TOP ROW

01 Harpo Marx in an advertisement for Smirnoff's Vodka, Sept 1961

02 graphic representation an article on Hiccups, from LOOK magazine May 1954,

03 from Leslie Wood, The Story of Little Red Engine, Faber and Faber undated c1950

04 05 Gerard Hoffnung, The imaging of a Snore from Lilliput Magazine ....And Things that go hrr-hrr-hrr in the Night, September 1948. 3 cms square both

MIDDLE ROW

01 American insurance advertisement, c1948

02 Joshua Steele, An essay towards establishing the melody and measure of speech to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar symbols, London, 1775.

03 Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis sive ars magna, Corbelletti, Rome, 2 vols., 1650. Kircher of all the encyclopaedists and polymaths seems to have found the most compelling images to communicate his scientific perceptions. Here is a diagram of the reflective properties of sound in a section on acoustics. another engraving in Kircher's book

04 the cartoon character, Hazel the Maid, by Ted Key with terrific flourish. (1956 month unknown)

BOTTOM ROW

01 John Vernon Lord, illustration to The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Cape, London 1984,

There was a Young Lady of Russia,
Who screamed so that no one could hush her;
Her screams were so extreme, no one heard such a scream,
As was screamed by that lady of Russia.

02 (beneath) Federico Castellan's painting of Deafness, c1948, reproduced from LOOK magazine.

03 Franchinus Gafurius Theorica Musice published in Milan in 1492

04 The Street Cries of London; never really persuasive as depictions of sound, but a clear anthology of sounds as heard on London streets.

To render noise visually has always been seen as the province of the comic book artist, but it also has a noble tradition in the Visual Arts, from Ingres' invocation of harp strings and dribbling water, to the outrageous excesses of the Futurist Movement.

IMAGES OF THE EAR

VISUALISING THE ACT OF LISTENING

 

IMAGES OF SOUND

How the wind interferes with sound, The World of Wonder 1932

THE TALKIES, Pictorial Annual for 1931

MUZAK advertisements

The Early Gramophone I

The Early Gramophone II

Squeaks and Rattles, 1946

THE MIME (Marceau)

Titlepage Schelhammer, De Auditu... 1684

Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis sive ars magna, Corbelletti, Rome, 2 vols., 1650 another plate

Athanasius Kircher, Phonurgia Nova, Kempten 1673 an image also showing Michele Todini's organ

Sound Effects in the British Theatre 1940