This is a screen grab from the artwork: Inaudible City. Aspects from a modified video of the City of Melbourne are highlighted to correspond with 4 customised soundtracks. (Patricia Adams. 2015).
Some months ago my hearing loss project moved into the artwork development stage and I began to collaborate with Dr. Jonathan Duckworth, Director of CiART, School of Media and Communications, RMIT. Discussion and access to specialist media support, provided by CiArt, enabled me to create two artworks: Inaudible City and Fractured_Message.
My aim has been to provide viewers from the wider community, who have normal hearing, with an immersive, sensory experience that increases their understanding of how hearing loss feels, along with some realisation of its impact on everyday life.
Briefly, the custom made soundtracks of Inaudible City have been distorted to resemble 4 distinct types of hearing loss. Seeing & hearing in this way may give the artwork viewers an experiential understanding of some of the challenges face by the deaf. Fractured_Message is a one-on-one artwork where the aim is to create an experience that evokes the frustration and isolation of a hearing impaired person who cannot commnicate.
These unique artworks have come to the attention of the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (HEARingCRC), The University of Melbourne.
The HEARingCRC will host the inaugural showing of Inaudible City and Fractured_Message in an event entitled: Disconnections, Thursday 9 April, 5.30-7.30, The University of Melbourne’s Audiology and Speech Sciences Building, 550 Swanston St, Carlton, Melbourne. This free event is open to everybody, however modified versions of these two artworks will also be uploaded onto the designated website for wider access – links will be posted here soon.
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This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its funding and advisory body.
Credits: Dr. Patricia Adams – Artist and Visiting Research Fellow, RMIT School of Health Sciences; Prof. Antonio Paolini, – Discipline Leader, Psychology, RMIT School of Health Sciences; Dr. Jonathan Duckworth – Production and Design, CiART Director, School of Media and Communications, RMIT; Ross Eldridge – Real-Time Programming; Alex Zemtsov and Brendan Peterson – Original Cinematography and Editing; David Vatousios – Actor, Fractured_Message.
