My Undergraduate Senior Project

View interactive book HERE

Artist Statement

Throughout the day, we are engrossed in everyday activities and don’t necessarily focus on its sounds. We also never usually consider the sounds of our actions. However, at times, we cringe at the noise of a fork scratching a plate, fingernails on a chalkboard, or become irritated by the crunching of a potato chip. Yet, the sound of bacon sizzling or the crunch of leaves under your feet on a fall day can elicit a positive sensation. Whether you recognize it or not, sound affects us physiologically in very powerful ways. I wanted to explore this idea further and dove into hours of research on the effects of sound. Through my findings, I came to discover an interest in how sound might affect someone when presented through visualizations. This thought stems from the idea of phonetic transcription. Phonetic transcription, or more specifically, phonetic spelling, is a system of spelling in which each letter represents one spoken sound. In English, some words are pronounced exactly as they look. These words are often known as onomatopoeias, words that imitate, resemble, or suggest the sound that it describes. Through the use of onomatopoeias, I designed a typographic book of sounds that one might often hear on a daily basis. These words are presented in a way that would let the viewer use their “visual ear” while flipping through a book with no actual sounds being produced. This project works to explore the process of how one utilizes their visually-evoked auditory response to “mentally hear” the sound being produced on the page. My goal is to determine if every viewer shares the same ability to see the sound.