Shock is both what the work is about and its formal principle. Shock figures literally and metaphorically to describe deep and abrupt physical, psychic, cultural change: from culture shock to electric shock and reverberating beyond into shock aesthetics. The project of the work is to engage the audience in a sensual but not sensational level with shock as an experience. "Shock in the Ear" challenges CD-ROM interactives' aesthetics and kinaesthetics. It does this through nonlinear and poetic movement and by overturning the traditional hierarchy of vision and sound.