada. Synaesthesia plays an important role for his art. As an expert in painting music, his art innovation methodology and tools have become known in Synesthesia art study circle and with meanings in art education and design for creativity.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
January 2016 - present
Painting Music Art Synaesthesia Studio
Position
- Research Director
Education
September 1983 - March 1990
Publications
Publications (50)
Different from scientific study or pure artistic expression in artist works for synaesthesia, synaesthetic design aims to apply synaesthesia study and its principles in real design product and interactive art, so that users can better engage and follow while enjoying the process. Facing the challenges in applications, 1) different and complex envir...
It is well known that Yin and Yang 阴阳, Wu Xing (Five Elements) 五行, Confucianism and Buddhism are the main pillars of ancient Chinese culture, but almost no one has noticed that synaesthesia is present in all of them. How can we identify those synaesthesia references mentioned in the ancient texts or reflected in ancient cultural traditions? In this...
Talking about synaesthesia in Chinese language, the international synaesthesia community pays great attention to synaesthesia in Chinese characters, which is actually one-sided. As Lawrence E. Marks pointed out when I interviewed him in 2016, it is true that there are many synesthetic expressions in spoken Chinese, as well as in Chinese writing (ca...
The singing of birds and fragrance of flowers symbolize a yearning for a better life. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the spiritual experience, which is beyond description, through birdsong/flower fragrance synesthesia paintings.
By making 75 types/groups of experiment for birdsongs and animal songs and 16 groups of experiment for seaso...
Chinese folk practice in "Ninety-Nine Relieving Diagram" is about the action of painting combines nature, time, and calligraphy in 81 days starting from Winter Solstice. The diagram contains 9 Chinese characters, each one with 9 strokes. The standard practice is everyday one stroke. Therefore, after 81 days, Spring is back.
This old practice great...
According to legend, it is Fu Xi, the first ruler in ancient China around 2,000 BC, who observed the patterns of the world and created the eight trigrams: Qian (Heaven), Kun (Earth), Zhen (Thunder), Xun (Wind), Kan (Water), Li (Fire), Gen (Mountain), and Dui (Lake). Fu Xi intended to illustrate the nature of reality as being composed of mutually op...
The scent of flowers in the air, like music, can bring spiritual pleasure, as if our souls are soothed by nature. This feeling is completely immediate and spontaneous, which can neither be recorded nor preserved. Here lies its mystery. But I have found a way to preserve the feeling of the floral scent, and that is through painting
In this coursewar...
Matryoshka Dolls (Russian Dolls) are a time-space device that can be used to express the idea of time through art. The matryoshkas encourage the artist's manipulation for intriguing disclosure and deft concealment, through its interactive design and assemblage, appealingly simple and visually shapely, the nested dolls inspired multiple thematic var...
Artist Statement:
In my early work Visual Illustration of Eight Trigrams• Ancient Chinese Genesis, the 8 primary trigrams were visualized by these 8 irregular ellipse oil paintings, according to Shuo Gua说卦, one of the appendixes of The I Ching易经.
In fact, Shuo Gua is a book which tells us how this world was created (The Family of the eight Primary...
Holding a shell close to you ear, you will hear a resonant sound. It is caused by the reverberation of ambient noises in the cavity of the shell. Those resonant sounds vary, depending on the size and shape of the shells. Through this set of Sound Boxes of Seashells art installations, Ninghui Xiong demonstrates his perceptual experiment on shell res...
This is a collection of paintings compiled by Ninghui Xiong himself, chronicling his creation of painting music project for over two decades. It includes his paintings, research papers, creative tools, process records, and applications. The book consists of three chapters, “Driven by Music”, “Dialogue with Music”, and “Painting, Music and Poetry”....
As a supplement of "Synaesthesia Expression, Inner Music Characters in Paintings" (Xiong, 2018), in the paper, the author provides more examples from his painting works concerning synaesthetic composition, applying his unique painting tools and methods. During his nearly 20 years of art exploration and practice, these tools have been proved to be e...
Fourteenth-century Chinese poet Zhang Yu composed a poem about hearing the "music" of a flower's fragrance. Twenty-first-century painter Ninghui Xiong responded to the poem by creating his visual impression of the fragrance in a painting called "Homage to Zhang Yu". In this workshop, participants are invited to offer their own somatic sensory respo...
Synesthesia is a term used to describe a set of cognitive states related to the union of senses. It is well known that synesthesia plays an important role in art and it is deeply rooted in all related disciplines of arts. But in art education, in China, it is still a new thing without a complete system. Based on contemporary synesthesia study and i...
Esta edición del Congreso Internacional de Sinestesia, Ciencia y Arte 2022, por primera vez, presenta un tema novedoso, sin excluir las líneas de investigación y estudio que siempre se ofrecen en nuestros congresos, con el fin de profundizar en los estudios sobre la sinestesia siguiendo una clave común específica:
El reto digital/físico
Sin duda,...
