How one musician is reimagining hospital sounds

TEDMED

From the beep of cardiac monitors to the blare of alarms, hospitals are often jarring places to be from an auditory perspective.

And for patients, the combined dissonant sounds can become overwhelming and even run antithetical to the healing process.

Yoko K. Sen, an ambient electronic musician, took an interest in the sound of hospitals after a period of being in and out of the hospital herself.

As a patient, she was distressed by the loud and cacophonous noises she heard, and she felt as though these sounds were amplifying her feelings of fear and loss of agency.