User:KvdH/Research Doument

Final Project Minor

The installation “Acoustic surroundings” is about the consciousness about sound in our surrounding and how it is controlled by our position in a space or surrounding. We can't see sound, we can only hear it. In this installation, movement through the space affects the outcome of the sound(waves). The spectator will experience that his movement affects the sound.

In my final project I focused on the acoustic radiation, music and sound are two big influences in my life. I’m musician and I have a big intrest in music and how music and sound works. I want to focus on the existence of sound in a space. How does acoustics work? How do people react on the acoustics in a space? Are people aware of acoustics or is it something we learned to deal with? Can I manipulate or influence that phenomenon? My research started by monitoring my own behaviour focused on acoustics, I mentioned when I was in a big open space with a lot of noise I was less concentrated and it was difficult to focus on the specific sound. When I was in a small and closed space and I could hear someone really loud and clear, I was more concerted and it was less difficult to focus. Of course that phenomenon not a surprising conclusion, in the big space there were more sound sources than in the small space. The striking thing was that my brain changed in every setting, in the noisy space my brain tried to focus on the specific sound source and tried to filter out the rest of the noise. This is happening without control. So your brain adapt in different environments. That phenomenon is very interesting. I started researching the more scientific side, how does your ears communicate with your brain and how do we focus? The answer on this question sound simple we just turn our head to the source. But thats not all we are able to distinguish different sounds, we use our eyes to separate the different sound sources. We combine our ability to see withe our ability to hear. Those two elements gives us the possibility to focus on one sound source in a noisy surrounding.

After this researching I started working on a concept what was based on the phenomenon I mentioned before. Your brain expects a sound in a space, for example when you walk into a big church you expect that the sound is echoing. If I can change the sound people expect to hear in a space I can try to make sound tangible and create some consciousness of the phenomenon; Sound. I want to give the spectator the change to explore the space, so the spectator will have a leading role.

I started searching for a way to let the spectator control the sound in a space. I had to work with microphones to record the sound of the space, to get a live control of the sound. There had to be something that can be triggered by the spectator. First I started working with the Kinect sensor, I worked a lot with the Kinect so that was quite comfortable. So I used the Kinect to trace the movement of a passing person this was activating a program what was linked to the input of the microphone. The sound changed into the acoustics of an enormous room whit a lot of echo en delay. The first test worked good but the Kinect was a limiting the possibilities. The Kinect is only able to see a linear line and was not precise enough. I had to find another way. For another project I used a light sensor for activating something, so I started working with a light sensor. I had to find something to constantly activate the sensor to make it acurate, I tried a laser, this worked quite well and was reliable. I thought of two walls with in the first wall sensors and in the other the lasers. The walls were 1,20m x 2,20m and i made a grid with 40 holes. In every hole a laser or a sensor. If I would put the walls facing each other the laser would activate the sensors. And if someone was interrupting the laser light it activated an effect. But later on it was not working, the lasers were to precise to focus on the sensors, every little deviation was seeable. This was happening a week before the opening of the exposition. I decided to put the wall with the sensors on the ground so you could walk over it. By putting your feet on the holes you will take the light away. So if the sensors had not much light someone was stepping on one of the holes and the effect was triggered. It was quite different in comparison with the first ideas were the walls were part of the room and not a noticeable object. Now it was more like een stage were you had to step on. The spectator was aware of his participation. During the exposition it was noticeable that people were afraid to step on the “stage”. I think when the idea with walls had worked it was more interesting. Also the technical part was not working how I wanted. The microphone piked up to much noise. The output of the audio was not loud enough in comparison with the amount of people and the DJ. I think it had worked better in a silent space. These things are good to mention and to use in further projects. The exposition was a good experience, you have to tell different people about my project, on different levels and with different intensions.