Friday 3 April 2009

Tallis Soundscapes

A couple of years ago we worked with two artists on a binaural sound project called Tallis Soundscapes. The artists worked with Year 12 students to convert normal headphones into recording devices, replacing the speakers with microphones so that stealth stereo recordings could be made around the building without the need for cumbersome equipment. When played back, these recordings capture sound in true stereo since the microphones are actually in the same location as the ears. Recordings were made around the school and photographs were taken in each location. These were subsequently attached to a map available as a web page.

The reason I mention this project from a while back is that it's a good example of how we have already attempted to explore our relationship to the building in imaginative ways using various technologies. This links in with current discussions about the summer project.

How could we continue to experiment with sound in relation to the physical structure and emotional associations of the current school building?

1 comment:

Amber Rowe said...

I think the psychoacoustics should definately be pointed out around the school. Emotions they contribute to or create without you even realising. Maybe create a kind of auditory illusion? around the school and see if it is noticed?

The physical structure of the school has effects on all the sound that's around. But because the school building has little layering and is very geometric, I think the acoustics of the building wouldn't differ too much from one side of the building to the other. This could be experimented with?
The same cause of sound in different acoustic locations and see how they are recieved differently?

So, engineering sound on purpose by making it stand out (not sure how - the metal tube in playgrounds that Mr Nicholls mentioned comes to mind). But then the physical, almost random and biological acoustics that are the display. The responses.

Showing the emotional and physical structure of the sound in Tallis?