Brief: Re-design the acoustic properties of a physical space.
Team: Cat, Qendresa, Zhaolu, Binru.
Seminar review
This week, we discussed chapter 2 of Shoshana Zuboff’s “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” together in the seminar. This article talks about the reasons for the formation of surveillance capitalism and its influence on people’s lives. If surveillance capitalism is allowed to develop without control, it will become a significant threat to the democratic system. Surveillance capitalism forces us to provide our privacy to obtain services through some methods.
After reading this article and discussing it with my classmates, I realised that in the gaming world, where everything seems to be for the players, it is still influenced by surveillance capitalism. Many games are currently tied to social media. Therefore, the players are not only paying for their time and money on the game, and their social networks are also being used as a free resource to promote and market the game. The advantage of the “Game + Social media” model is that the connections between acquaintances are further strengthened and reinforced by shared hobbies. However, while players have access to the social functions built into the game, their hours of play and personal information are unavoidably monitored. Once a player has not played a game for a period, the game will remind them to return to it. Under the influence of surveillance capitalism, players are not only unable to safeguard their right to privacy, but their ability to think for themselves is also limited and misguided.
Exploration
Our group spent this week improving the immersive experience of the sound journey. Firstly we did an “Artefact analysis” about the dining table, then we recorded new surround sounds and tried to produce some sound visualisation outcomes.
Artefact analysis
Sound visualisation
The new sound
Metaphor sound
Our group had designed a metaphor sound, which is a metaphor for real sound in a natural environment. We hoped that people could feel the micro space better and understand the acoustic characteristics inside. In addition, the metaphor sound represented the sound that could be heard at the table, and it could strengthen the connection between people and the micro space.
Feedback & Reflection
This week we had a big “Speed dating” session, in which everyone participated. Our tutors and classmates gave us much useful feedback during “Speed dating”. I have summarised the feedback I received and have come up with the following results.
1. The sounds presented by our group were not natural enough and sounded artificial.
2. The sound story was not realistic enough and was too stage.
3. Only the audio experience can be a bit boring.
Our group analysed this feedback after class and made a work plan for the following week. As our tutors mentioned that our sound stories were not realistic enough, we decided to go ahead and record a sound included in an actual event, a meal at a restaurant or a picnic. We should create a realistic experience for the users and make the sound story include much more actions. In my opinion, we can try to allow users to interact with sound stories. Sound stories may influence the user’s emotions and give them a better immersive experience.
