Since the emergence of Cubism, an increasing number of artists began incorporating words into their works, integrating language as a visual element. Throughout the 20th century, language played a crucial role in artistic movements such as Pop Art, Feminist Art, and Conceptual Art, where text acquired both conceptual and political significance.

For the purposes of this study, the work Boxer Rebellion by Jean-Michel Basquiat was selected. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) rose to prominence in the New York art scene in the late 1970s. He began as a street artist under the pseudonym SAMO, writing poetic and political slogans on the streets of Manhattan before transferring his distinctive visual language onto canvas.

Boxer Rebellion was created in 1982 and belongs to the most mature and productive period of Basquiat’s career, when his exploration of themes such as power, identity, and history had fully developed. The work depicts two opposing boxers rendered with bold lines and expressive distortion, reflecting characteristics of Neo-Expressionism and graffiti aesthetics. Boxing functions as a metaphor for struggle, recognition, and strength, while the title refers to the Boxer Rebellion (1899), reinforcing themes of conflict and power.

The sonic interpretation of Boxer Rebellion seeks to translate the visual and conceptual experience of the painting into an auditory form, creating a multisensory experience. Through the connection between microstructure and macrostructure, the intensity, climaxes, and contrasts of Basquiat’s work are conveyed through sound. The composition is created using Ableton Live and processed with digital tools such as EQ, reverb, delay, and sidechain compression.