Julia Rael
Music & Synesthesia: A Visual Language for Music for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing
My project combines the phenomenon of synesthesia with music to create a visual language that allows people with hearing impairments to enjoy music in a way that they never have before. Each note is assigned a shape and a color. The colors used in this project are the real perceptions of a synesthete that I interviewed (Dalton Letorney). For the sake of this project, notes will appear on the staff in the same manner as all other notated music. In the future, I see this project as an animation - with the notes appearing in time to the music in blank space, but aligned as though they were on an invisible staff. This project will be most beneficial to cochlear implant users, who can hear to a certain extent but have a very hard time discerning musical notes. I also believe this visual language can serve as a music theory assistant and help people - both hearing and non-hearing - quickly recognize a note and its letter name.
Biography:
Motivated by making art come to life, Julia Rael is an inspired creative that believes organization and communication are foundational tools that drive the production of art in the modern world. Her passion for creativity, artistic planning, and leadership drive her every day to find beauty in the mundane.
A graduate of the University of Southern California’s Choral Music Program, Julia is currently working as the Membership & Operations Coordinator at the Association of California Symphony Orchestras. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and their two bulldogs. She likes to spend her free time reading, painting, and cooking for her friends and family. She believes that music is one of life’s greatest gifts, and her greatest joy is sharing that gift with others.