Making the alphabet gave me the space to differentiate each sound in the way it felt internally. The next step was to marry that sentiment with the reality of the sound in the space I inhabited.
To do so, I went through the process of creating gestural marks for each sound on my iPad. This time, rather than a symbol I made a mark representing each sound as I heard it.
Armed with this new visual collection, I set about trying to build a narrative, however it proved too convoluted for anyone to follow without a great deal of explanation, so I settled for simple concepts instead.
An airplane flying overhead. A skateboarder rolling by. A passing car. A father coming home. The snippets of sound that make up the neighborhood crystallized forming waves of sound built in gestures that internalize the meaning and feeling of each modulation heard from my house.
The process allowed me to understand how to pay attention to that which had become invisible. Seeing the white noise that formed the background of my home created a new layer of richness to my lived experience.
