Warscapes. Sound visualisation
Charcoal sound experiments on paper, 2024–2025
Warscapes. Sound Visualisation is a series of charcoal drawings created in 2024–2025 as part of the Media Studies II programme at the Royal College of Art. The works investigate how sound can be represented visually, translating recordings of war made by people in different parts of Ukraine into graphic form.
The drawings were produced through sound experiments on paper, using pressure, rhythm, and repetition to register the impact of sound as marks. Charcoal was chosen for its immediacy and expressive range — from soft, atmospheric tones to sharp, dense lines.
The material also carries a deeper resonance: charcoal originates from coal, a resource drawn from the mines in Eastern Ukraine, now active battlefields. In this context, the medium itself becomes a metaphor for the destruction Ukraine is going through — fragile dust and violent residue turned into an act of recording and remembrance.
These drawings later formed the foundation of the artist’s book Warscapes. Listening to Ukraine, where they were accompanied by the testimonies of the same people whose recordings shaped the series.
