“May all of you suffering from misophonia be understood”



INESCAPABLE

(Stop Motion Animation and Handmade Installation)

I am particularly sensitive to sounds, which could often make me feel uncomfortable, irritable or unwilling to hear them. Therefore, I am a little confused about this situation, and others cannot understand me. On this basis, I have decided to explore why I am repelled by voices through conducting this project.

I have found that, during this course of exploration, a condition called misophonia exists in the world. There are so many people like me who are tortured by voices. Thus, I hope to explain this phenomenon through the creation of visual language, so as to help the public to better understand the voice-sensitive people around them.

I attempt to imagine that I am suffering from this kind of pain from the perspective of a patient with misophonia, and go through a variety of stages of the pain using a figure like a cloud as the protagonist. The purpose is to allow the audience to understand and feel the real inner world of misophonia patients.

In this video, I collected some sounds that can trigger misophonia patients to feel anxious and even scared, such as the sound of the wind, the subway, or somebody drinking water. The purpose is to simulate as closely as possible the situation which the patients face.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAclNJktcs&t=9s

I created a special packaging device for a book with materials such as light clay, acrylic pigment, aluminum wire, buttons, an instant noodle seasoning bag and bread, with a card slot for the book in the middle. I intend to use this device to convey to everyone that, even after removing the voice, a visual pollution caused by bright colours can convey to the audience what the patients with misophonia suffer, or demonstrate that these colours and materials are what they fear. Through a process of synaesthesia, I use colours that the audience may associate with uncomfortable sounds.

Simultaneously, you can also touch the device with your hands; it may cause you to feel erratic, or even a little pain.

* Where did my inspiration come from? 
I couldn't tolerate the sound of chewing food when my grandma was eating; I felt very upset about the sound of others eating popcorn in a quiet cinema; I was distracted when someone was talking on a phone to others in the subway. 

* How did I conduct the visual research? 
I investigated the works of abstract artist Jackson Pollock, who expressed emotion or thoughts through immersive drawings or paintings, and the works of Hannah Hoch, a representative of Dadaism, who challenged the traditional definition of beauty. 

* How did I develop the experiment?
For starters, synesthesia was used and a lot of high saturation and bright colours were adopted to display the sounds that make people crazy or angry. Colour was sound. We are enveloped by sounds; they have always been everywhere. This reminded me of the city. We can't escape from it.

In my memory, there was a sound that haunted me until I found the loud noise my grandma made while eating was the sound of her chewing food.

Because of this, I slowly came to realise the discomfort that such a sound caused me. Once when my grandma was eating, I took a picture with my phone of her eating, and then used charcoal and colour powder to draw the portrait.

My aim was to explore and experiment with the deeper relationship between myself and sound.

Jackson Pollock, Landscape with Steer (1936), Lithograph with airbrushed lacquer additions

Hannah Hoch, Untitled (1922), Cut-and-pasted printed and colored paper on board

Sketch by Rasato