The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the pianist Emanuel Ax, with financial contributions from philanthropists Lillian and Maurice Barbash.
Rouse saw the album while browsing through his collection of rock music and "was struck by the combination of simplicity and vision symbolized by this title."
Rouse used this to extrapolate the conception of the work, later writing:Some months later I was browsing in a bookstore and came across a book detailing the current activities of various figures in the rock music world of the 1960s.
Seeing does not "take a stand" upon mental illness as a social cause; rather, I wished to concern myslf with the tragic toll such afflictions can take upon individual persons and those who care for them.
He further remarked, "It is a substantial piece but not at all comfortable to listen to: One struggles through passages of furious and magnificent noise, to be rewarded, on occasion, with moments of serene and gossamer beauty, appreciating them all the more for their scarcity.
Keith Potter of The Independent was much more critical, however, writing:For me, Seeing was a dismayingly dull half hour, enlivened though it was by Ax's persuasive playing.