fbpx

The Sound and the Fury

The Acoustical Messages of Place

In my study of experience narrative design and the experiencer in placefor me and for others — I ponder the notion of sound.

As a designer of places to be, to tell stories, to share ideas and products, to evoke comfort, contentment, spectacle and wonder, the provision of satisfaction — you need to be a keen observer of what influences place and what intermingles in the mind and sensations of the person. Sure, there’s something to designing sound: ambient overlays of sound in stories, brand-mix beats, acoustical management of surfaces and sound clatter and the din of sonic reflectivity.

Hard is hard, sounding. Soft is softer, feeling.

Several things happened.

• I was in a place that boomed in the clatter of heels on concrete. Not so happy-making.
• I was in a storm, and heard the hounds of wind, ripping wild and excited among the eaves, the waves, the rafters as the house creaked its story. I walked outside and listened and felt, then I was inside — and experienced differently. Still, the storm spoke.

Alone in the dark, all is quiet;
there is a knock — a rap, rap, rap.
And the door creaks just a little.
I was thinking about that: this — a spirit entering.

But in that moment,
I realized that the place was speaking to me,
telling me a story.

The smallest crack in a window,
capturing the wind outside,
a movement through the house,
the studio — through and through,
the rooms, the stairs,
and out another window,
a giant sliding door,
on another plain.
Wind moved, the spirit of nature,
talking me through its telling.

• And in that meditation, I thought of the wind rushing the sheathes of madrona paper-bark, orange-skinned, a riffling that sounds reminiscent of the shuffling of paper.

Lightning crackled —
light filled the place,
some 7 miles distance;
and on meteorological clockwork,
7 seconds later: boom.

What if designing a place might offer some homage to the sound of nature? What if sound, linked to nature was designed in, around and through? I asked that question and found something. In my house, one cracked window whistles with south-to-north bound storm winds. What is an entire edifice was designed to sound that telling?

I found something.
Learn more about Luke Jerram’s design
of a massive wind harp,
a sculpture, a place.

AEOLUS.

The Sound and the Fury

Listen to, see also the singing ringing tree.
Designed by Tonkin Liu for
the Burnley Council.

The Sound and the Fury

LISTEN IN
TO WHERE
YOU ARE.

TIM
…..

G I R V I N | N E W WOWNESS
INNOVATION WORKSHOPS
CREATING STRATEGIES, PRODUCTS,
IDEAS FOR CHANGE.

http://bit.ly/vfzyEU