Anne Tweed: Sound Shapes Peer Gallery, Lunenburg, NS May 19–30, 2007
The series of paintings Sound Shapes explores the shape of the sounds of speech and the perceptual confusion that can arise as hearing diminishes. I have previously investigated the shape of sound as it relates to a phrase of music (Jalousie 2005), where the repetition of sound has been incorporated into the shape of the piece. Sound Shapes continues this investigation into the shape of sound, but uses vocal sound, phonemes, as a source. Sounds are 3-dimensional objects, they have frequency or pitch, intensity or loudness, and duration. In addition, they envelope us 360 degrees unlike visual stimuli, which are only perceived through a radius of 180 degrees.
Two concepts have come together in the development of this series. The first is synaesthesia (the ability to associate sound with colours or shapes at the cortical level), and the second is the loss of auditory perception that occurs with age.
By age 20 there is demonstrable loss of perception of some high frequency auditory signals. This is not a significant loss to an individual unless they have a preference for the high frequency cell phone tones that are inaudible to adults. As we continue to age there is a gradual continual loss of the ability to perceive certain frequencies. This is slow and insidious, and often not noticed by the individual until they become aware of having difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments.
As the ability to distinguish certain phonemes disappears, the individual relies on other cues to interpret meaning from the spoken word, such as speech reading, context and memory. The brain essentially fills in the gaps created by these absent phonemes in much the same way as the visual perception system fills in the gaps when presented with a visual representation of an image that is not photorealistic. This “filling in” of auditory gaps requires intense effort on the part of the listener, as unlike visual images there is often no opportunity to go back and listen again to extract more information — it has to be done in real time.
As the gaps get larger so does the chance of misinterpretation. This is not so much a problem if we are dealing with abstract sound such as music; ambiguity and multiple interpretations are acceptable. However, accurate communication via the spoken word is extremely important for most human interaction and when lost can lead to a profound sense of isolation.
Anne Tweed MB BS Artist Mahone Bay, NS
Figure. Anne Tweed, Sound Shapes #12. 24 × 48 in. Collage, acrylic, oil on canvas. This painting represents, in visual form, the difficulties of extracting meaning from partially heard speech sounds. Using shapes derived from elements of the anatomy of the ear (the cochlea and the semicircular canals), symbols from the international phonetic alphabet and symbols of sound waves as a starting point, the image slowly develops. During the process of painting the readability of the original shapes is partially lost and new shapes emerge opening the possibility of multiple interpretations.
Speech sounds usually have an intended meaning that is easy for the recipients to understand, while abstract painting and abstract sound (music) are open to multiple interpretations by the viewers/listeners. This series of paintings is the artist's visual interpretation of a particular type of perceptual confusion. Photo by: Anne Tweed