Un*Spoken is an interactive installation that translates laughters and crying into music pieces, and allows the audience to see the similarities and differences between the two. Made in collaboration with School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.

Laughter, a complex occurrence, can be out of happiness, embarrass or even great disappointment; crying, an effusive reaction, is also brought on by a wide range of situations spanning joy to sorrow. Without context, the two extreme appearances of human emotions can be interpreted anyway depending on the audience. Un*Spoken was created by transcribing audio into dot compositions that can be played through a music box. In the process of stripping, translating and transcribing, with the joint efforts between the artists and the audience, the potential for emotional vocabulary is reestablished.

Human emotions translated into musical notes.

With music boxes, audiences are able to interact with the notes in their own speed and interpretations

By comparing the notes of crying and laughter, it is easy to see that these two extreme emotions don’t have any recognizable differences without context

How the audience interacts with the musical piece (baby crying) at her own speed