Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts

an abstract drawing in crayon and felt tip of a person’s experience of tinnitus on a particular day. the outline is an undulating sequence of various colours, brown, green, yellow, green, blue, green, blue. inside is a dense mesh of shades and dots that is much less distinct and frantic, occasionally it passes through the outline. the colour, similar to the outline, is focussed on the centre, and veers off to the left.

a graphed sequence of 7 horizontal lines that represent three days of tinnitus experience. the main horizontal lines are all in red, and are of varying thickness. on day 1 initial activity in red oscillates up and down along the line with different blue and green lines and dots accompanying throughout. day 2 appears a little calmer, with much less deviation from the central red line and more focussed blue etching along the upper and lower sides. green dots are minimal and focussed on the first line. day 3 is just one red line of uniform thickness and consistency, with blue squiggles and dots above and four broken green lines of varying length below.

an abstract portrait, close to a line drawing, in watercolour. the outline of the face and neck is in black and traces a single unbroken line from the left ear down to the throat. there is a light blue aura above, with violet smudges leading to a more focussed presence of the same colour just below each ear. underneath this is a yellow smudge, lower on the left than the right.

an abstract portrait, close to a line drawing, in watercolour. the outline of the face and neck is in black and traces a single unbroken line from the left ear down to the throat. the background is painted sky blue, with light turquoise lines descending from above the head on either side, ending just below the ears, the left side extends a little further than the right. on either side of the head, framing it, there are two violet lines, shorter than the turquoise, with lighter violet and yellow smudges starting on either side of the jaw, ending at the throat. once again the left side smudges are a little lower on the left.

a tinnitus drawing in four parts, drawn in black felt tip. on the top left of the paper there are six short jagged lines, the bottom two lines extent all the way to the right where they open out into a asymmetrical reflection of the lines on the left hand side, only this time there are 7 of them. below this there is a series of softer jagged lines circling around each other. there are occasional dots which lead to a longer dotted line below, stretching from left to right in a curve, with two concentric circles on the left, either side of the dotted line, and dotted circles opening the line out on the right. at the bottom right of the drawing there are five lines radiating upward to the left hand side, each of varying length, getting shorter from left to right. the lines are drawn as a series of short horizontal lines of varying lengths.

three drawings in charcoal. at the top is a mesh of diagonal lines, the outline of which is less distinct and fragmented than the centre. the middle drawing is a series of 8 wavy lines or sound waves of varying thickness, occasionally they touch. the bottom drawing is a thick fog os black charcoal, sharp lines above with softer undulating edges below.

the background of this drawing consists of monotone vertical lines drawn quickly all over the page, both in pen and crayon. in the centre, from top to bottom, the foreground is made up 14 circles of various sizes and colours, mostly pink and red with blue outlines. to the left are two vertical wave formations. closest to the circles the wave consists of six peaks and troughs, coloured in red and blue, further to the left there is a wave form of three periodic peaks and troughs, also red and blue.

a series of violet wave formations. the waves are tighter on the bottom left, moving inward, than they are on the bottom right. there are three waves moving from left to right on the top part of the drawing, with a series of vertical intersecting lines above.

just off centre of this drawing is a black blob with white patches, surrounding it is a number of slightly wavy lines, moving horizontally across the page.