Matthew McConway

For this module I will be focusing on the concept of sonic spatiality and materiality. Developing on my previous work in year two, I wish to actualise a physical representation of an acoustic environment, which represents both the acoustic features and material properties. I will be referencing fields such as aural architecture, acoustic design and psychoacoustics. I wish to place my work between art and design, in the context of previously mentioned fields and artists like Michael Asher and Brandon LaBelle. 

I wish to highlight 3 specific acoustic environments:

1. Natural environment
2. Domestic environment
3. Urban environment

Through the sonification of audio recordings using touch designer, I will create abstract 3d shapes, based on the amplitude and frequency of the recordings.

After making 3d renders of the shapes, I will modify them in blender so the shape can fit flat to a wall, before 3d printing the shape to act as a mould for the building material.

I wish to use materials that represent the physical build up of the recorded environment, and reflect the acoustic features of each environment too.

LaBelles ‘Room Tone’ is a project that spans over art, architecture and design. For me, this project is an interesting work challenging perceptions of sound and space from a social and design perspective. 

LaBelle provided participants with three audio recordings, each an acoustic representation of his apartment.

1. Ambient: Hum and background noise etc.
2. Measure: Rhythmic qualities of a lived space, such as footsteps.
3. Material: Textures of surfaces like walls and furniture.

From these recordings, collaborators had to interpret them as physical models of the space. Some artists created models that were a precise representation of the acoustic characteristics of the space, although some were more abstract, focusing on how sound can act as a binding agent, promoting socialising and community. Or how sound can evoke memory.

I feel these abstract interpretations of the recordings align with how I intend to represent sound in my prototype piece. Through shape and material, I wish to acknowledge how we feel and behave in different sonic environments, and how the materials of these environments are made up of can effect the sound of a space.

Key Quotes from https://www.sfmoma.org/read/room-tone/

“The acoustic properties of a space resonate with individual perception, opening room for creative and emotional interpretation”

“I imagine sound as something that is always already form and formlessness in one; it continually plays between states of recognizability while also inciting fantasy.”

“The house is an active and dense store of sounds, continuously evolving through inhabitation.”

“What emerged were not only models of space but maps of memory, emotion, and individual listening practices.”

“Sound reveals how spaces are not fixed but are constantly changing, shaped by movements, voices, and interactions.”

Hierarchy of the senses?

‘The Hierarchy of the senses was not the same [as on the twentieth c.] because the eye which rules today, found itself in third place, behind hearing and touch, and far after them. The eye that organises, classifies and orders was not the favoured organ of the time.’ 

Pallasmaa- The eye of the skin pg 28

‘The gradually growing hegemony of the eye seems to be parallel with the development of Western ego-consciousness and the gradually increasing separation of the self and the world’ 

‘Vision separates us from the world whereas the other senses unite us with it’- ** Use of headphones navigating an urban environment.

Pg.43

‘I experience myself on the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define eachother. I dwell on the city and the city dwells on me’

‘Our bodies and movements are on constant interaction with the environment, the world and the self inform and redefine eachother constantly. The percept of the body and the image of the world turn into one single continuous existential experience, there is no body separate from its domicile in space, and there is no space unrelated to the coconscious image of the perceiving self’

Pg. 45

‘The psychologist James J Gibson regards the senses of aggressively seeking mechanistic rather than mere passive XXX’

Link this to health effects of noise pollution?

ARCHITECTURE OF HEARING AND SMELL

ACCOUSTIC INTAMACY

Pg. 53

‘Sight isolates, whereas sound incorporates, vision is directional whereas sound is omni-directional’

‘The sense of sight implies exteriority, but sound creates an experience of interiority.’

‘I regards an object, but sound approaches me; the eye reaches, but the ear receives’

‘Buildings do not react to our gaze, but they do return sound back to our ears’

Acknowledge the soundscape of an environment and how and ‘aural architecture exist regardless of why they are intentionally designed

How do we perceive the urban environment?

Historic/Cultural values

How can sound make us feel?

Matching of visual and sonic

Contradicting sonic and visual elements, the response can conflict the intentions of use.

Explain with the shrinking of the ‘acoustic arena’ therefore ‘shrinking the distance of social interaction’

The Eyes Of The Skin 

“One can also recall the acoustic harshness of an uninhabited and unfurnished house as compared with the affability of a lived in home, in which sound is refracted and softened by numerous surfaces and objects of personal life” p.54

Life makes a space warm and soft, over time our possessions shape the sound of our space unintentionally. The sound of comfort and familiarity is not harsh to our ears. By designing an object with the intent of adding to the aural comfort of the space, a multifunctional object, soil for sentiment and comfort.

