On Saturday, January 21st 2023, it took place the Aural Diversity Workshop 5 on Music and Performance, which was organised by Prof Andrew Hugill. The students from the module MATT3002 Community Arts had the opportunity to present a series of installations, supervised by Dr Peter Batchelor, exploring different aspects of aural diversity. The workshop was held at the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester.
Here we share the work exhibited during the day.
In the area near the cafeteria, there were two fixed media pieces and an interactive piece:
The Pink Noise by Yasmina Perez is a video with triggering sound effects and noises to raise awareness about misophonia and the physical anxiety that is developed from it.
Danhyung Yang also presented a video about misophonia, including manipulated trigger sounds, for example, fork on plate, chewing, swallowing, breathing, siren, blender, pen clicking, clock ticking, shouting, baby crying, and so on.
SynesthesiArt by Josh Bentley was designed to help visualise synaesthesia, focusing on Clavier & Lumières (Keyboard with Lights). Here, musical notes from a MIDI musical keyboard were linked to colours.
In the main theatre space, there were two interactive pieces:
A Thin Piece of String by Cameron Flynn is an installation inspired by Murray Schaeffer's The Tuning of Our World and responds to the discussion around Universal Deafness and how our environment affects us every day.
The Glowing Tent by Leon Riley is based on the visualisations of a family friend who experiences synaesthesia. A tent contains lights with colours that correspond to those experienced by this person whilst reading the words in the poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats.
In the first floor, there were three more interactive pieces:
Inspired by DeafZones for deaf fans at Grateful Dead concerts, Adam Roberts uses a balloon to bring a sensory experience of feeling the frequencies of a composition.
Ears Singing by Jeevan Kanth is based on the artist's own experience of the consequences of working in loud environments and attempts to recontextualise the most common symptom of hearing degradation - ringing in the ears. A wood and metal box act as a vibrating system for sound transduced through two singing bowls with both passive and active interaction with the environment.
PLAY by Jinil Park is inspired by the Playstation game "Moss". The game is well known for applying sign language in a game for the first time. This installation brings the concept of a game to enjoy aural diversity by interacting with a gamepad with programmed sound effects, a poem for the deaf, and morse code with or without vibration, among others.
