Visual Communication - Bachelors
Music festivals in Australia are making moves to ensure that they are as inclusive as possible for their audience. This sonic to visual language considers that there will be attendees in the audience who are hearing impaired, with varying degrees of deafness. Creating a more immersive and inclusive experience for all music lovers to experience the gift of music, through using sound as data.
Many times deaf people are excluded from amazing impactful music events and culture because ‘we as hearing people choose to say NO.’-Amber Galloway Gallego
The visual language interprets frequency of sound (pitch), as various shapes, patterns and thickness of lines. This is done through the use of Javascript/coding technology that uses sound files as data to create imagery.
Studies show that the use of high frequency vs low-frequency sound has an impact on emotional perception. Medium pitches can be neutral while either side of the spectrum can evoke higher energy emotions compared to mellow emotions. This can be replicated using form.
Representing this has benefits for people who have difficulty with hearing high frequency or low-frequency sounds.
Chords within music have the ability to evoke emotional experiences, changing as the chords change. Recognising this as an important part of the music experience, and interpreting it through the use of colour can provide a similar experience. The colours chosen are instinctive and quick for someone who is within this cultural climate. Rather than driven by trends and styles. These are a few examples of chord associations and their colour pairs.
Raising the volume of a sound increases the impact of the music or makes the instrument/section of the song more prominent. This is similar to the use of intensifying colour.
High saturation colours draw the eye to certain points more than that of a lower saturation.
Using this in the sonic to visual language will allow the viewer to gauge the parts of the song that are more prominent through their volume levels, as well as the intensity of the musical section.
These projections would work best played behind a live interpreter. They give a live ambient background for what is happening within the musical performance.
Tamaryn is a design student who has had experience in areas across the Industrial and Visual Communication Design disciplines. Through this she has developed an immense passion for user-centred, sustainable and inclusive design focuses. Coupled with a natural curiosity about the world and the systems within; her design focus hopes to challenge the way people live and interact with their world.