A room instead of a feed
Most digital spaces treat paintings like content: stacked, compressed, and surrounded by things that have nothing to do with them. Immersive mode is built as the opposite. It turns a small group of works into a scored program — a sequence of movements you move through at a deliberate pace.
Each movement focuses on a single painting by Carol MacMillan, paired with sound and a short written thread. Instead of choosing between dozens of images on one screen, you're sitting with one work at a time, the way you might in a quiet room at a museum.
- Movement-based: paintings are treated like musical movements, not thumbnails.
- Scored, not shuffled: the order of each program is intentional, with a clear arc from first movement to last.
- Built for focus: fewer choices on screen, more time with each work — especially on phones and tablets.
How a visual symphony is built
Each visual symphony begins as a small group of paintings that speak to one another in color, structure, and mood. From there, the program is shaped like a musical work — with movements, key shifts, recurring motifs, and a sense of arrival.
- 01 · Selecting the works: a focused set of pieces are chosen from Carol's archive for how they resonate together across decades of practice.
- 02 · Establishing the "key": each symphony leans toward a tonal center — bright or muted, grounded or restless — in the same way musical keys carry mood.
- 03 · Writing the movements: each painting becomes a movement in the sequence, with its own tempo, density, and dynamic range.
- 04 · Pairing sound & text: audio and short written notes are chosen to sit close to the painting, not to explain it away.
- 05 · Staging the room: finally, the immersive interface is built: a dark environment, minimal controls, and enough quiet between movements to let each work land.
Sound, color, and attention
Color can feel major or minor, bright or subdued, resolved or unresolved — just like music. Many of Carol MacMillan's paintings hold a kind of internal tempo: the way edges tilt, the way planes lean, the way color fields hum against one another.
Immersive mode uses sound not as a decorative soundtrack, but as a way of tuning you into that tempo. The goal is not to dictate what you should feel, but to give your attention a frame again — a beginning, a middle, and an end to how you spend time with each work.
- Slow viewing: most movements are meant to be lived with for several minutes, not seconds.
- Shared structures: musical keys and visual "keys" often echo each other — warm or cool, dense or open, settled or unsettled.
- Attention as material: the real medium here isn't just paint or sound, but the amount of time you decide to give them.
Over time, this page will expand with deeper notes, references, and links for anyone who wants to explore slow looking, sound–color relationships, and the science of attention.
Current & future programs
Now available in immersive mode
Symphony I · Unweighted Colors
The first chapter in The Visual Symphony — a sequence of movements drawn from Carol MacMillan's color fields, paired with classical recordings and written notes.
Future programs may explore different keys, tempos, and sound worlds — including non-classical works and original compositions — while keeping the same movement-based structure.
Sound credits
Select classical recordings used within Symphony I are sourced via CLASSICALS. As the project grows, additional performers, composers, and collaborators will be acknowledged here.