World Building: The Sight of Sound

If I had to spend a week wherein I had to rely solely on one of my five senses, it would be my vision. Reading, driving a car, riding a bicycle, recognizing friends and family, locating food; these are all activities that I accomplish with my eyes (and the visual processing part of my noggin).

In the world we created, the eyes are not the primary sensory organ. The inhabitants of this society rely primarily on their ears to navigate their world and accomplish their daily tasks. These people react to sound waves similarly to the way in which humanity process light waves. Their brains are capable of processing sound waves in such a way that sound is translated into colorful imagery and detailed landscapes.

My question was, “how do these folk have any kind of recorded language”? Because they do not use their eyes in the same way that we do, I decided that a hand-written hieroglyphic language would be unsuitable. I also decided that a form of braille would not be the right way to go either. These people would want a form of recorded language that interacts with their most intricate sense AKA their synesthetic sense of hearing.

So I came up with a sort of music box. The music box has a hand-powered crank that can be turned at the user’s pace, much like turning the pages of a book. The crank simultaneously gives the “music box” book a source of power, and also controls the rate of playback. With each full turn of the crank, a certain amount of sound waves are emitted. These sound waves are processed  by the brain of the user, not only as sounds, but also images and colors. The resulting “reading” experience is deep and interactive.

I used a crank because I thought it would be impractical to have a “music box” book that required re-charging of any kind. Can you imagine a library full of books that need to have energy sources replaced? It would be terrible. But the crank? A little more practical.

(My contribution) 
Another aspect of a world where sounds are seen that was considered for this project was live musical performances. To represent what an event like this would be like, we designed a poster for a real life band, STRFKR. Because music itself is the conglomeration of many different sounds layered on top of each other, I decided to represent this by using photoshop to manipulate a pre-existing logo for the band rather than use waveforms. I found that by selecting and deleting portions of the image, and telling photoshop to replace those deleted portions using a “content aware” algorithm, that the geometric shapes forming the original logo created a unique pattern that could represent the sights one would experience in this world. I found this to be appropriate since the band’s identity is not only defined by its music but also its logo- and who’s to say that in a world where one can see music that the music being seen can be visually distinct according to the band it originates from?  I also took into consideration that STRFKR’s live shows already use many different lasers and lights that correspond with the music, and by using a photograph of them where this is evident I feel that I bridged the gap from our imaginary world with the real one. 

My first thought when presented with this world was “what would become of headphones?” The concept was cool and really to me everything that emitted music and sound took on a new light. In my piece I thought I would convey this through a popular method we see in our own world, the Youtube sensation of unboxing a new tech item and then reviewing it. This is seen all over the web and can often be comical and in some cases it showboats over analysis of items. Using terminology like “watching music” and “I am sure you have (literally) seen this song” serve to further build up this world in which people see music. The cell phone footage, cheesy after effects intro, and plea at the end to subscribe all showcase the growing trend of technology in everyday life. If one was to watch music than, instead of listen to it, how would that effect things like this? My hope is that I was able to capture that in this small video

The freeway is one of the noisiest parts of first-world civilization. Cars race past each other at speeds ranging between 55-100 miles per hour, if we’re being honest. It is also an environment where sight is critical; you need to see the road, the other cars, the environment, the buttons of the radio, the wheel, your passengers, the gas tank, the speedometer, which exit to get off of,

So, how would a freeway look in a world without visuals? My first answer would be that freeways, if they existed at all, would ultimately function off of sonic interdependence. “Cars” would feel their way from point A to point B similar to how bats fly, by detecting the vibrating soundwaves of the traffic around them. I tried to keep in mind that while sounds travel across time and space, someone who understood the world through sound would most likely have trained their focus so that the average person in this world would only be registering a specific radius of noises. I used hue and value to try to visually represent this range of focus; the brighter and thicker the color, the more “in focus”. There are tiny, dark, thinner and fading audial marks for probable objects emitting sounds, including the electricity flowing under the roads or the rustling of leaves in trees.