William Shaw is a Wellington-based visual effects artist. His project Synaesthetic Sanctuary explores alternative ways of perceiving sound by translating native New Zealand bird songs into generative visual forms. Using procedural tools and custom workflows in Houdini, Shaw moves beyond conventional scientific sound graphs to create intuitive, sensory representations of rhythm, pitch, and texture. The work is inspired by synaesthesia, phonaesthetics, and the richness of Aotearoa’s natural soundscape, translating bird calls into a generative audio-visual design system. Shaw’s practice bridges art, technology, and environmental storytelling, encouraging deeper emotional engagement with New Zealand’s native bird life.