SOUND, SPATIALIZED

A series of speculative experiments looking sound and its relationship to physical space.

An exploration of:

Surround Sound
Sound Through Space
Spatialization & Isolation
Hijacking the Familiar
Virtual Teleportation
Orchestrating Space
Collective Experience

Experiment #1: Sound on a Stick

For my first experiment, I sought to explore the simple concept of physical movement and its effect on sound. I wanted to look at the effect of physical movement on a single sound source.
How does sound change as its source moves through physical space?

To do this, I created the Sound on a Stick object. I attached a pair of speakers and an iPod to the end of a stick, and played a simple sinewave out of the speakers. I then proceeded to do a series of tests where I waved the stick around me as I moved through space. I observed the way that the sound changed as the sound source moved through space, closer and further away from my ears. Listen.



Experiment #2: Two Notes

In this experiment, I built off of my initial experiment and added a second sound and sound source to the mix. Two notes were being played, each out of a different speaker. The test involved simply moving the speakers closer or further away from my ears. This effectively changes the root note depending on which speaker is closer to the user, and changes the experience of sound through physical space. Adding a second sound to the mix changes the experience of individual notes.

Experiment #3: Sound Jump

The Sound Jump experiment further built on the experiments that had come before. This experiment was a user-engagement study. Four individual notes were played out of four different speakers, with one note being played out of each speaker. Four users were each asked to take a speaker, and to remember the note that was being played out of that speaker--this was their assigned note. After several seconds, the notes switched speakers; they appeared to "jump" physically from speaker to speaker, and the users had to scramble to get their assigned note back in their hands. This switch took place several times, with users negotiating with the speakers, the sounds, and with each other to get back their assigned notes.



Experiments #4, 5, 6, & 7: Computer Tests

Experiment #4: Chord Study

Link.

The chord study was a study of six individual notes being played out of six separate sound sources through space. This experiment was an attempt at breaking apart the chord--hearing the notes individually and through space. I realized, when designing this experiment, that I had never heard a chord broken apart and through space, I had always heard it coming from either a pair of speakers or a physical instrument. I wanted to focus my attention on the experience of the chord being spatialized and deconstructed down to its individual elements. This was an exploration of sound from a single source vs. from multiple sources.

This engagement was a user-engagement study. Six people accessed the weblink for this experiment from six separate computers in the same room. Each person was assigned a link to play a different note in the chord. Once all six notes were being played from the six computers, I asked all users to move around the room, to hear the chord change depending on the sound source that they were closest to. This aspect allowed for a different experience of the chord depending on where the user was positioned physically in the room. The root note changed as the person's location changed. Listen. This was a very different experience from hearing the six notes of a chord from one sound source. Listen.

In this case, I was able to use the available tools (in this case, computers) to create a context-specific sound experience.

Experiment #5: Sound Teleport

Link.

This engagement was a user-engagement study. Six people accessed the weblinkfor this experiment from six separate computers in the same room. Each person was assigned a link to press in a synchronized manner--the project depended on the participants' ability to begin playback simultaneously. Once the audio was triggered, the sound "teleportation" began--it was as if observing a tennis match, watching the ball move back and forth across the court, only in this case, it was sound, and the sound appeared to be "teleporting" from computer to computer, across the room.

Experiment #6: Computer Music

Link.

An obligatory band-type exploration of individual sound sources as individual instruments, to the tune of the beloved classic, "When the Saints Come Marching In." Six people, six links, six computers, simultaneously must hit play.

Experiment #7: Computer as...?

One of the unexpected outcomes of the sound experiments was the user-engagement aspect that emerged through my use of the computer as a tool for my explorations. There was an odd spark that came as a result of just clicking a link and having sinewave emerge from the individual computers, almost as if the computers had become possessed, in a way. Out of this insight came a secondary potential for further exploration of such an engagement. The computer had in a way become alien in the way that I used it for this project. The question then becomes, how can the computer be "hijacked" in such a way that promotes and cultivates these unfamiliar, but yet strangely familiar experiences?