Through Sept. 13, the Tyler Atrium at Temple University will present Sonic Drawings, an interdisciplinary installation that transforms sound into something visitors can see, feel and explore. The project creates a shfting landscape of light patterns, geometric sand forms and resonant sculptural chambers, all powered by sound waves.
Sonic Drawings is a collaboration between Erin Rose Boyle, assistant director of academic enrichment and adjunct faculty at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture; Sandra James, senior systems administrator and adjunct faculty at the Boyer College of Music and Dance; Hannah Tardie, makerspace manager at the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio; and Judith Addison Diehl, MFA candidate in ceramics expected to graduate in 2026.
The installation combines three components into a unified sensory experience. Laser oscilloscopes convert sound vibrations into curves projected onto walls and glow-in-the-dark surfaces. Sculptures modeled after “Chladni plates” transform frequencies into patterns in sand. The plates are named after Ernst Chladni, an early 19th-century German scientist and pioneer of experimental acoustics whose research provided one of the first ways to visualize the effects of vibrations on mechanical surfaces. A ceramic speaking tube, based on 19th-century “voicepipe” technology, carries sound across space, surprising listeners at the far end with clarity and resonance.
Visitors can experience the work passively, watching patterns emerge and dissolve, or actively by generating their own soundscapes with connected electronic instruments. Scheduled “plug and play” sessions will invite participants to connect their own sound generators to the installation. From synthesized tones to live instruments, every sound alters the visual field in real time.
Diehl’s ceramic work links historic sound technology with contemporary art practice. Her hand-thrown ceramic vessels are designed to complement the other sculptural forms in the installation.
For Boyle, the project is as much about collaboration and experimentation as it is about the visual effect. “It’s an opportunity for students to see how art, technology and sound can intersect in ways that are playful, participatory and technically driven,” she said.
James brings expertise in music technology and performance, curating soundscapes that range from minimal tones to layered textures. She manages computers and technology for labs, classrooms, faculty and staff at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, and teaches analog and modular sound synthesis as part of the music technology curriculum. She also creates installations, fixed media pieces and performances using a combination of analog and computer-based sound synthesis.
In 2024, Tardie launched Temple University Libraries’ Electronics Faire, an interdisciplinary event that highlights work with electronics across the arts and humanities, both within and beyond Philadelphia. The event builds community among practitioners and expands access to electronic-making practices. This fall, the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio Makerspace added an electronics lab open to all Temple University students, faculty and staff interested in research or creative work with electronics.
“Teaching and making art with electronics allows for engagement beyond the typical framework in which users are disempowered and surveilled,” Tardie said. “It’s important to facilitate relationships where learners can move beyond passive roles and instead make, break, repair and hack electronic devices and systems. I want students to see electronics not as tools controlled by corporations but as systems that we can build for our communities.”
Sonic Drawings is open daily during building hours. Live activations will take place during the first three weeks of the fall semester on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to noon in the Tyler Atrium.
Additional programming will continue throughout the academic year, including a synthesizer-building workshop led by Tardie, scheduled in the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio at Charles Library at the start of the spring semester. Tyler students interested in further exploring sound visualizations and electronic media can use a non-studio elective to sign up for a music technology class at the Boyer College of Music and Dance.