Christine Kim’s TED talk regarding how the deaf listen to music was one of the most mind-boggling concepts I’ve ever encountered. It truly opened my eyes when she helped me, and others, realize that music was both audial and visual. People who can hear music seemed to only appreciate the sound of the music itself, while people who are deaf appreciate both the sound and the notes written on the sheet music. In response to the talk, I wrote that “[a] music sheet tells a story through its tempo, musical notations, and rhythm”. Kim’s art fully expressed this story with humor, scale, and repetition.

This TED talk influenced my group project for studio, where we created a visual sculpture of sound. The member of the group and I created a geometric sculpture based on the level of sound on each floor of the University Center. Each floor was represented by a white pyramid whose size was based on the noise level. In addition, the pyramids unintentionally provided acoustics of sound, and we used that acoustic to our advantage of making the piece a visual and audial work. Like Kim’s sound art, we created a work that provided a piece of art that represents sound as a physical object.

Image Source: Christine Sun Kim, piano within piano, 2015. http://www.artnews.com/2015/09/28/how-we-listen-determines-what-we-hear-christine-kim-on-her-recent-sound-works-teaming-with-blood-orange/.