The Earplugs series employs methodologies derived from corporate transmedia campaigns, dispersing fragments of narrative content across multiple formats. The project emerged from an interest in recontextualizing a mundane, single-purpose consumer object—earplugs—into works of art that serve as artifacts of self-experimentation within a saturated consumer culture. This transformation reflects an engagement with self-talk as both an internalized dialogue and a response to the external noise of collective consumption.
As part of this exploration, I designed a series of short text-based scores formatted as guided meditations, printed on the backs of earplug packaging. These repurposed consumer products were rebranded as facilitators of self-reflection, each composition tailored to specific consumer personas, inviting users to consider the function of silence beyond its practical application.
The sound-based components of the project draw on John Cage’s 4’33”, which redirects the audience’s focus from a silent piano performance to the ambient sounds of the surrounding environment. In contrast, Earplugs direct the listener inward, shifting attention to the subtle auditory phenomena of their own body. With their ears occluded participants become attuned to internal sounds—muffled speech, breathing, and the resonance of sound conducted through bones and tissue. In this quiet state, they may recall a distant voice, imagine themselves singing, engage in inner dialogue, or encounter a meditative silence that exists beyond the conventional parameters of sound.
Additionally, I developed a series of sculptural works that investigate the form of the earplug as a positive inversion of the negative space within the ear canal. These sculptures consider the earplug not merely as an object but as an embodiment of silence itself—a physical manifestation of auditory absence.
The sculpture version of “Earplugs” in the photo documentation above has electronic media components that perform a collection of sound compositions based on the original text-based scores. It makes use of the left and right stereo channels with a call and response between virtual voice actors conversing through voice synthesizers. Below are audio excerpts from the sculpture above and samples of packaging with text-based scores.
