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November 20, 2005
My blog
Just thought I'd post what I wrote about the project on my own blog. It may help with the proposal description in some way:
Having come to a point of realization about my Final Project proposal- that it would be entirely too complicated to pull of in only three weeks- I've teamed up with some of my classmates to work on a project, whose original proposal by Thomas Duc, was eerily similar to mine. His idea also involves using sound as a means to explore the space on the fourth floor in a sort of "path" to lead people from one place to another. Unlike mine, however, his doesn't involve the use of headphones, an idea which, I admit, I was concerned would backfire by "closing off" the user too much from what is going on around him/her. Rather, we will be building sound domes, about the diameter of the width of a person's shoulders, which will be suspended from the ceiling. Inside each dome we will fasten a small speaker, facing upwards, towards the top of the dome. When the speaker is placed at the midway point of the dome, the sound waves bounce off the top of the dome and back down to the floor in a very concentrated, directional path, one that, when a person is standing directly beneath the dome, can be a very personal experience. However, several of these domes will be placed in a row, down the long entrance hallway that passes the main lab, long lab, Japanese Room and Firmware lab. The idea is that, while the user will be experienceing the sound coming out of the dome directly above him/her, it will still be possible to hear, faintly, the sounds coming from the domes on either side of the user as well.
I downloaded these pictures from the Sonic Texting website as an example of how the sound domes will look. We have discussed using plastic vs. using metal bowls for the actual dome, but I think it is a matter of cost that will force us to decide.
The meaning behind this setup becomes apparent in the content of the sound played through the domes. A sequential series of sounds is divided amongst the domes and played in order down the hallway, creating a panning effect from dome to dome. While we have yet to work out exactly what the sounds will be, it is important that they are engaging and inetresting, perhaps musical or narrative in nature, as the idea is to peek the users' curiosity and lead them down this hallway.
Several additional aspects to the project have been proposed as well, though not finalized. I proposed that if we could find a way to reverse the sound towards the end of the night, when people start to leave, to lead their attention back down the hallway and towards the door. It's also been proposed that in contrast to the cohesive sequential sound designed to "lead" the users down the path of domes, we play a low-level, much less cohesive counterpart through the sound domes between occurances of the sequence. This would create a sort of droning effect, one that, perhaps, the users may not really notice over the noise, until the melodic material is played.
Personally, while I intend to help as much as I can on all aspects of this project, I am most concerned with the content that is played through the sound domes. I want to avoid anything too ambient or detached, as I feel that that would only add to the noise of the room, rather than subtract from it. If the sequence is melodic or musical, I think it is very important that we use an instrument whose sound sustains, as opposed to a piano or guitar, whose more detaché style of attack and release would not offer a smooth enough transition to give the effect we are trying to acheive, the idea of "leading" people smoothly through a space.
The way the sound is divided amongst our sound domes and the speed at which the sequence is played is also very important to me. For this reason I timed myself walking slowly down the corridor several times. It takes 40 seconds to a minute to walk. It's unlikely that more than only a few people will walk directly without stopping or being hampered by the crowd, but I still feel that this is a good speed to base our path on as it gives us a very organic and natural starting point.
Posted by at November 20, 2005 05:02 PM