The Conscious Ear

The Conscious Ear explores the concept of the poetic voice, and how this is intertwined with the actual voice of the poet, which is then reflected in the voices of those who read their poems. In particular, it demonstrates how we may “hear” the voice of Emily Dickinson through the artistic voice that is audibly present in her work. Using data sonification techniques along with word and letter frequency data, I have transformed a selection of her poetry into a non-verbal, aural experience, based on her individual selection of repeated words and sounds, as well as the relative frequency of these sounds in the English language. By layering this sonification with an actual reading of her poetry, I hope to reveal the “voice” of Emily- which, much like the poet herself, is both boldly present yet quietly hidden in each of her poems. Both these sounds and my voice have then been modified using convolution data collected at the Emily Dickinson Homestead, thus are heard as if they are occurring in Emily's bedroom- how she might have heard them herself.

(Images: Photos of Dickinson's poems from Harvard University's Emily Dickinson Archive /Photo of Emily Dickinson from Amherst College original daguerreotype)