Fill up your senses at Siren's Hall

Now that you can find music on YouTube and download almost anything - trips to the record store have become a rarity.

While the experience of listening to tracks is basically the same - there is something infinitely different about actually buying a record - from browsing the racks to choosing the one you absolutely have to take home, to paying for it and carrying your loot like a precious baby. And of course, nothing can surpass the feeling of taking the record out, gently peeling the plastic away, pressing play and flopping on the bed with the inlay. Music isn't just sounds - it's also a visual experience. Different arrangements can conjure up worlds of pictures in your imagination, and sometimes even smells. This sort of synesthesia is something that usually goes unnoticed, but in Siren's Hall, the spotlight is on the senses. Linking visual arts to music is the idea here - pulling art away from its usual place (on the cover) to a distinct piece that refers to music - whether through collaboration between an illustrator and a musician, or music conveyed with lines and shapes instead of notes and breaks, or sound and music together in a single project. From the exhibit notes, Siren's Hall is a celebration of the "ongoing love the visual art has for music and a way to engage in experimentation and play." The exhibit, organized by Mariano Ching, is set up in the spacious Mo_space gallery, the pieces looking very alive, bursting color against the stark white walls. There are several buttons that beg to be pressed - CD players and a DVD player smack in the middle of the room. The exhibit is reminiscent of interactive museums for kids - one forgets proper decorum and goes from piece to piece, thoroughly enjoying the visual, auditory and tactile experience. The exhibit will run daily from 11am to 8pm until July 11, 2010. Mos Design Building is at B2 Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines. Participants in Siren's Hall are Allan Balisi, Bru Sim, Dexter Fernandez, Dina Gadia, Enteng Viray, Erick Encinares, Eugene Jarque, Gani Simpliciano, Garry Ross Pastrana, Kanamura Hitoshi, Kat Medina, Lena Cobangbang, Louie Cordero, Lourd de Veyra, Lyle Buencamino, Mm Yu, Mariano Ching, Mark Salvatus, Marcus Nada, Mike Munoz, Masi Solano, Manuel Alvero, Nice Buenaventura, Partylist Collective, Pow Martinez, Romeo Lee, Radioactive Sago Project, Raena Abella, Sam Kiyoumarsi, Sleepyheads, Tim Brown and Vic Balanon. - GMANews.TV