I Ching (Book of Changes) is an ancient Chinese divination text, one of the oldest Chinese classics. It was the first effort of human mind to place itself within the universe (Wilhelm, Baynes, eds.,1977). Zhou Yi, the version of I Ching available nowadays was traditionally ascribed to King Wen of Zhou in the period of Western Zhou (1000–750 BC). I...
During 2012-2019, the author took part in some public charity activities organized by some institutions. One of the items is to promote students’ synaesthesia awareness in schools in remote or poor regions. Unlike the usual synesthesia surveys, the author used cross-sensory and synesthesia collective games for all students (synaesthete and non-syna...
This presentation has included author’s Bach Cube Art Installation series (Ver 4th and 5th ) which are aiming to integrate music visualization and emotion expression together for the music “Sheep May Safely Graze” from Recitative & Aria in BACH’s Cantata BWV 208. Following the music, each side of Bach Cube is shown colorful landscape on Bach’s face...
Classic Chinese philosophy believes that the primary state of the universe is Qi (气), the constant movement of which produces all the things in the universe, including life. People in ancient China thought that the accumulation of Qi would produce life while the dispersion and vanishing of Qi would put an end to life. Qi is very active and in const...
There are many interesting stories about ancient Chinese constellations. They reflect ancient people’s understanding of nature as well as their worship for nature, especially about how planets/ stars could mirror daily and social life, the traditional culture mindset. Among them, stories related to the Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿) in the ecliptic a...
There exists a kind of mysterious relationship between music scales and calendars. There are 12 months in a year and 12 notes in the chromatic scale (as one octave). Moreover, there are 7 long months and 5 short ones and similarly, there are 7 white and 5 black keys in each octave on the piano keyboard. More interestingly, if we place the 12 octave...
Where did the Yin Yang Diagram come from? Many explanations today are quite abstract. Is there any intuitive thinking from a human point of view? In this short sequence, the author would like to present his visual sculpture – based on the changes of day time and night time through the seasons, the Yin Yang Staircase we walk. From this comes his ide...
Seasons and Body Organs Correspondent Pattern was designed by the author, as a brief summary of the Five Elements Theory concerning seasons and body organs correspondent relations, according to the Yellow Emperor’s Inner (Neijing), the most important ancient text in Chinese medicine. The Neijing beliefs that disease was caused by demonic influences...
Visual elements can create many cross modal meanings. This is a special quality found in all human beings, especially within the imagination of artists and poets. The author's research, along with his art, is to reveal the power of subconsciousness caused by ordinary life experiences, and present it in the form of art.
To bring the holistic cross modality correspondence into product or service design, so called “synaesthesia thinking”, is more important in Digital Culture today. “One channel thinking” is harmful. This set of tool is to support collecting user’s initial feedback during prototype design process. It can be used not only in music visualization design...
In the art installation, the author endeavored to demonstrate time change in a year with colourful Domino.1) 365 tiles representing 365 days in a year according to Chinese lunar calendar with the 5 basic colours (blue/green, red, yellow, white and black) for the 5 Seasons (Spring, Summer, Long Summer, Autumn and Winter); 2) The set of tiles represe...
Why not try this game at your friend gatherings?
Days become longer after the Winter Solstice. During that period the most active living things in nature I observe are birds. They are sensitive to the changes in nature. According to ancient Chinese culture, their behavior may forecast things in the coming year…It is quite interesting to listen to the singing of birds. But here, I would like to do...
In this typical visual music case study, the author presents his series artworks “The Cube” he made in the period of July 2018 – January 2019 in forms other than video in order to demonstrate how music translation from sound to visuals might be achieved. “The Cube” inspired by BACH’s Sheep May Graze Safely, including 1) 3D painting, 2) 4 blocks ins...
The sequence is prepared for the author’s demo video “visual performance installation for Rhapsody in Blue”. As a real art practice of Ninghui’s music visualization theory “music space synaesthesia hyperstructure" through "music synaesthesia fishbone analysis”, this prototype installation could be the starting point for Ninghui’s new series of art...
This presentation shows evidence of interest in synesthetic perception in ancient China, as represented in the Ming Dynasty poem, “The Pavilion for Listening to Fragrance” by Zhang Yu (1333—1385). Both the original poem in Chinese and its English translation are included. The presentation also refers to a series of paintings “Homage to Zhangyu” by...
In his paper “Synaesthesia in China 2016/2017” presented on VI Congress Internationa Synesthesia, Science and Art, May 2018. Ninghui Xiong, the first author highlighted his Synaesthesia awareness tools and methodology application in design: “Synaesthesia Fishbone Graph” and “Synaesthesia Design Principle”. In Feb 2019, the author worked out a set o...
In 2018, I proposed a Synaesthesia test to further ask whether the sound Kiki /Bouba would change if color or texture of shapes are changed. If some students can clearly identify the difference, they might be the one with synaesthesia tendency. For those who are not sure, provide them with some sound of instruments like trumpet, clarinet, violin or...
