The visualization of sounds is, arguably, a modern phenomenon, another fall-out from the cathode-ray tube (CRT). I'm sure there is a whole history wrapped up with the subject as CRTs, especially in the form of oscilloscopes, must have benefited from all the tinkering the telegraph industry did with devices to represent Morse code and the various ingenious devices our ancestors were exposed to in the form of player pianos, phonographs and other such things. When the oscilloscope came along, we were primed and ready.

All that was provoked by this image.

Something else: There's this odd little Florida bird that makes a sort of high pitched squeak. It's a quite indescribable sound. Much to my delight, I realized today that it is almost exactly reproduced by dropping  a spoon in a ceramic bowl. What would that look like?