Using the Ramallah Concert as a reference:
“The Ramallah Concert - Knowledge is the Beginning� is the story of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, where young Arabs and Jews perform and live side by side. It is a film about what music can do; the way it can transcend cultural barriers, bring people together, defeat prejudice and overcome religious and political differences. It also demonstrates the problems that crop up occasionally and how music can help people from different points of view find common ground. For Daniel Barenboim, founder of the ensemble, the orchestra is a symbol for what could be achieved in the Middle East.
EXploring different Compartments
A perfomance platform is unfolded to provide play within/over/across the buffer zone.
Personal spaces provide time for contemplation,learning and teaching.
String:
Wind:
Percussion:
The perfomative platform will be split betwen audience and play. A dialogue between the communities and the city begins. Each platform emphasises on on particular instrument type.
The architecture would allow the users to create their own instrumental choreographs and set up various viewpoints
Western prevailing winds
The wind funnells through tightly tied harp strings to make unpredictable music.-aeorial harp.
The External face of the building is transparent to allow permeability to an area of inaccessibility-buffer zone.
Energy from the sun is used to power a recorder which captures the sound of raindrops or the sound of raindrops are emphasised .
Initial Model Ideas
Research on how sound moves and behaves through various geometries and materials.
Analysis of geometric shapes in relationship to sound.
"A geodesic dome with 20m diameter and about 10m high as an environmental landscape sculpture in Pischelsdorf should transmute into 3D a soundsphere. Therefore as special hardware and software a low power solar power driven multichannel Ambisonics speaker system will be developed and installed. This project is commissioned by Kunstinitiave K.U.L.M. in Pischelsdorf/Styria: "eine geod채tische Kuppel als Klang-Dom" The problem definition to solve was mainly to handle with the special acoustics in the dome, which has strong reflections and echoes, especially in the middle since the concave form. The hypothesis was to handle this was trying to use many small speakers, which are seated on the inner surface. Since each of them are low power, they should not produce to much reflections on the other side but all together enough for filling the dome. Reflections and echoes in a dome Listener
Talker Whispering Galleries in a dome
Analysis of geometric shapes in relationship to sound. Whispering Galleries
Listener
Talker
A whispering gallery is most simply constructed in the form of a circular wall, and allows whispered communication from any part of the internal side of the circumference to any other part. The sound is carried by waves, known as whispering-gallery waves, that travel around the circumference clinging to the walls.The gallery may also be in the form of an ellipse or ellipsoid,[4] with an accessible point at each focus. In this case, when a visitor stands at one focus and whispers, the line of sound emanating from this focus reflects directly to the focus at the other end of the gallery, where the whispers may be heard. In a similar way, two large concave parabolic dishes, serving as acoustic mirrors, may be erected facing each other in a room or outdoors to serve as a whispering gallery, a common feature of science museums
Example of whispering effect and dome sound reflections at the Golghar Granary.
Whispering Galleries in a dome
Analysis of geometric shapes in relationship to sound. Parabolic Shapes/Sound Mirrors
The Sound Mirrors, also known as Acoustic Mirrors, Concrete Dishes or Listening Ears, are large concrete structures designed as an early warning system for Britain to detect enemy aircraft.Built between 1928-30, the sound mirrors were part of Britain's national defence strategy. They were designed to pick up the sound of approaching enemy aircraft. Sound waves were caught in the belly of the mirror and relayed back through microphones and a stethoscope to an operator who raised the alarm. Anti-aircraft defences were then deployed. The mirrors effectively gave Britain a fifteen-minute warning of an impending attack.
All rays from the focus of a parabola to its surface will be directed outward as parallel rays. It is useful for projecting sound. Two parabolas as shown below can direct sound from the focus point of one to the focus point of the other with great efficiency. A microphone element can be placed at the focus point of a parabola and then aimed at a distant sound source - parabolic microphones can pick up selected sounds at surprising distances.
Analysis of geometric shapes in relationship to sound. Parabolic Curves
Ioannis Xenakis/Le Corbusier -Philips Pavilion For the final design of the Pavilion, Xanakis, with a team of engineers and artist, developed a three-pronged tent, constructed with thin-shelled concrete panels of hyperbolic paraboloid shapes. The execution of the design involved a tensile structure of steel cables strung from steel posts at the end of the tent to form the hyperbolic parabaloids. The complex shapes of the pavilion made it impossible to build a conventional poured concrete structure, the solution reached by Xenakis and his engineer Hoyte Duyster, was to create a system of precast concrete panels hung in tension from wire cables.
All rays from the focus of a parabola to its surface will be directed outward as parallel rays. It is useful for projecting sound. Two parabolas as shown below can direct sound from the focus point of one to the focus point of the other with great efficiency. A microphone element can be placed at the focus point of a parabola and then aimed at a distant sound source - parabolic microphones can pick up selected sounds at surprising distances.