There is a long history of artistic synaesthesia in Chinese culture, but it lacks systematic and scientific research. Some Chinese scholars and artists realized this and began to investigate. By collaboration with Artecitta, Granada University and local Chinese universities and institutes, supported by ASA, UKSA and IASAS, they took the opportunity...
In Chinese culture tradition, poetic vision in the music, music and vision in the poem, music and vision in Chinese calligraphy, music and poem in Chinese painting and garden, it is difficult to separate them. Can we do such exercise in current art education? In Beijing No.24 middle school, the project team developed a new way of education from sin...
As an opposite process of music synaesthesia visualization in art (XIONG, DING, eds., 2015a), similarly, the true work of visual art is not just a pure object displayed in space. It is a combination of synaesthesia senses and emotion, which generates a kind of inner music: tempo, rhythm, melody, timbre, tonality, dynamics, musical texture, etc.. In...
As an opposite process of music synaesthesia visualization in art (XIONG, DING, eds., 2015a), similarly, the true work of visual art is not just a pure object displayed in space. It is a combination of synaesthesia senses and emotion, which generates a kind of inner music: tempo, rhythm, melody, timbre, tonality, dynamics, musical texture, etc.. In...
There is a long history of artistic synaesthesia in Chinese culture, but it lacks systematic and scientific research. Some Chinese scholars and artists realized this and began to investigate. By collaboration with Artecitta, Granada University and local Chinese universities and institutes, supported by ASA, UKSA and IASAS, they took the opportunity...
In 1928, the French composer Maurice Ravel composed his most famous musical composition. Ravel's Boléro can induce many synaesthetic experiences: visual, kinesthetic, haptic and even taste or smell. A simple workshop facilitated by Ninghui XIONG supported by the Congress Committee, attendees of the VI International Congress Synaesthesia, Science an...
In 1928, the French composer Maurice Ravel composed his most famous musical composition. Ravel's Boléro can induce many synaesthetic experiences: visual, kinesthetic, haptic and even taste or smell. A simple workshop facilitated by Ninghui XIONG supported by the Congress Committee, attendees of the VI International Congress Synaesthesia, Science an...
The International Association of Synaethetes, Artists, and Scientists (IASAS) is delighted to announce our 2017 events, scheduled for this coming autumn in lovely Los Angeles, California.The IASAS board of directors has worked diligently to foster collaboration with the Art|Sci Center on the University of California, Los Angeles campus.
IASAS boar...
How can one transfer music to visual art? As an artist, the author uses his synaesthetic experiences to visualize classical music. This has become the main part of his art language. In this paper, the author presents his visual artworks in forms other than video in order to demonstrate how music translation from sound to visuals might be done. He w...
In contemporary art today, there is a tendency in visual art with music or visual music. For the relevant methodology and way of expression, it has been within the scope of author’s study. Synaesthesia thinking is the key during the art process involving cross-modal perception. You may aware of those impressive poems from ancient China, such as “Qi...
In contemporary art today, there is a tendency in visual art with music or visual music. For the relevant methodology and way of expression, it has been within the scope of author's study. Synaesthesia thinking is the key during the art process involving cross-modal perception. You may aware of those impressive poems from ancient China, such as "Qi...
In the paper, music visualization process and holistic sensors synaesthesia (sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell etc.) with interaction of emotion in art have been studied. Two methods "music synaesthesia fishbone graph" and "music synaesthesia KPI spider chart" were introduced with their applications including Chopin's 24 Preludes visualization...
In the paper, music visualization process and synthetic (holistic) sensors synaesthesia (sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell etc.) with interaction of emotion in art have been studied. Two methods "music synaesthesia fishbone graph" and "music synaesthesia KPI spider chart" were introduced with their applications including Chopin's 24 Preludes v...
Synaesthesia had played an important role in art development (music, local opera, poetry, painting, garden design etc.) in Chinese art culture history. Case study has been reviewed through art category showing it may contain multi-synaesthesia mixed with sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, which is a special culture phenomenon. The root cause i...
Synaesthesia had played an important role in art development (music, local opera, poetry, painting, garden design etc.) in Chinese art culture history. Case study has been reviewed through art category showing it may contain multi-synaesthesia mixed with sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, which is a special culture phenomenon. The root cause i...
Syneasthesia, is not as most people think a new phenomenon. It is, however, a hot topic in various fields of study and ideas about Syneasthesia play an important role in the development medicine, technologies, art et cetera. All over the world, for example in the United States and Great Britain, Syneasthesia is associated with musicians, artists, d...
Synaesthesia is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces photisms, i.e. mental percepts of colors. And this concept was well known since Greek Time. In China art history, one of earliest example was in Kizil Grottoes (克孜尔石窟) in Xin Jiang Provence where wall painting as cel...