Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts

Welcome to the website for Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts. 

Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts is a 2-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project, bringing together Dr Marie Thompson from the Open University, Dr Patrick Farmer from Oxford Brookes University’s Sonic Arts Research Unit, The British Tinnitus Association and Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency to investigate how the arts might help to enrich understandings of tinnitus and the diverse ways it affects listeners. 

Tinnitus is the conscious perception of sound for which there is no external source. Around 30% of people experience tinnitus at some point in their lives. Tinnitus tends to be thought of as an unpleasant ringing in the ears, but everyone’s tinnitus is different. Some people may hear whistling, buzzing, crackling or even music. Tinnitus may be constant or intermittent. Or it might change in relation to your mood or environment. In exploring the relationship between tinnitus and the creative arts, the project aims to expand common cultural tropes about the condition, and to develop new approaches for sharing experiences of tinnitus that can allow for its variability.