Tinnitus and the Arts Workshop activity 1b responses: Tinnitus Portrait

In 2021, Marie Thompson (The Open University), Patrick Farmer (Oxford Brookes University) and Sally Blackburn-Daniels (The Open University) ran a series of online workshops exploring how art activities might be used to share different experiences of tinnitus. The purpose of the workshops was to explore the following questions: 

• Can art activities be used by people with tinnitus to share their experiences? 
• Can art activities enrich understandings of tinnitus, and the diverse ways it affects listeners? 
• How might engaging in art activities about tinnitus be beneficial to members of the tinnitus community?

Participants were given instructions for six art activities and asked to complete at least two. The activities allowed participants to use a range of creative methods, including drawing, map-making, creative writing, and sound recording. No previous experience was needed to take part. Participants were asked to share their responses with the project team, as well as any thoughts they had about the activities. 

These are the submitted responses to the Tinnitus and the Arts Workshop activity 2: Tinnitus Portrait, whereby participants were asked to develop a self-portrait that includes tinnitus, showing where the sound travels from and to.