All sounds can be expressed as curves on the surface of a phonograph record.
––Torahiko Terada, from Test Tube
Sounds are translated into record grooves, and tracing the grooves produces the sounds again. It’s an extremely simple mechanism, but the fact that all those sounds can be compressed into a single groove remains amazing to this day.

I placed flexi-discs, cut into squares, on an enlarger, and printed the images on paper. The records’ grooves are magnified hundreds of times, allowing us to trace the forms of sounds with our eyes.
Combining amplification of the auditory with magnification of the visual creates a tactile sensation, as if we can feel the sounds with our eyes.