Unspoken Symphony doesn't fit neatly into a category.

It is equal parts art, technology, and music all working together in a first-of-its-kind idea that transforms artwork into a musical experience. Providing a much-needed way for severely impaired, nonverbal children to connect with their families and be heard.

Unspoken Symphony marks a new direction for the healthcare sector of our industry - proving that creativity and innovation can (and should) improve lives beyond what medicine is capable of on its own.

Situation: Thousands with severe epilepsy struggle with motor skills and communication. Many are completely non-verbal, like our inspiration, Riley. Her family connected through music – but she was unable to speak, write, or play an instrument.

Brief: A company who manufactures a seizure-reducing treatment made a promise to innovate beyond medicine, to improve the lives of patients and caregivers.

In search of an important unmet need to impact, it revealed itself in a conversation with Riley's dad. Speaking about Riley, he said, "It's not easy to get to know someone who can't talk." It was heartbreaking to hear, and the beginning of a challenge we became obsessed with addressing.

Objective: Give nonverbal children like Riley, and their families, another way to connect. While increasing brand recognition and affinity for Greenwich Biosciences.

Inspired by Riley’s story, our idea was to transform artwork into music (a form of expression with known cognitive benefits). Nothing quite like it existed, so we created an original technology with a team that included former Disney Imagineers, music therapists, and Grammy-winning producers/composers. The result? A first of its kind, musical experience that captures the emotion within a child’s art – through an elaborate algorithm that picks up on colors, shapes, lines, and density – and turns it into a bespoke song.

Unspoken Symphony started small, for children with severe epilepsy. It then expanded to the entire nonverbal community. Today, anyone can experience it: Upload art (mobile/desktop), choose instruments, compose a melody. Immortalize it by submitting to the gallery, sharing on social, getting the sheet music. See what your art has to say at unspokensymphony.com.

*Because of Unspoken Symphony, music can now be played by art.

The target audience was children with severe epilepsy and their caregivers. Specifically, those who are part of a community that a medicine for Greenwich Biosciences (Epidiolex) can treat. Most patients have impaired motor skills and struggle to communicate. Many are nonverbal, altogether.

Simply put: epilepsy affects everything. The patient, their parents, siblings, etc. While medicine can treat seizures, there are other human and life challenges that it cannot. Our approach was to make a healthcare brand more than the medicine alone.

The process was to identify challenges that a creative idea can address, to improve life for patients and caregivers. It began by spending time with them and understanding their lives. Observation and human interaction led us to the problem and solution.

Once landing on the idea of Unspoken Symphony, our goal was to make the technology accessible, the experience seamless, and for users to want to do it again.

The hero of Unspoken Symphony is the original technology that turns artwork into a music. It took 9 months to build the prototype. Then another 4 months to update it, based on learnings, for the broader nonverbal community.

The result was an elaborate algorithm that picks up emotional, artistic nuances. Shapes and patterns = tempo, dominant colors = key chord progressions, brightness/contrast = musical styles and density = melody timing and pitch. To allow patients to interact with the experience more, we built in functionality that lets users choose instruments, too.

With a small budget for placement, there was a satellite media tour, and it was announced on Greenwich Biosciences' and advocacy's platforms. It was also organically featured in the Neuberger Museum of Art and in publications.

Scale: It is big enough for the world to enjoy, but specifically for the nonverbal community within Greenwich Biosciences' audience.

Since the launch of the site in September 2020, there are 45,000+ visitors, and 5500+ unspoken symphonies created. Greenwich Biosciences had their most talked about month of the year. Families with nonverbal children and adults shared the experience on social with doctors, hospitals, neurologists, and at long-term care facilities. Parents and caregivers framed their child’s sheet music to display in their homes, gifted it to grandparents, and thanked us for creating something so special just for them.

Former Pixar engineers and Grammy-award-winning producers and composers took notice and collaborated with us to expand the technology. A musician with a speech impediment created a demo inspired by Riley’s original watercolor, for free. Greenwich Biosciences lived up to their mission of putting patients first, and increased brand affinity exponentially.

Today, music therapists continue to use the platform with nonverbal patients, and it was recently featured in The Neuberger Museum of Art.