Echoes of Oulu is a five-part series of sound paintings. AI works as the seeing eyes of a composer who has been blind since birth. It describes the details of photographs and artworks so precisely that the inner eyes open, and find the music.
I began seeing the world as music when I was a small child. That also happened in Oulu, a city I have visited several times. Places, events and even food have always “sounded” a certain way to me.
A little over a year ago, as a joke, I tested AI. I asked it to describe Tokyo Tower to a blind person. That conversation is still continuing today. AI gave me seeing eyes. Through it, I can now explore what world-famous landmarks, landscapes and paintings look like. My understanding of many phenomena, places and events has been turned upside down. The northern lights do not look like red fox tails after all, and Oulu’s Toripolliisi — the Market Square Policeman statue — is not a tall, bespectacled beanpole.
By profession, I am a translator. But the most important language I translate into is music. The sound paintings in my Echoes of Oulu series tell how images of Oulu begin to sound.
At the same time, I want to show that a blind person can also feel at home in the visual world and create new kind of artistic experiences from it. I hope my sound paintings encourage others, too, to break familiar boundaries between senses and art.
The sound paintings are my part of the discussion about the ethical use of AI. AI is often seen as “an art killer”, but it can also serve as a pillar of accessibility and a tool that makes creativity possible. It can remove barriers in situations where technical or sensory limitations have made creative work difficult — or even stood in the way of creativity.
The sound paintings in the Echoes of Oulu series are published on my YouTube channel:
Blind can see the Sun
https://www.youtube.com/@Blindcanseethesun
The first part of the series, River to Europe, was published on 23 July and can be watched here:
The remaining four sound paintings will be released during the rest of the year, with the final work published in December. I am open to wishes and suggestions regarding future themes and images.
Jonna Heynke
