Ligyrophobia

Sound Walk Assignment

Kevan Atkins (2015)

ver. 3.1 190815

 Groupings of points represent microsound clusters that are fizzily or
Concept complex in character, like the sound of eyelids opening after a blink.
Ligyrophobia is the fear of loud sounds. This brief graphic explores a
more intimate sound world that emerges when the ears are blocked to
escape the intrusion of the urban soundscape. In the absence of
outside sound, the inner sound world grows and fill the void left by the
outer silence. To the subject, given enough time, this experience can
be very revealing and all it requires is a pair of earplugs and enough
A straight line upward represents an impulse, similar in character to the
space to walk
microsound cluster but with only attack point rather than a tight group
of them, such as the sound of eyelids colliding.

Legend
Smooth areas represent a dull noise or rumble. Then onset is soft and
there is no specific frequency or tone to it, such as rumble of neck
muscles as they stabilise the head or breathing.
A climbing figure such as this represents a cluster of sound
microsound events that have some degree of pitch material in them.
Like the sound of small pockets of air interacting with saliva in the
mouth after a swallowing.

Soft impressions in the smooth represent soft impulses such as the

deep thud of foot falls conducting through the body.

Straight, horizontal lines represent a fixed, continuous tone, such as

the inescapable drone of tinnitus.