I Can’t Sleep — Thoughts visualizes how falling asleep can be a long and tedious process for me. Tinnitus will keep me awake in quiet environments.
The book begins slow paced, making the reader flip through multiple spreads before the introduction is pieced together and able to be read. The phrase “a kettle of static whistling at boil” gives the reader an unfamiliar combination of imaginable sounds to set an auditory context. The reader is then bombarded with loud and distorted typography which can only display a few letters per spread. As pages are turned, capital letters turn to lowercase, the scale of letterforms decreases, and the module swell sizes settle. With this there is an increase in negative space along with feeling a descent to calmness. Once the type reaches its smallest size the letterforms deteriorate over a series of spreads, reversing the introductory progression. The reader undergoes a long repetitive experience and a slow descent from loud distortion to a toned-down calmness.
I Can't Sleep — I Feel visualizes how listening to masking sounds (external noise) while falling asleep shifts my attention away from tinnitus. This is the only way I can fall asleep comfortably.
This book begins with the phrase “there is no comfort in silence,” to set an uneasy auditory context. This is followed by a spread containing a dark void with an unignorable horizontal white line, representative of tinnitus, penetrating two noise-waves. The next spread introduces an abstract noise-wave progression, a small instance of noise beginning to distract from the white line. Over the next few spreads the noise-waves occupy more of the pages to stimulate the reader's attention. Once the noise-waves reach full coverage the reader can become entranced in a mass of rich texture which continuously pulls their attention away from the ever present horizontal white line. The book concludes with a spread where the white line flows with the noise-waves, followed by text reading, “I rest and sleep in the embrace of noise.” Noise is a necessity, visualized in this experience as a rich and beautiful harness for attention in the context of sleep.
I Can't Sleep — Everyday visualizes how tinnitus related sleep difficulties are repetitive, occurring every night. A single mobius strip image is used to represent a never ending experience.
The book abruptly brings with mobius strip images set with dissonance to encourage multiple eye paths, there is no one way to navigate the imagery. Throughout the book there are 365 images, nodding to an annual timeline. Although the number of images has this significance, the reader is not expected to count or catch on to this fact. Rather, the visualization uses this number to overwhelm, show variety in repetition and an unease of navigation. There is no grid and each image is individually altered in scale and rotation so they're slightly unique, every day can be a little bit different. A qualitative representation depicting potential variation of experience and abundance is communicated through these attributes as oppose to a quantitative calendar related to particular days, leaving affect subject to chance.