Invitation, hospitality not hostility. 

“A powerful architectural experience silences all external noise; it focuses our attention on our very existence, and as with all art, it makes us aware of our fundamental solitude.” p.55

Michael Asher was crucial in the evolution of conceptual, installation art in the late 1960s and 70s. With exhibitions such as ‘Spaces’ at The Museum of Modern Art in 1969 and work at Pomona College in 1970, Asher challenged the perceptions of what constitutes an art object.

 In ‘Spaces’ the auditory experience became the art. Asher modified the existing space by adding two extra walls, acoustically dampening the room, essentially silencing it. Through this minimalist intervention, Asher eliminated a visual division of the space which would occurred with visual/sculptural art, and created an experience of ‘Acoustical Absence’. Through this ‘subtle but invasive refashioning of gallery spaces” Asher highlights the systems that underly perception and emphasise sound as a form of spatial materiality.

Again, at Pomona College, Asher dismantled conventional boundaries by removing the gallery door, allowing the sound of the external world to enter the space. The triangular rooms with a narrow passage in between acted as an amplifier for these sounds, transforming the space into an ‘acoustic funnel’. By using the existing architecture of the space he is challenging both how we define space and our perception of it. 

In my own work, I wish to emphasise not only the sounds of a space, but how material affects the sonic environment. I find the use of sound as a form of spatial materiality incredibly inspiring. This uncovers a possible direction in which I can take my portfolio prototype. 

In this Ted talk, Treasure speaks on the relationship between sound, noise and space. He calls for designers to acknowledge and lend time to the sonic/acoustic properties of a space, not merely visual aspects. Treasure touches on a few different affects that an environment has on sound, and in turn, how this affects us as humans. Sound affects us psychologically, physiologically, cognitively and behaviourally, understanding the factors that contribute to these human changes, we can create a healthier sounding environment. By designing spaces with sound as an afterthought, we end up with environments that are pleasing to only the eye, limiting the effectiveness of our other senses. Treasure uses a very relatable example of a restaurant – a restaurant is a environment in which we relax and socialise, everything in a restaurant is designed with this in mind, though this is completely undermined by noise levels. It almost seems trivial to visually model a space around socialising, while neglecting the sonic elements, the exact medium in which socialising takes place. On communication, Treasure highlights that “if the space I’m sending in is not effective, the communication can’t happen”. I believe that designing a healthy sonic environment can be achieved eve when a building is finished, through means of acoustic treatment. However, if this acoustic treatment also functioned as art, there would be a stronger to implement it in a domestic, social or professional setting, in order to improve the negative factors touched upon in the video.

Last week I took a trip to Kensington for a couple exhibitions that are part of London Design Festival. The main exhibit I was looking forward to was the Craft x Tech showcase at the V&A. Craft x Tech is an initiative that injects new ideas and technologies into traditional Japanese craft. It is striving to breathe new air into the Japanese crafts, which has been slowly declining in recent times. The piece that I found most inspiring was a collaboration between Sabine Marcelis a Dutch designer and Kawatsura Shikki, a Japanese Lacquerware craftsman. The wall mounted piece was most striking to me, “inspired by the interplay of light and materiality”, the piece has a single slice down the middle. This object inspired me to move around the room and look at it from different angles, the way the 30 layers of lacquer manipulated the light, made me acknowledge not only how the light was dancing on the art, but how it was behaving in the room itself. The simple shape of the piece put me in mind of a standard acoustic panel. How could I capture this curiosity with a wall mounted piece that is designed to play with sound? Not only affecting the sound of a space like a standard acoustic panel, but drawing attention to the sound of a space as the art itself.

For LDF, Kensington was the centre of the Brompton Design District, so there were a few very interesting exhibitions in the area. Another I found intriguing was RCA, MA DESIGN PRODUCTS: CURIOUS HABITS – DESIGN AS LEARNING. Here I seen a student who was using bio-materials to create watch straps and other products. Their display of material examples was striking as I wasn’t aware that such a variety of materials could be made from waste etc. This made me think about why I was using cork for previous projects, and if I could possibly use bio materials moving forward as a substitute for standard materials used for acoustic treatment.