Radio & Silence

How do I create non-word / visual experiences, while including audiences who require words to experience the world?

As someone who experiences overstimulation regularly, I often need to turn off senses and parts of my brain. I love moving through the world without sound. I love non-words. I love Sign language, silence, dance, images, shapes, colours. I love wearing noise-cancelling headphones. I was so empowered recently when I saw Tourettes Hero Jess Thom at a conference - just totally rocking headphones. It was a powerful moment - I was sitting there suffering - not able to think or focus or exist in that overstimulating noisy space, wishing, I could just escape and shut off all the sound and light in the room, and in rolls jess - just totally taking care of themselves, sliding the headphones on and off as needed. Not giving a fucking shit. And I realized in that moment that it hadn’t even dawned on me that wearing my headphones in public, was even an option. Because I was ashamed.

So for me, being without sound, creating non-noise spaces, was a starting point. But I know for a lot of people, including folks with vision loss, words, noises, and description are essential. I’ve been thinking about how I could create new spaces, in galleries I guess, and the potential of a wireless headset, like those used in “quiet clubbing” with a few different channels. One channel could have noise cancelling abilities, to shut off all sound, another channel could have live or recorded description capabilities and another channel could have a sound based art work. So there is choice with how you want to engage with sound.