Brainstorming
Week #1
In the next two weeks, Justin, Vedang, and I will be working on this first project. We've talked about doing the option where we imagine a sound installation. Vedang brought up focusing on environments that are supposed to be quiet, like museums, galleries, libraries, or the quiet car of a train. I've been brainstorming, and I think it would be cool to create a version of one of those places. Instead of the audience using the space to look at paintings or read a book, they need to think about how these aren't actually silent spaces. They may be quiet, but there is still some sort of spatial noise that is affecting the experience. How does the spatial noise change the way you inhabit a space? Maybe we could compare a gallery when it is empty vs. highly trafficked. Or we could create two separate rooms with a different kind of 'silent space' in each, and then switch the spatial noise. Now the library sounds like the quiet car of a train, and vice versa. Does that change the way the audience inhabits the space? I'll bring this up when I talk to them next!
Week #2
As a group, we decided to combine both Option B (creating new sounds for a preexisting system) and Option C (design a sound installation) for our project. We thought a bathroom tour, where the sounds are replaced with those from a kitchen, would be kind cool. In both spaces, an individual often has a set routine that they follow, and they probably get used to the sounds that they expect to hear and might even tune them out. We were thinking about the Haley Shaw reading, where she creates scores that go "left of center." In the same vein, we wanted to use sounds that are either similar to the ones being replaced or created through similar motions/actions. We wanted to explore how changing spatial noise might affect the routine of the user and/or if there would be changes that are more or less obvious.
Initial Planning
Collecting Sounds
Our group was initially just me, Justin, and Vedang, so we each collected two sounds from our respective kitchens, which correlated with the ones we wanted to include in the installation. I did the fridge ventilation (i.e. bathroom fan) and the spong scrubbing (i.e. brushing teeth). Justin edited together the recordings over the weekend (9/14/24).
Fridge Ventilation
Sponge Scrubbing
Full Audio Cut
Execution
Originally we had planned to do some sort of slides presentation because a visual component seemed necessary. However, a slide show wouldn't really emulate the experience of an installation and we decided to rethink. Thankfully, Niki joined our group during the second week of the project and had experience in illustration and video editing (yay!). She designed the isometric bathroom floor plan, and created a video in Adobe After Effects that we could use to present the audio cut in a fun way. Vedang and I worked on doing a write-up for our presentation. I've attached the deliverables below!