Silent Soundscape

7’x7’x8’ room constructed from wood, plastic, and insulation; two projectors, two tablets, plastic shoe rack and ear plugs on pedestal; documented as video

Special thanks to Michael Auman for major construction assistance

What does it look like to create a project whose subject is sound but contains no audio? Writer Kim Tingley describes an “ear cleaning exercise” in the New York Times Magazine Voyages issue whereby you sit in a space to record all the sounds that you hear. At the same time, a recording device captures all the sounds in the space, including those unheard in real time. I conducted this exercise and translated my experience using text only. My goal was to show sound in space without any sound at all, and without any images of that space.

A circular room in a square box that simulates an anechoic chamber—a room devoid of reflective sound. From the outside, purple insulation and exposed wood establishes an unfinished appearance. A shoe rack sits next to the door, signalling people to remove their footwear. On a pedestal sits purple earplugs, neatly arranged in pairs. You put them in your ears and enter the room. Your other senses are now heightened. Inside you see clean, curved white walls. White floor and ceiling. This creates the illusion of an infinite void. White pillows rest on the floor, inviting you to sit and relax. Text appears, glides and crawls across the inner white wall, translating sounds in space over real time. Each person creates their own imagined space in their mind—a unique sensory experience within each individual consciousness.

Light forms the text from two projectors. Both light and sound are transient, yet exist as physical waveforms. Both can be felt. While sound creates vibrations, light generates heat. Each person entering the room experiences the environment differently. For some it is calming and meditative. For others it demands imagination—of a space, of silence. After exiting the room, several people described different scenes they pictured to translate the text. Silent Soundscape aims to expose the range of human perception.