Visualising Sound (2007)

This work is based on the idea of visulising sound as a way of expressing emotions. Sound can have both stimulating and calming effects. For inspiration, I drew upon my interpretations of everyday sounds, such as dripping water, or the noises of scrunching and ripping paper, or banging metal. From these visualisations, I developed my ideas into samples for installation pieces based on sound.

I thought about how people are affected by sound: particularly autistic children. Having experience working with autistic children, I decided to produce something that would help them and give other people understanding of their needs. Although people with autism are not physically disabled, they encounter significant difficulties in everyday life. The main difficulties are with communication, social relationships, and a lack of imagination and creative play. Children with the most severe forms of autism are catered for in special schools that put less emphasis on education and more on their well-being and skills that will help them cope with everyday life.

Although equipment such as sensory rooms is available for children in special schools, this is often lacking in mainstream schools. Moreover, there is a need for special needs to be recognised within communities outside of school hours. These installations, intended to be permanent, and accessible to everybody, could be connected with workshops encouraging participants to draw their own interpretations of sound and to create scuptural pieces that could be added to the work. The addition of children's work inspired by the main installation would help to create a community exhibition, capable of continual development and change.

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