Zeping Fei | Visual Emotions: A Multi-sensory Photography Series

 
Visual Emotions: A Multi-sensory Documentary Photography Series is an audiovisual installation that creates a sonic viewing experience for digital photography. Unlike many galleries’ traditional way of exhibiting photographic works in physical printed forms, this project displays a series of three dynamic documentary photos on three separate screens. The audience is encouraged to listen to the sound from each screen while observing the audio-reactive visuals from the photos.
In my photography practice, each shutter press is triggered by an emotional resonance between the self and the environment. The use of audio data, unique to each photograph, enhances access to the personal emotions that arise from each situation. This photo series was taken to document one of Harbin’s oldest and most vibrant morning markets while sound clips were recorded at the same time from the environments where the photographs were taken.
The audio clips, which can be heard by the viewer through headphones located near each photograph, are processed into frequency spectra, and the size and range of the spectra are manipulated in Touchdesigner with multiple mathematical algorithms. These audio data outputs affect positions, colors, brightness and sizes of the pixels in the rendered photos displayed on 25.0 cm x 16.5 cm screens mounted at eye-level. By engaging both visual and auditory sensations from the audience, this project proposes an alternative display for photographic works and aims at opening up space for imagination and interpretation.
This project fuses the two senses to embody personal emotional resonance, a response to how economic instability caused by COVID-19 has impacted common people’s living conditions. The audio clips reveal conversations about the immediate conditions in the market. Through diminished levels of market activity that can be experienced in both sensory media, the audience feels the implications of the situation. This project speaks for the calmness within the ordinary as well as the longing for hope within helplessness during the toughest time in human history.