Welcome to the research blog for Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts. We will be updating this blog over the course of the project.

Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts is a 2-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project, bringing together Dr Marie Thompson of the University of Lincoln’s School of Film and Media, Dr Patrick Farmer from Oxford Brookes University’s Sonic Arts Research Unit, The British Tinnitus Association and Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency to investigate how the arts might help to enrich understandings of tinnitus and the diverse ways it affects listeners. 

Tinnitus is the conscious perception of sound for which there is no external source. Around 30% of people experience tinnitus at some point in their lives. Tinnitus tends to be thought of as un unpleasant ringing in the ears, but everyone’s tinnitus is different. Some people may hear whistling, buzzing, crackling or even music. Tinnitus may be constant or intermittent. Or it might change in relation to your mood or environment. In exploring the relationship between tinnitus and the creative arts, the project aims to expand common cultural tropes about the condition; and to develop new approaches for sharing experiences of tinnitus that can allow for its variability.    

As part of the project, people with tinnitus will be invited to participate in a series of one-day workshops, which will use artistic methods to interrogate and document different experiences of tinnitus. The project will also commission two artists to create new work relating to the project, which will feature in an exhibition at Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency.   

The project is supported by an advisory team consisting of the Professor of Hearing Sciences David Baguley (University of Nottingham); and  Professor of Acoustic Ecology and Sound Art John Levack Drever (Goldsmiths, University of London).