Analysis of geometric shapes in relationship to sound. Parabolic shapes/epiptical and hyperbolic
A sonic boom shock wave has the shape of a cone, and it intersects the ground in part of a hyperbola. It hits every point on this curve at the same time, so that people in different places along the curve on the ground hear it at the same time. Because the airplane is moving forward, the hyperbolic curve moves forward and eventually the boom can be heard by everyone in its path.
Hyperboloid
The Elipse
An ellipse has two focus points. Sound projected in any direction from one focus point will travel to the other."When the prelates of the medieval Cathedral of Agrigento in Sicily chose to hear confessions near the great central door, they undoubtedly did so to ensure the privacy of their parishioners' revelations. Then, quite by accident, someone discovered that behind the high altar 250 feet away the murmuring from the confessional could be clearly heard. 'Secrets never intended for the public ear thus became known,' according to one account, 'to the dismay of the confessor and the scandal of the people.'
Since even dispersion of sound is highly desirable in an auditorium, it may be necessary to take steps to overcome any focusing surfaces. If an architect decides that some curved surface is desirable for some reason, then the undesirable focusing effect may be partially overcome by covering the curved surface with anti-focusing surfaces.
Anti-Focusing Surfaces
Analysis of materials in relationship to sound. Resonance
A bell (old Saxon: bellan, to bawl or bellow) is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped acoustic resonator, which vibrates upon being struck.
Resonance in a bell shape
Bells are made to exact formulas, so that given the diameter it is possible to calculate every dimension, and its musical note, or tone. The frequency of a bell's note varies with the square of its thickness, and inversely with its diameter. Much experimentation has been devoted to determining the exact shape that will give the best tone. The thickness of a church bell at its thickest part, called the "sound bow", is usually one thirteenth its diameter. If the bell is mounted as cast, it is called a "maiden bell". "Tuned bells" are worked after casting to produce a precise note. The elements of the sound of a bell are split up into hum (see subharmonic), second partial, tierce, quint and nominal/naming note. The bell's strongest overtones are tuned to be at octave intervals below the nominal note, but other notes also need to be brought into their proper relationship.[15] Bells are usually tuned via tuning forks and electronic stroboscopic tuning devices commonly called a Strobe tuner.
Concrete is a mixture of different materials, and doesn't have a resonance frequency. As the sound passes through the concrete, it bounces off the many tiny interfaces between the different grains, losing any resonance or cohesion (and a lot of its power). Only very uniform materials in fairly uniform shapes exhibit strong resonances.
Resonance in concrete
Analysis of materials in relationship to sound.
Reflection
Absorption
Diffusion
Most of the sound is reflected which is almost as loud as incoming sound.
Absorbing power is determined by the material used.
Scatters sound depending on the desired effect.
Anechoic Chambers Anechoic chambers are completely covered in highly absorbent materials in order to block all incoming and outgoing acoustic and electromagnetic radiation. Semi-anechoic chambers have walls that are covered with pyramids made of rubberized foam and a floor that is dampened and laid on top of layers of foam or other absorbent materials in order to allow heavy objects to have a strong base to sit on without transferring noise outside of the chamber. Full-anechoic chambers block noise radiation in all directions and its walls are built like semi-anechoic chambers’ walls, but its floors are made of mesh on top of absorbent tiles. Both semi and full-anechoic chambers are encased in a screened room to prevent electromagnetic waves from escaping or entering. Anechoic chambers block audible noises by forcing the acoustic waves to bounce upon impacting the pyramidal foam, causing the waves to lose energy with each bounce. They also block electromagnetic waves, which include radio waves, with the assistance of an exterior screened room or ferrite walls.
Analysis of materials in relationship to sound.
When you blow across the top of each bottle, it makes the air inside the bottle vibrate. Small air spaces vibrate more rapidly than large air spaces. When there is little air in the bottle, you produce a high note. When there is more air, the note is lower. High
Low
Water
You should discover that the longer pipes give lower notes and shorter pipes make higher-pitched notes.
Low
Does material change the tone of the sound? So why do scientists insist that material is effectively irrelevant? The mistake here, according to scientists, is thinking that the vibrating instrument is what is producing the sound. Basic acoustics tells us that the woodwind instrument is merely a container for the real sound-producing body—a vibrating column of air
High
Pipes (closed at one end)
Speed of Sound in Various Materials Solid aluminum berillium brass brick copper cork glass gold granite iron lead marble rubber(vulc) silver steel titanium wood,ash wood,elm
v (m/s)
Liquids
v (m/s)
6420 12,890 4700 3650 4760 500 5100 3980 5950 5950 2160 3810 54 3650 5960 6070 4670 4120
alcohol,ethyl alcohol,methyl mercury water,distilled water,sea
1207 1103 1450 1497 1531
Gases air argon carbondioxide helium hydrogen nitrogen oxygen water vapour
v (m/s) 331 343 259 965 1284 334 316 494
Model 1:75
MODEL PHOTOS-NOT YET TAKEN