Tangible Conversations

Intrigued by the idea of visualizing conversation, I rendered the audio of conversations between family members from television shows. This process produced four 3D forms of various textures, which I present through the mediums of video and sculpture. While the video shows the sound waves of a conversation in motion, 3D printing the conversations into a tangible sculpture allows moments of the video to be scrutinized. As these four conversations range from wrathful arguments to lighthearted jokes, I programmed their pixels and patterns so that there is a clear contrast between how spikey, round, and indented the sculptures are. The rounder and softer the curves, the more affectionate the conversation. The coloring of the sculptures accentuate the textures, dimples, and angles of the different conversations. I chose to use conversations from television shows as they are the productions of mass media—staged replications of reality that target an audience. Conversely, real conversations don’t have an audience to entertain nor evoke sympathy from. The form of their outcomes would defer if they were converted to a visual form, but they would ultimately lose their authenticity if recorded.