Project Description
In this short solo project you are asked to create a listening device for hearing the city.
Your device must be designed however, for listening to a specific KIND of sound.
The example above is an absurd looking contraption created to listen by the Dutch military between World War I and II to listen to enemy airplanes.
Your goal is not to seek enemies, but instead to filter your experience of hearing the city through a specific point of view. By changing your relationship to the sound, you alter its meaning, giving it either more or less impact and presence.
Possibilities and Limitations
- Material choices are open.
The kind of material you use however, will alter the way a sound is heard (or not heard).
The shape will also imapact the way that sound is perceived
(see “resonance” and “reflection and absorption” below) - The object must be portable (that rules out the crazy device above!)
- The object does not have to be some kind of tube or horn, though it could be.
What are other ways that you could alter the way that you perceive sound?
How does vision, for example effect the way that you hear? How do you create something that amplifies
Getting Started (questions)
- What kind of sound would you like to emphasize?
- What kind of sound would you like to de-emphasize?
- What is the nature of the sound? High? Low? Constant? Sporadic?
Stage 1: Sound Journal: Sketch and concept
- Write a brief narrative describing your sound and your preliminary device idea.
- Create sketches that explore some possibilities for the shape and construction of your device.
This sketches are exploratory, have fun with it.
Stage 2: Material exploration and construction
- Experiment with materials to determine how they impact sound.
You can do this right away by playing with objects and materials. - Construct your object.
This is a quick project and so the final objects can be rough, but they still must have enough integrity to be handled and manipulated by someone else. Additionally, you should avoid flaws that clearly impact the device’s effectiveness in receiving or blocking sounds.
An example of a shift in listening focus
Here’s a recording that I made in which I located the surprising sound of water running through a pipe in the 14th street station.
Recorded with Fire2 Field Recorder on my iPhone.
A little bit of science
About resonance
One thing to consider as you experiment, is the way that sound actually works.
There is a complex science behind the way that sound waves are generated, modified, reflected or absorbed by different kinds of materials. This is not a science class or a class on sound engineering so we won’t go too deep!
The shape and material of a surface or an object can greatly impact the way that sound waves interact to generate sound. Ultimately, resonance is the bouncing back and forth of sound waves. The sound waves bounce back on themselves and they form what is called a standing wave. Depending how much the waves change you can actually cancel out some sound waves. This is the basis how the strings on a guitar work.
EXAMPLES:
- Here’s a short educational video demonstrating this phenomenon:
Resonance with Tuning Form and Water
- Some more video examples that help to explain sound. While these films may seem old, they actually are great descriptions of the way that sound works, as well as the way that human hearing works:
- Soundwaves and their Sources (1933) (10min 18sec)
This video describes the way that sound waves are generated and interact.
- Human Ear Anatomy and Physiology: How an Ear Works (1940s)
As the title suggests, this film describes the way that the ear receives and processes sound waves.
- A Decription of Resonance with a few audio examples
from Barry Truax’s online Handbook of Acoustic Ecology
About reflection and absorption
The shape, texture and complexity of a surface will effect the way that sound is transmitted. Sound waves bounce off of or are absorbed by different kinds of spaces. The image above is of an anechoic chamber. It is a space designed to completely eliminate echoes.
Audio Examples
- Here’s a nice demonstration of the ways that surfaces reflect or absorb sounds.
Click on the little speaker icons when you visit the following link to see what happens:
Reflection of Sound – NDT Resource Center
The description of reflection and absorption is also quite good.
- Here’s a recording I made under a staircase at the 77th street entrance of the Museum of Natural History.
You can hear the way that the curved structure promotes echoes from sound reflecting off the hard surfaces.
Recorded with Fire2 Field Recorder on my iPhone.
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