Team: Binru Liu/ Catherine Achieng/ Qendresa Selimi/ Zhaolu Song
Brief: Re-design the acoustic properties of a physical space.
Time: 04.06.2021-10.06.2021
This exciting week is the final week of the Micro UX unit. We will have our final presentation and show our design to all classmates, tutors, and our partner.
More interactions
Last week, there was another common feedback that there was no instruction about what to do next after sitting down. Should we record instruction and play it before starting the experience? How to increase interaction between sound and people? What if the surroundings are something that interacts with the user? Catherine suggested we could record some conversational interactions and eye contact interactions between us and participants to increase engagement. To make the experience more immersive and interactive, we tried to use two projectors and play the videos at the same time.
Working process. Photo by Qendresa.
Projector testing. Photo by me.
Projector testing. Video by me.
Soundscape Design
What we wanted to create is not a flat sound but a sound with spatial property, which is called soundscape. It is the acoustic environment as it is perceived and understood by people in context and most importantly it defines sound as an environmental resource much like air quality, water, or landscape (ISO, 2014).
Different effects of different soundscapes. Diagram by Catherine.
Sound makes a space a place and it can affect everything that we do psychologically, emotionally and physically (Layton, 2018). If we design an all-around soundscape, can we affect people’s emotions greatly? Or even awake their memories? Thinking about it, we decided to create a feeling that people are hugged by sound. To better explain the soundscape we designed, I draw the following illustration. The participant will heat four different kinds of sound. There are some girls talking on the left side, some boys talking on the right side, and the participant’s friends are talking in front of him/her. Besides, the general background sound, such as the sound of cutlery, making food and moving table.
The soundscape we designed. Illustration by me.
Final presentation and my thinking
On Thursday, we were very excited to present our final design to our class and partner and it went very well!
Final presentation. Photo by John Fass.
Steph said she quite enjoyed the journey she was taken on and almost forgot that it was just a sound. Many people felt the experience was very reflective and remind them of different things. Some felt they were there but not there at the same time, some felt their memories were being provoked from a long time ago. What surprised me was that someone said this experience made him sad and emotional as the setting is so real and close to life. I didn’t think it at all when we were doing the design. Sad, for sure, was not what we intended to convey in this project. However, I don’t see it as a negative thing. I think the decoding should be diverse and that’s exactly why the story is interesting and attractive.
There were also some points we need to think it further. For example, the conversation is still simple and we need to think about the specific content, like an intimate/ critical conversation between friends, what might the whole journey be like, and how could we emphasize experiencing connectedness.
Some words for these days
I really enjoyed this project though there are still some regrets due to the limited time. It’s a quite hard and abstract brief but it did push us to think more outside the box and explore how the sound affects people’s emotions and experience. During the whole project, we recorded more almost a hundred audio files and I have developed the habit of recording my daily life. When listening to the replay, sometimes I might not relate myself to the specific moment, but I think of many similar moments from my past experience, even some moments in the future. In all, sound is very powerful and charming not only in a personal way but also in an empathic way.
References
ISO. (2014) Acoustics - Soundscape - Part 1: Definition and conceptual framework. Available at: https://www.iso.org/standard/52161.html. (Accessed: 16 May 2021).
Layton, R. (2018). Soundscape: How it Affects Body and Mind. TEDxProvincetown. 17th August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTm7LVo3LQg (Accessed: 16 May 2021).
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