Whispering (2016-2022) is a series of sound installations where acoustic resonators designed after human vocal tract models create whisper-like sounds by the air flowing through them.

Whispering I (2016) utilizes compressed air flowing through 3D-printed acoustic resonators shaped after the forms that human vocal tract takes during speech. The sounds that the viewer hears while walking around the space resemble human whispering, as well as breathing. Sound sequences are controlled by a microprocessor and are based on the probabilities of the alphabet’s letters to succeed each other in a collection of texts, thus reflecting rhythms in language. The project was supported by BStart.

Whispering II (2017) utilized air blowers, silicon tubes, clamps and gramo­­phone horns. Noisy fan noise from the blower fan is filtered by the silicon tube clamped from different positions, inspired by simplified models of the human vocal tract producing vowels.

Whispering III (2022) consists of aluminum tube resonators, pneumatic valves, hoses, an air compressor, and a microprocessor controlling the air flow. The shapes of acoustic resonators are based on simplified vowel models producing the sounds A, E, O, U, and I. The sound sequences they produce are random. (Photos by Zeynep Fırat)