UnSound

Abstract

UnSound: Trans*spatialisms and Sound Sculpture Installation is a research-creation project that explores the intersections of sound, queer, and transgender studies through sonic and spatial art practice. The work engages actual forms, sounds, and spaces using sculpture, sound art, and installation to employ artmaking as a method of thinking through making: a recursive patterning incorporating art, theory, writing, materiality, and experience. While this process is informed by my queer hard-of-hearing genderfluid experiences, the project is conceptually positioned in queer ecological thinking, sound theory, and transgender perceptions of space.

The installation comprises three sound sculptures resembling heads and that emit tones similar to the sounds used in hearing tests. As bodies move through the space, the sonic experience changes based on proximity to the sculptures and the sounds emitted. This artist statement will explore the processes in creating UnSound through conceptual theoretical development alongside artmaking that explores form, through sculpture; sound, through sound art; and space, through installation. This paper will conclude by speculating on possible openings to further research via a developing theory of trans*spatialisms: sono-spatial practices that attend to expanded physical and ontological conceptions of gender, space, and the body.