UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — “Sounding the Abstract,” a multimedia installation created by Woohun Joo, assistant professor of digital arts and media design in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture's School of Visual Arts, will open on Sept. 19 at the Woskob Family Gallery, located at 146 S. Allen Street in downtown State College, and be on view until Jan. 2, 2026.
The installation explores the relationship between visual and auditory perception by creating ambient soundscapes that correspond to geometric artworks through a real-time "reading" of the images.
Using a custom-built system, eight geometric images are scanned line by line, both horizontally and vertically, and converted into ambient and drone sounds. Each image functions as both a visual composition and an audio score, where color and form shape the sonic experience.
The process Joo uses for the installation is called sonification, which is a focus area of his research. As a visual designer, audiovisual artist, sound designer and researcher in sonification, Joo’s projects primarily explore the transfer of minimalistic visual art into auditory domains. He also investigates methods to visualize his sound-making processes in reverse and seamlessly integrate sonification with visual narratives.
According to Joo, by transforming visual compositions into immersive audio, “Sounding the Abstract” invites audiences to reconsider how we perceive and interpret non-representational art.
“The colors in each image determine the main sound characteristics, while other visual elements are used to modulate various characteristics of the sound,” Joo explained. “These connections between image and sound create evolving sonic textures, producing a multisensory experience that blurs the boundary between what we see and what we hear.”
By converting abstract visual compositions into sound, Joo said “Sounding the Abstract” challenges conventional modes of perception and interpretation. It poses questions like: What does an image sound like? How might listening change the way we understand visual abstraction?
Through this synesthetic approach — where one sense triggers another — the work encourages audiences to reconsider the sensory limits of visual art and discover new ways of experiencing form, color and space.
Joo's research and audiovisual installations have been presented at notable international conferences such as ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM Audio Mostly, the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, the International Conference on Auditory Display and the International Computer Music Conference. Through collaborations with various digital media artists, he has participated in exhibitions and commissioned projects at major exhibition spaces in South Korea, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Lotte Gallery Art Hall.
Classes, student organizations and university offices are encouraged to visit the Woskob Family Gallery, a unit of the College of Arts and Architecture. Inquiries can be directed to woskob@psu.edu. For more information on this and other exhibitions, visit the gallery’s website. Keep up to date with the Woskob Family Gallery by signing up for its Listserv or following on Instagram @woskobfamilygallery.