Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts

a hand drawn map of different places, objects and times. Those categorised as 'bad' appear in triangles: this includes the cutlery drawer, plates, being alone or being hungover. Times, places and activities that are 'neutral' appear in a rectangle, these include work and before sleep. Places, activities and times that are 'good' appear in a circle: this includes, garden, exercise, being with friends and reading.

a hand drawn diagram of 'cycle of life', featuring 'good noise' in green (friends chatting) and 'bad noise' in red (bed, tinnitus at a computer, watching television)

a text-based map showing different places (living room, home office, and out). Emoticons are used to show the association between tinnitus and different sounds in these environments: regular traffic noise, everyday noise and quiet mornings are accompanied by a smiley face, while emergency services are accompanied by a woozy face. Music or tv first thing in the living room are accompanied by a shocked face. In the bottom left hand corner, 'super quiet midnight' is accompanied by a smiley face: the author writes 'tinnitus is louder but ears aren't stressed'.

a hand drawn map of different places , objects and activities associated with tinnitus: tinnitus is shown as 'higher' in relation to night time in quiet house, reading, and the sound of crisp packets and news papers; 'lower' in relation to the sounds of waves, television at high volumes, and noise cancelling headphones

a hand drawn tinnitus map showing activities associated with tinnitus being more or less invasive. A colour scale is used ranging from brown to yellow. tinnitus is most invasive during meditation, after a long teams/zoom call, at the end of a busy work day, or while reading in bed. It is least invasive during physical yoga practice, visiting the seaside, and cycling downhill.

A hand drawn map on lined paper featuring different places and activities. A brown-coloured drawing of a bed shows tinnitus as very loud, an orange figure doing yoga in the living room shows tinnitus as being present, and a green bike and two people sat under a tree show tinnitus as not noticeable when cycling or being with friends

a diagram representing how consciousness of tinnitus varies, combining text, colour and photographs. the maker is barely conscious of their tinnitus when baking bread or in Chelsea physic garden; but are always conscious of their tinnitus when in bed.

a computer generated diagram where spikey bubbles show different places and tinnitus volume. Tinnitus is ;loudest' in bed at night, when stressed, before sleep, and is 'not noticed' in the bedroom on waking'. In the kitchen tinnitus is 'unobtrusive'.

a hand-drawn map consisting of three red circles with a jagged black line running through them. At the centre of the circles are 'my bedroom early in the morning', 'my bedroom at night', and 'my home office, where I work/study every day'. The three circles are accompanied by a drawing of a house. On the right of the page, the words 'everywhere else!' are circled in yellow.

a diagram showing 'tinnitus round the day', with a yellow circle at the centre of the page showing time passing. Large red circles show activities that are associated with tinnitus being loud ('head on pillow, 'walk'), blue shows times with more background noise ('in car driving, grocery shopping, making dinner') and yellow shows activities where tinnitus is 'not a bother' (driving home, watching netflix). At the end of the diagram a note is added reading 'my tinnitus is linked with blood pressure and increased heart rate. it is pulsatile when loud. so active times are worse.

a diagram showing 'the lockdown tinnitus cycle' with places shown in relation to times of day. Tinnitus is shown as quiet in relation to bed and bath, annoying in relation to the study and bad in relation to the living room.

a hand drawn layout of 'home', which shows tinnitus as being louder when planes are not landing at Heathrow, and quieter when they are. Below is a diagram of 'house in the country', where tinnitus is shown as much louder. It is accompanied by the text 'The place is so quiet i can hear my tinnitus a lot'

a hand drawn map of different activities and places. The volume of tinnitus and other sounds are shown using green (quiet), orange (moderate) and red (overwhelming) triangles. Both tinnitus and 'sound' are shown as quiet at 'Home'; at 'work' sound is moderate but tinnitus is quiet. At bedtime, tinnitus is overwhelming but sound is quiet. and when listening to music sound is moderate but tinnitus is quiet.

fold out, cartoon style drawing showing the loudness of tinnitus in relation to different places and activities. 'Lockdown', reading, and watching live music are accociated with tinnitus being loud; being in the garden or walking outside are associated with tinnitus being quiet tinnitus as quiet.

A detailed spider diagram using text, numbers and emoticons to show the impact of tinnitus on an activity within different places. 0 is 'no problem' and 9 is 'really difficult'. Things associated with tinnitus being '0' include talking in the living room during the evening, and teaching sailing. Activities where tinnitus is a '5' include people noise and traffic noise in town. Tinnitus is a '9' in relation to sirens in town.