Brief: Re-design the acoustic properties of a physical space.
Team: Cat, Qendresa, Zhaolu, Binru.
Based on the feedback we received last week, our group spent the week working in-depth on the three initial ideas we had presented earlier and trying to achieve them. Each of us tried to create our sound mapping. In addition, we had some new ideas such as Sound Visualisation, Sounds & Dreams, Sound & Dinners and Embodied Experience.
Micro space
Firstly, our group summarised the previous week’s research and then selected people’s personal lives as our design direction while exploring the home as a micro space.
Sound mapping
Sound mapping is a tool that can help people record the sounds they can hear and where the sounds from.
Every group member chose a location and made our sound mapping, and they were Greenwich Park, a kitchen, a shop and a street.
Greenwich Park (Cat):
This sound was recorded in the park on a forest path and included birds chirping and the sound of the wind.
This sound was recorded in the street near the park and included the sounds of cars, people talking and the wind.
Kitchen (Binru):
This is the sound of a hot pot being boiled.
This is the sound of chopping vegetables.
Shop (Zhaolu):
This sound includes the sound of people picking up goods, walking and refrigerators working.
A street (Qendresa):
This sound includes the sound of birds chirping, children playing, cars moving, and people talking.
Sound Visualisation
Zhaolu tried to represent sound through visual forms. This video shows some sand dancing with the music.
This video shows the sound waves of ambient sound combined with pictures of the current environment.
Sound & Dream
Some articles suggest that information processing may continue during sleep. Even while people are asleep, they can be influenced by some external sounds that can produce dreams (Sweden et al., 1994).
This idea was to design a micro space about dreams and use sound to help people remember their sweet dreams.
Sound & Dinner
The idea is to design a micro space for dinner. In this micro space, users can hear some sounds, which help them enjoy their dinner better.
Embodied Experience
Feedback & Reflection
After presenting our progress, we got some valuable feedback which is very useful to help us narrow down our ideas. Most people like our Sound mapping and Sound & Dream, and they think that sound mapping can help people record good memories. Through the relationship between sound and dreams, we might use sound to help people evoke memories or find a relationship between people and sound in a space. Our tutor suggested that we should enhance the connection between space and sound and find the change in it. This change does not have to be in the sound, and it could also be in the space or the person.
In my opinion, sound is a medium that mediates the relationship between people and the environment. Because sound needs to be transmitted in space, the sound itself is the environment or part of the space. Currently, most people tend to discuss the meaning or content of sound, and they ignore the interaction of sound as an environment with the human senses. Our group should do something that allows people to interact with the sound environment rather than just receive information about the sound.
Next week, our group planned to run more experiments, record more sounds, and combine Sound Mapping and Sound & Dreams. We would like to allow the user to experience the interaction between sound and the human senses.
