How to Turn Bad Hearing Into Art

I have Tinnitus.

If you don’t know what that is – you know that ringing in your ear that you hear after a loud concert? It’s like that, but all of the time.

Some people have it bad – to a degree that makes it hard for them to function. Others, like me – have a moderate case of it. I typically notice it only when I am in complete silence (i.e going to bed or meditating).

I’ve had it for a few years now (after a bad case of CMV), and generally speaking it doesn’t bother me day-to-day. Nevertheless it’s there, always.

The Shape of Sound

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

Nicola Tesla

I recently bumped into a video that blew my mind:

It turns out – that the mere act of placing sand on different frequencies can create beautiful shapes and fractals. In other words – different sound vibrations generate different shapes and patterns when they interact with matter.

And that got me thinking – what if I take the ringing sound from my tinnitus and identify it’s unique frequency? What if I then find the associated “shape” of that frequency and sketch it out? What would that look like?

There is actually a longer version of the above video that I used for doing this – and when I found frequency I was hearing in my ear, it turned out to be

2578 Hertz

So what is the “shape” of 2578 Hertz?

It’s simply (and beautifully) a natural pattern generated by energy, frequency and vibration.

Other natural patterns I am exploring these days are those created by the Fibonnaci Sequence (and the associated Golden Ratio) which is a pattern that dictates our Universe in many ways – from Nature and Science, to Art and Mysticism…

Inspired by this – I was curious to explore what would happen if I tried to replicate this shape in a painting strictly using spheres with a radius that adhere’s to Fibonnaci. In this case and given the canvas I had available, creating only sphere’s with 1, 2, 3, 5 or 8 cm radiuses.

Here’s what I came up with:

Then I added some color:

Then, fascinated by both the shapes in blue as well as the “blank” space in-between the blue, I developed the following:

Until finally I fleshed out the element in the middle with this:

I actually deliberately left some of the measurements from the original sketch visible – I like the fact that it contains remnants of the process it took to get there.

The cool thing is – I didn’t “make” this. 2578 Hertz did…

As for the pattern itself – I’m not sure why, but it provokes different thoughts and emotions within me…

What do you see? How does it make you feel?