The sounds of silence briefing
Teacher: Sophie Gaur. RMIT 2015 Marta Vidal Maps s3635421
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music noise rhythm silence sinestesia voice phone, TV steps context language community creation need feelings memories pollution time culture loud blablabla unconfortable acumulation expression freedom instrument art life
Our mind never shuts up. can something silent generante sound? why do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? do speeches of freedom from politicians have a style of sound? is a TV an instrument? and a phone? how does language sound? taking out of context a soud, does that change its impact? why do all communities have music? is it necessary for us to survive? do we communicate with other sounds what we can’t express trough language? are we addicted to sound? are we aware of the pass of time because of sound? does temperature have a sound? does sound have a temperature? when we want to express ourselves we shout loud, society doesn’t like silence, is that because it’s related to repression? has technology influenced in the range of sounds we hear nowadays? why does a sound become unconfortable? how much can a saound influence us without us even realizing? do we really listen, or do we listen trough our eyes? is an image worth a thousand words? why does rain relax us? can we train our mind to hear a wider range of sounds? can we “shut” our ears as we shut our eyes? is there a difference between passive and active hearing? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? can something silent generante sound? shy do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? do speeches of freedom from politicians have a style of sound? is a TV an instrument? and a phone? how does language sound? taking out of context a soud, does that change its impact? why do all communities have music? is it necessary for us to survive? do we communicate with other sounds what we can’t express trough language? are we addicted to sound? are we aware of the pass of time because of sound? does temperature have a sound? does sound have a temperature? when we want to express ourselves we shout loud, society doesn’t like silence, is that because it’s related to repression? has technology influenced in the range of sounds we hear nowadays? why does a sound become unconfortable? how much can a saound influence us without us even realizing? do we really listen, or do we listen trough our eyes? is an image worth a thousand words? why does rain relax us? can we train our mind to hear a wider range of sounds? can we “shut” our ears as we shut our eyes? is there a difference between passive and active hearing? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? can something silent generante sound? shy do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? do speeches of freedom from politicians have a style of sound? is a TV an instrument? and a phone? how does language sound? taking out of context a soud, does that change its impact? why do all communities have music? is it necessary for us to survive? do we communicate with other sounds what we can’t express trough language? are we addicted to sound? are we aware of the pass of time because of sound? does temperature have a sound? does sound have a temperature? when we want to express ourselves we shout loud, society doesn’t like silence, is that because it’s related to repression? has technology influenced in the range of sounds we hear nowadays? why does a sound become unconfortable? how much can a saound influence us without us even realizing? do we really listen, or do we listen trough our eyes? is an image worth a thousand words? why does rain relax us? can we train our mind to hear a wider range of sounds? can we “shut” our ears as we shut our eyes? is there a difference between passive and active hearing? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? can something silent generante sound? shy do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? do speeches of freedom from politicians have a style of sound? is a TV an instrument? and a phone? how does language sound? taking out of context a soud, does that change its impact? why do all communities have music? is it necessary for us to survive? do we communicate with other sounds what we can’t express trough language? are we addicted to sound? are we aware of the pass of time because of sound? does temperature have a sound? does sound have a temperature? when we want to express ourselves we shout loud, society doesn’t like silence, is that because it’s related to repression? has technology influenced in the range of sounds we hear nowadays? why does a sound become unconfortable? how much can a saound influence us without us even realizing? do we really listen, or do we listen trough our eyes? is an image worth a thousand words? why does rain relax us? can we train our mind to hear a wider range of sounds? can we “shut” our ears as we shut our eyes? is there a difference between passive and active hearing? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? can something silent generante sound? shy do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? do speeches of freedom from politicians have a style of sound? is a TV an instrument? and a phone? how does language sound? taking out of context a soud, does that change its impact? why do all communities have music? is it necessary for us to survive? do we communicate with other sounds what we can’t express trough language? are we addicted to sound? are we aware of the pass of time because of sound? does temperature have a sound? does sound have a temperature? when we want to express ourselves we shout loud, society doesn’t like silence, is that because it’s related to repression? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? can something silent generante sound? shy do we say that a picture has “noise”? what would happen if you expect sound of something and then... nothing? voice-sound? is there a difference between passive and active hearing? do we have an accent when breathing? singing? walking? laughing? does sound generate a space? does it configure it? what is the sound of a human when it doesn’t talk? is our body an orchestra? do things talk to us silently? is there an ocean in a shell? why does rain relax us? can we train our mind to hear a wider range of sounds? can we “shut” our ears as we shut our eyes? have an accent when laughing? is there an ocean in a shell? (...)
The sound of silence, 1964.
Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestone ‘Neath the halo of a street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence “Fools”, said I, “You do not know Silence like a cancer grows Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you” But my words, like silent raindrops fell And echoed In the wells of silence And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls And tenement halls” And whispered in the sounds of silence
Simon&Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo that got to be -together with Bob Dylan or The Beatlesthe musical representation of the 1960s cultural movements.
