project D:Home
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sounds of the non-park
"experience is the crystallization in a field of raw sensations - aromas, colours, textures, fears; which are held together by habit. Habit is a non-linguistic repetition of ideas in everyday life." - Manuel De Landa
User's meaning of a park include fixed ideas such as green, open, tweeting, serenity etc. These create a specific definition of a park. Every time the word park arises, these exact memories are recalled, but what is missing in the user's association for the De Vries van Heystplantsoen site is the idea of a car, meaning both vision and sound.
extreme scenario experimentation
psychoacoustics
Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of sound perception. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound.
Sense of left or right.
In a reverberant room it is nearly impossible to sense the direction of the source of a sound (sine) wave, humans are able to determine left or right direction based on the relative arrival times and on relative intensities of the sound reaching the two ears. Judgment can be very accurate, and differences of around 1 degree can be detected as this corresponds to a disparity of only 10 microseconds in the time of arrival at the two ears.
Although sight tends to dominate hearing, humans are capable of sensible the direction and distance of sound sources. Space can be defined in the mind purely by sound, reverberation provides a sense of dimension and materiality; it is also a tool to determine distance from a sound source - lack of reverberation means that the source is near the ear.
extremes
In order to understand the immense potential of psychoacousts and its effect for The De Vries van Heystplantsoen intervention, project D organized a series of experiments to get a sense of the most extreme spatial sound scenarios- an anechoic chamber (wave reflection free) and an echo room. By identifying their spatial and experiential characteristics, the project can apply sound/space/experience variation to the 8 points developed as atom 3.
conclusions and impact on project
1. Sound clarity can be more effective in a space that absorbs sound. Partial absorption of external sound in a comfortable / permanent areas applicable to collective spaces and for speech purposes.
2. Intimacy is supported by absorbing surfaces inside a space.
3. A room with constant reflection is relatively more disturbing than a room with constant absorption. Areas with with higher reflectivity can only be transitional.
4.Disturbing frequencies in normal conditions, are attenuated and tolerable in a anechoic chamber.
5. Because of the lack of background noise in the anechoic chamber, its possible to perceive the blood pressure pounding in the ears,and an "after concert" ringing. Ambient noise does not translate directly into annoyance
6. In both extreme conditions it is difficult to estimate the attributes of a space. That is why these extreme situations will not be implemented in our project. orientation, flow, and transition very important, plus In the anechoic chamber you are able to determine the angle, but not the distance of the source, regardless of light conditions.
7. Disturbance by noise is relative to immediate previous experience, this was seen after leaving the anechoic chamber, the initially ordinary level of sound in the transitional space that proceeded the chamber, was a welcomed relief after the experiment was completed, therfore . Similar spaces/experiences should not be adjacent.
