A typographically-led, experimental zine that transforms auditory experience into a visual and tactile reading journey. Reading Sounds is a translation of the audio description by Wiradjuri anti-disciplinary artist Joel Sherwood Spring of his work HOLECODED, presented in Deep Time Real Time at RMIT Design Hub (March–May 2025), alongside an interwoven soundscape by Michelle Nguyen (Noom), originally created for Montez Radio and performed at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia as part of Melbourne Now (2023).

At the heart of Reading Sounds is accessibility. Captioning and audio description, often treated as afterthoughts, are here integral, generative parts of the design. The voiceover transcript is typeset traditionally, while playful sound descriptions, cut-outs, and barrier-grid animations expand the perceptual and emotional space of the work.
By centering accessibility as an aesthetic force, the zine invites d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, as well as all readers, to experience sound in multidimensional ways, demonstrating how typography, layout, and interactivity can transform captioning and audio description from functional tools into creative, expansive, and vital elements of contemporary publishing.

Specifications

Printing: All artwork laser printed in CMYK

Paper Stocks:

* Coloured Tiziano Paper, 160gsm

* Fabriano Accademia Paper, 200gsm

* Overhead Transparency Film

Structural Material: Screen Board, 1.5mm

Binding: Rubber band binding.

Edition: Limited edition, handmade.

Typefaces: ITC Weidemann.

Dimensions: 150 x 210, portrait.