This project critically engages with sound as a medium, using the Swiss national anthem, Schweizerpsalm, composed by the monk Alberich Zwyssig and written by poet Leonhard Widmer in 1841, as a case study. National anthems are often treated as neutral symbols of cohesion and community; however, they also work as a media that organise community, authority, and belonging. The anthem creates a collective national identity through rhythm, pitch, harmony, and lyrics, but at the same time leaves gendered and marginalised voices out. This project examines how national sound shapes gendered identity and how breaking its conventions can expose hidden power structures. It takes the form of a triptych, deconstructing the anthem into its fundamental elements: voice, rhythm, and pitch.

The work is a media object that alters how sound is usually experienced. It was developed by analysing the Schweizerpsalm’s first and last verses at a sonic level. I broke the anthem down into vowels, rhythm, and pitch, transposing these musical elements into abstract graphic patterns. Through a series of rough drafts, I experimented with visuals, shapes, and scales to evoke sonic variation without prescribing a single interpretation. The vowels were translated into circles and lines, the rhythm into large or small rectangles according to the length of the music note and the pitch, as a single line moving to different heights; all three can be read simultaneously. The triptych is a deliberate choice, as it is historically associated with religious altarpieces and recalls the anthem’s devotional structure and its close relationship to Christian worship. This format directly invokes the sacred authority traditionally associated with national religious symbols. It is used to desacralise the authority in order to reopen it. The panels separate the anthem into elements that can be approached individually. The piece challenges the idea that national unity must be imposed. It presents it as something that can be rebuilt using shared interpretation.