Team: Binru Liu/ Catherine Achieng/ Qendresa Selimi/ Zhaolu Song
Brief: Re-design the acoustic properties of a physical space.
Time: 30.04.2021-06.05.2021
Last week, we did general research about sound and emotion. This week, we will continue research and find some inspiration by conducting several sound experiments.
Meeting with BitterSuite
We started this week with a meeting with Stephanie Singer for further explanations. She introduced us time-experience diagram that would help us to plan the journey of performance at the beginning stage and suggested we use backcasting to think about how to get the peak in the diagram.
Backcasting to a desirable future.
For the journey planning, Steph talked about the seven stages of tension by Jaques Lecoq: pondlife - cool cowboy - stage manager - playful toddler- mild panic - panic – meltdown. She mentioned it’s important to find the most suitable beginning from many possible beginnings in the early stage. I feel getting the audience out of the scene is as important as setting it so I asked what she will do after each performance. Steph answered leave them space and time for thinking and sharing and don’t rush in the end, which I think is also a good interaction between designers and audiences.
After the meeting, I was wondering is there a method to find the most favorable beginning and how to define ‘favorable’ among different people. Through discussion with my team, we thought speed dating would be a good method to find the favorable one.
Sound Experiments
This project is more practice-based so we agreed to start from multi-perspectives instead of following a linear design process. We decided to don’t constrain our thinking and explored sound and space freely at first.
1.Sound mapping
To explore the relationship between sound and space, we tried to perceive and map sound in a physical space. Each of us conducted different ways to map sound.
According to the micro spaces we brainstormed last week, I tried to map the sound in my bedroom firstly. However, I found I can barely discern the direction of the sound outside my bedroom and collect different sounds from other people. In the end, I went to a store which is an open space with many people and map the sound around me with my eyes closed. The interesting thing I found was that I focused more on sound than I usually did and even started inferring the information from the sound, such as how old is the man who is talking and what’s the most popular products could be. In short, sound is a strong method to transfer information.
Sound mapping in a store. Sketch by me.
Binru, Catherine and Qendresa also did sound mapping in the kitchen, park and street separately. When listening to the sound they recorded, I found these everyday sounds aroused some of my memories even I never heard them before, which also demonstrates the strong empathy power of sound.
Sound mapping in a street. Video by Qendresa.
Sound mapping in a kitchen. Picture by Binru.
Sound mapping in a park & street. Picture by Catherine.
2.Sound visualization
BitterSuite focuses on the multi-sensory experience of music, which also inspired me to explore the relationship between other senses and sound. I started to connect vision and sound by sound vibration and frequency.
Sound visualization test: sound vibration. Video by me.
Sound visualization test: sound frequency. Video by me.
Though I didn’t really get inspiration from that, I believe it’s still a meaningful try and might be used in the future. No attempt is a bad attempt.
Ethics?
In our recap meeting, I mentioned my experience in the store and how the sound conveys information. Catherine also agreed that and found sound could be very powerful in arousing people’s emotions. For that reason, she worried some kinds of sound could be very touchy for some and cause ethics problems. We all agreed that it must be carefully considered and tested before deciding which sound to use.
Weekly presentation
Some initial ideas. Sketch by me.
We displayed our sound experiments and some initial ideas to our classmates. Some thought it’s a good way to explore sound, but some also questioned how we will apply these experiments in our design. John advised us to narrow down our approaches and think what the experience we want to create. Ala suggested we look back to micro spaces and how the interactions will happen between sound and space.
My lovely team! Photo by Qendresa.
Reflection
This week, we tried a different design method that starting from chaos. So far, I worried that there is a problem we haven't addressed well is that what is the meaning of this design. By redesigning the acoustic properties of space, what kind of experience will the audiences receive? I have to say we haven’t had a clear view and we need to figure it out later.
Next week, we will plan our sound journey by time-experience diagram and focus on the related approach and conduct an in-depth study.
References
FurgelFyn. (2015) ‘Salt Vibrations: Sounds You Can SEE!’, Available at: https://frugalfun4boys.com/science-demonstration-kids-sound-vibrations/ (Accessed:3rd May 2021)
Hidden Architecture. (2017) ‘Cushicle and Suitaloon’, Available at: http://hiddenarchitecture.net/cushicle-and-suitaloon/ (Accessed:3rd May 2021)
Sweden, B, et al. (1994) ‘Auditory information processing in sleep: habituation to repetitive stimuli’, Neuropsychobiology, 30(2-3), pp. 143-147. doi: 10.1159/000119149.
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