Event #2 - Dow Jones: A Solfège Economy

I'm at Gareth Walsh's Dow Jones: A Solfège Economy exhibition!

I turned in my Introduction to Finance and Marketing for Engineers midterm to my TA and frantically rushed to the Art|Sci Gallery in CNSI for an event I have been excited to attend. It was Oct 31, 2013 and Gareth Walsh's Dow Jones: A Solfège Economy exhibition was open for initial viewing. Gareth Walsh is an educator at UCLA since 2007 and creates artwork that questions the boundaries of perceived reality, and focuses on the illusionary properties developed through the manipulation and recombination of its parts.

“Interview: Gareth Walsh.” by n-vis-n.

Walsh's exhibition is a combination of art and sciences as discussed throughout the course, specifically the Math+Art section. I was excited about this event because it relates to the Dow Jones. In my finance class, we talk about the Dow Jones and the stock market all the time so I was interested in seeing how Walsh created art from the data; I could think of a ton of ways!

 Gareth Walsh's Dow Jones: A Solfège Economy exhibition.

Walsh created a real-time singing portrait shown on three tv displays using the data from the Dow Jones. He selected about 12 specific stocks and pulled their data from the Dow Jones website. He had representatives of the stocks speak “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti”. Stocks have values associated to them. This value will determine where the stock will fall on the solfège scale as well as the volume for the syllable. It's interesting because the portrait creates music... from chaos. For those not informed about the stock market, let's just say it's very chaotic if you are actively investing. The 2013 Nobel Prize for Economics was actually given to three researchers who showed through research that there was no way to predict the price of stocks over a few days, but it is possible to foresee over longer periods using calculus.

 “Music Theory: Solfege.” by learnmusicfree.com

Overall, I enjoyed Walsh's exhibition. It was interesting to see his take on the Dow Jones though I was expecting something different. The singing portrait is a cool piece that combines skills in programming, design, and research. I encourage people especially those who follow stocks to see the exhibition because it's a fun way to observe their investments and see that art is everywhere.


Yours truly,
Calvin Cam



Works Cited
“Dow Jones.” DowJones. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.dowjones.com/>.

Fama, E., Hansen L., and Shiller, R. “Trendspotting in asset markets.” Nobelprize, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2013/press.html>.

“Interview: Gareth Walsh.” n-vis-n. UCLA Extension, Jun. 2013. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <https://www3.uclaextension.edu/n-vis-n/2013/summer/?utm_source=unex&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14591>.

“Music Theory: Solfege.” learnmusicfree. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.learnmusicfree.com/lesson/fundamentals/solfege.html>.

Walsh, Gareth. “Artist Statement.” GarethWalsh. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://gareth-walsh.com/>.