Where Have All the Voices Gone
Where Have All the Voices Gone explores the history of muses, daemons and inspirations dating back to Classical Greek and Roman times. This pantheon of fantastic voices is a gift bestowed upon all people, but most significantly artists and designers, and was once linked to a divine and universal source of creativity.
However, over the centuries, with the shift to scientific and rational thought people have become less receptive to such magical sources and have branded hearing voices to the realm of “madness”, “hallucinations” and “mental illness”. What was once considered a gift from the gods, has now become the responsibility of the artistic genius. The creative now credits themselves for creativity instead of viewing inspiration and epiphanies as gifts that must be shared.
This project will question: why has the power of these voices dwindled? Have they lost their magic? And where have they gone? Through a series of maps, info-graphics and a publication, this project will share stories and visualize the magical realm of these voices with the hope of inspiring wonder and delight, and possibly even a space for my audience to conjure up their muse.
Artist Statement
I describe myself as an imaginative child who loves to indulge in myths, folklore and mysteries of the world. Since young, I had the experience of hearing voices of my imaginary friends. They are my alter egos that tide me over the tough times in life and they have always given me creativity and advices as to how I should proceed with my work. As I grew older, I became more interested in them and it propelled me to research more into these voices that we may have, not just in our mind, but also on a more universal platform of the fantasy realm.
As the bridge between fantasy and reality, and the link between wonder, delight and celebration, these voices bring gifts of all forms to people. The term “voices” in my project is meant more as a metaphor to describe the experiences that we have when inspirations present themselves upon us, and not the sound produced when a person is talking, though it can be for some. These experiences include: spiritual guide, enlightenment, epiphany, illuminating moment, eureka, etc. The voices may appear not just as someone speaking but also as a sound, vision, and colour.
Where Have All the Voices Gone is ultimately a project that creates a space for us to wonder about the spirituality of creativity. Through the visual languages — traditional illustrations and speech marks — we are invited to wonder about the ongoing conversations that we should have with these mystical sources, but have instead forgotten. I have been particularly inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk and I have constantly keeping her words in mind and inculcating her notion of releasing the genius from within creatives back to where it came from. This project is an endeavour to make us wonder more about the possibility of creativity as an external source that comes to you to make your art genius and not you being the genius itself.
It has four main deliverables planned out that works in a story-telling manner: to inform, to make my audience realise, to inspire and to bring credibility to the wonder of the pantheon of voices. They consist of a map, four visualization pieces, three publications and an installation space. The area within the walls aims to encapsulate the idea of gift-giving where an exchange of ideas and inspirations occur. It also plans to emulate cultivation methods that may attract the muse to come to you, such as taking a charm or throwing a coin into a wishing well.
Most of my design processes fuse both analogue and digital methods. As my topic is heavy on history and story telling, it is necessary to make the voices mentioned in my project as accessible to my audience as possible. Illustrations are drawn with ink and watercolour to give a friendlier touch, hopefully to inspire people to feel good about creating, before fusing with digital type and info-graphics for a slightly modern finishing. Most of the items are customised by hand as well.
As the bridge between fantasy and reality, and the link between wonder, delight and celebration, these voices bring gifts of all forms to people. The term “voices” in my project is meant more as a metaphor to describe the experiences that we have when inspirations present themselves upon us, and not the sound produced when a person is talking, though it can be for some. These experiences include: spiritual guide, enlightenment, epiphany, illuminating moment, eureka, etc. The voices may appear not just as someone speaking but also as a sound, vision, and colour.
Where Have All the Voices Gone is ultimately a project that creates a space for us to wonder about the spirituality of creativity. Through the visual languages — traditional illustrations and speech marks — we are invited to wonder about the ongoing conversations that we should have with these mystical sources, but have instead forgotten. I have been particularly inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk and I have constantly keeping her words in mind and inculcating her notion of releasing the genius from within creatives back to where it came from. This project is an endeavour to make us wonder more about the possibility of creativity as an external source that comes to you to make your art genius and not you being the genius itself.
It has four main deliverables planned out that works in a story-telling manner: to inform, to make my audience realise, to inspire and to bring credibility to the wonder of the pantheon of voices. They consist of a map, four visualization pieces, three publications and an installation space. The area within the walls aims to encapsulate the idea of gift-giving where an exchange of ideas and inspirations occur. It also plans to emulate cultivation methods that may attract the muse to come to you, such as taking a charm or throwing a coin into a wishing well.
Most of my design processes fuse both analogue and digital methods. As my topic is heavy on history and story telling, it is necessary to make the voices mentioned in my project as accessible to my audience as possible. Illustrations are drawn with ink and watercolour to give a friendlier touch, hopefully to inspire people to feel good about creating, before fusing with digital type and info-graphics for a slightly modern finishing. Most of the items are customised by hand as well.