People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening
noise
Just by sitting in some busy street during a while and concentrating you can realize the quantity of sounds that texturize our everyday lives. After a short period of time it starts to become annoying: that’s when we are conscious of what we are hearing.
invisible and always present
We are continuously surrounded by sound, and most of the time by noise. When living in a metropolitan environment our head gets used to all kind of noises that then automatically ignores. This constant dirty and glitchy sounds in our background influences us and our state of mind, behaviour and humour directly. Our mind is used to live with all this “dirt” and makes no effort to distinguish sounds, it all forms part of the same union: noise. Noise pollution is one of the big issues in nowadays cities, where loud and unpleasant frequencies are registered daily.
Frame of Koyaanisquatsi’s doccumentary “Life out of balance” where is easy to visualize the movement and how loud a city can become.
Noise configures nowadays cities and frames them in time and space. Citizens don’t even realize how exposed they are to high frequencies.
...silence
Hugi Hlynsson photo where you can feel the peace and the quietness. Is there silence? Does complete silence exist? Or would you probably discover new and subtil sounds in this new frame?
the mood From up to down following the columns... 1. The concept 4. Fuha project, of isolation which is based in by putting a the idea of “an “helmet” on your ocean in a shell” head, son then to generate a serie you can hear of jars in which nothing. the wind goes in a generates sounds. 2. The sound of the wind coming 5. François in a room, the Collette - mobile. curtain moving. 6. Astrid Krogh 3. Peter Zumtor plays with light playing with in her curtain. light effects to What interests generate a specific me is the concept envionment. of hanging strings, which can generate a sound when mooved.
7. A graphic design student from Écal generates “Cycle”, a tribute to Pierre Benoît. Interesting graphic disposition. 8. A serie of ceramic shapes. 9. Cheryl Pope installation, where water and it’s sound plays a crutial role.
When escaping from our daily lives we tend to look for calm and paused spaces or activities. It turns out to be an indirect meditational excercise for our mind to settle down and take a breath. It is in these moments when we are more open to our surrounding.
where does my project sit? In a noisy world, full of cities, people, signs, cars... in a saturated world were our mind often ignores all the unrelevant inputs to survive, this object will want to sit in a silent place. It will make no sense in the middle of the caos, or if it sits there it won’t work or the user won’t get the whole experience of it. It wants to be in a calm moment where the user is predisposed to listen. So it is escaping of our daily environment. This object aims to provide a moment of stillness for our minds and ecourages the user to wake up his/her brain and focus on listening what’s going on among him/her. The user is encouraged to pay attention: is he in complete silence? Probably not. He will discover all the new layers of sound hidden in the silence. This object is very gentle and discreet, it plays the completely opposite role of advertisement: it doesn’t scream to you to get your attention, it plays with your curiosity for you to discover what does it have to say.
I want to invite the user to find a calm and silent space in this crazy world and awaken his attention torwards the environment.
which is my message for the user? It is important to know what sounds wrap our daily life. It is good to know how noisy the city can be or which are the sounds that hide in a silent place. There is no good or bad situation, but it is good to be awared of them all. In our frenetic and fast lifes I invite the user to take a little moment and listen to the absence of noise, force his/ her ears to listen carefully, be 100% in the here and the now. I invite the user to refuse visual imput to relate to the sound, only pay attention and focus on the audio imput. I invite the user to refuse temporaly to the noise voluntarily, this project only works when the user has decided to pay attention or to place the object in a quiet environment. In the end of the experience the user will realize how powerful sound can be and how complex our sound environment is.
In the end of the experience the user will realize how powerful sound can be and how complex our sound environment is.
We live in such a speeded life we pay no attention to our environment.
Photo taken by Mayumi Terada where the mood of the project is represented.
what is the object’s language? The object is beautiful. The object will have relaxed shapes, colors and textures. Textures Textures and materials such as ceramic, cotton, soft wood, glass or transparent metacrillat... Colors Black, white and grey tones, use of transparencies or pastel colors.
Shapes Rouded shapes, esbelt and fluid profiles, use of the circle.
intervention of light
Steven Holl uses cuts on the walls of his buildings to let natural light in in a controlled way.
Alex de Witte lamps, which have gentle shapes and float in a soft way.
Using the intervention of light in the object can be interesting to generate the silent environment (light is also an inmaterial element that doesn’t need sound), but also the object may end up being a lamp which generates some kind of sound with it’s interaction with another element such as wind, water or the user’s body. Even if the object doesn’t end up being a lamp, taking in consideration the role of light when thinking about shapes or effects can help out.
Peter Zumthor, Kolumba Art Museum. The whlose in the ceiling don’t work only as lamps but also generate a pattern in the floor.
Hyungshin Hwang cardboard light reminds me of a shell shape, which makes me think a connection between the lamp and an audio imput would be possible.
options bowls curtain hanging lights An object that invites the user not only to hear but to listen to the sounds of silence. A simple, delicate, and un-saturated experience where the user will value the joy of small and “low volumed” details. Almost a meditational moment, even though the experience isn’t passive but active, the user opens his/hear ears to the environmental sound, he is aware and discovers sounds that he couldn’t hear before. We’ve always related the makers (compositors, singers, writers) as the active elements of sound, and the listeners as the pasive elements. I invite users to make an active listening exercise.
silence helmets hanging capsules candle door mobile windy terrace hung on a dree
play with light sleeping time “all what you’ve never said” raindrops echoes
to be continued...