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Consulting Matters Feature
Testing, testing: how responding to climate change will make our world quieter OUR HEARING ORGANS START TO DEVELOP AT TWO OR THREE WEEKS OF GESTATION, AND AS WE CONTINUE TO DEVELOP IN THE WOMB, WE CAN HEAR WELL ENOUGH TO REACT TO SOUND. SIGHT MAY WELL BE LISTED SECOND IN INFLUENTIAL ACADEMIC MARSHALL MCLUHAN’S ORDERING OF THE HUMAN SENSES INTO A HIERARCHY OF IMPORTANCE YET TRADITIONALLY, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN HAS FOCUSED ON SIGHT AND TOUCH, ESPECIALLY FOR EXPENSIVE ITEMS. BUT, AS WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DESIGN OF INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIRED FOR A NET-ZERO EMISSIONS FUTURE, AUDIO IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT IN HOW WE DESIGN, AND FOR WHOM.
Do we need more or less noise? This question is in the eyes (or ears) of the beholder. Rachel Carson’s seminal text ‘Silent Spring’, responsible for kicking off the modern environmental movement, argues that a healthy natural environment should be ‘noisy’ with natural life. However, COVID-19 has revealed a mixed reaction to the relative silence that so many people experience from working remotely. For some, prolonged silence and isolation made them desperate for interaction with others; some introverts thrived in lockdown and never want to return to an office; others craved solitude after the noise of homeschooling kids, while trying to work. Anecdotally, people are seeking out silence, as evidenced by the trend of city folks moving to regional centres. There is also the increasing use of noise-cancelling headphones, allowing people to curate their own audio environment, regardless of what sounds are actually around them.
A more sustainable future means that our world will likely become quieter as energyefficient technology has the potential to reduce noise impacts. In most machines or systems, noise reflects a loss of energy in the system – energy being wasted rather than put to productive use. As we focus on reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency, there is potential to achieve a quieter environment. Creating power with solar panels or hydrogen instead of boilers and steam turbines; powering vehicles with batteries
or hydrogen fuel cells rather than gasoline or diesel engines; electrifying rail lines to take diesel-electric locomotives out of service and developing high-efficiency electric motors to make commercial processes (from air conditioning to manufacturing) whisper-quiet. What are the ramifications of a quieter world as communities’ transition to net zero emissions, and how does that impact design? Could the noisiness of your factory floor or your suburb become a measure of how sustainable you are as a business or a community?
The influence of increased or decreased noise on creativity, mental health and reflectiveness is probably down to the individual, although there are questions to be asked as we design this new audio world. Sound-masking systems conceal noise in new offices, but what if these became more common? Would organisations lose creativity if eavesdropping was lost? Research shows eavesdropping actually makes us better people. Could plugged-in employees result in decreased stress at the expense of less creativity and social engagement? Hearing is a primal threat detector for humans and design has compensated for quieter noise in the past: for instance, the first cars were preceded by a person ringing a bell as a warning. Silence can be a problem, which is why electric trams and cable cars traditionally ring a bell to alert pedestrians to their approach, and why pushbikes have a bell on their handlebars.
