Video Documentation in Sch no.1

This is part one of our documentation in school. Will keep doing more video documentation.

AMK documentation no.1

Props visualisation

Layout Visualisation 2

Equipment Conceptualisation

Hey, 2 concept design of how the bag we might be using will look like.

task update

-Super-impose photos with the placement of speakers&mics
-Visuals layout of the online website
-Finalise the locations
-Mock up of the Max5 patch
-Edit the video documentations.
-List out possible equipment needed for the installation
-Detailed plan of the installation
-The specifics of the interaction
-Go through the presentation slides
-What can be done for the next 2 weeks
-do the max patches
-test out the patches in public
-Moar video documentation
-Test out rubbish bins all over school
-Document process on blog

Consideration
1. Wired or wireless?
2. Who is going to do what?
3. Custom make the dustbins or attach something to make use of ready made public dustbins?
4. If custom make, how realistic do we want it to be?
5. Is there some place in singapore where all the disused rubbished bins are disposed of?
6. Maybe we should go wireless
7. if wireless we would need 2 fm transmitters, 1 to send mic signal and 1 to send speaker signal.
8. How does the batteries work?
9. Online interaction
10. Additional audio interface?
11. whether if we change the frequencies higher or lower will affect the audience
12 how is the microphone gonna be placed?

ok, so we didn't get to go out to shenton way today, our all important video camera ran out of battery and we had to charge it. In doing so, we missed the lunch hour crowd of CBD area.

we didn't idle our time wastefully, we did our tests in school, and surveyed a few people.

In the back lift lobby of block M level 4, the sounds didn't exactly fit the area, but nonetheless, we had a few people who wondered y the place suddenly seemed so crowded. when we killed the sound, they didn't notice the change immediately. This brings us to question the effectiveness of the amplifying part of our project.

When we brought the soundscape outdoors, the sound was abit more natural, but the problem is how we are going to hide the speakers and make them inconspicuous... We put the speakers into a rubbish bin and although the speakers are a little muffled(instead of being amplified) it served its purpose. A foreseeable problem would be having people throw things into the bin. So we would suggest the use of solid drive speakers to attach to the top of the rubbish bin. It wouldn't be affected by people throwing things into the bin.

The people we talked to gave us a few comments
"What is going on here?" Anil Kapoor M age unknown
Do you take any notice of your everyday surrounding sounds?
"Huh... I dunno arh, i always talk to my friends when i'm outisde" Qianyi M 19
"Sometimes, but only if it shocks me." Tan Jing hua F 21
"Not really, its just noise to me" Marcus Sim M 20
What kinds of sounds do you normally take more notice of?
"Sounds that are very sudden and loud" Tan Jing hua F 21
What kind of sound(s) that might get your attention?
"Sounds that are different from the norm?" Tan Jing hua F 21
Did you notice the sounds we were trying to play?
"Yes, it sounded very fake." Tan Jing hua F 21
"I think the idea of the time stretching is more interesting to make people notice." Hong Kaiwei F 21 (we talked indepth about our ideas)
"Yes, the sound doesn't fit in." Marcus Sim M 20
Did you notice when we killed the sound?
"I realised it was gone, but i didn't realise when." Hong Kaiwei F 21
"Yes, but its not very obvious, the background sound will cover it back again." Tan Jing hua F 21
Would you care if there are these sounds in the surrounding?
"Not really." Marcus Sim M 20
"I think its cool that you guys are doing this to the background sound" Hong Kaiwei F 21
Do you think its better to let the people know where the sound is coming from or to keep it discreet?
"I think people would notice the sounds are not natural if the see speakers." Marcus Sim M 20

ok, a couple of tasks we need to do now...

the surveys we I came up with just now is kinda lame.... so we need to come up with it as a group...
friday we would be going out to raffles place shenton way to do another round of filming and scouting of how we are going to place the speakers... Hopefully by friday we would have the survey questions ready and we could ask people as we do our testing...

another thing we need to do is to come up with the "product" sketch... how are we going to package our system into a mobile setup. How do we design it to be easily deployed?
after we have that, we would be able to decide where exactly we are going to put up the prototypes on the location.

also, we should make a prototype program to better explain roughly how its going to work.

survey questions

here are some questions we might want to ask the passerbys

What do you think about the sound around you?

is it too noisy?

what will happen in the absence of these sounds?

what do you notice about the sounds?

We could ask the following questions after quelling the sounds. Ask people who show a reaction to it.

Did you notice a change in the surrounding sounds?

Is it better now?

Do you care if there are these sounds in the surrounding?

Visualisation layout

The interaction mechanics

ok, in order not to clutter up the sound so much that it becomes noise, we decided to limit the sound outputs.

Firstly is the amplification of the sounds that are already there. This would be based on a hotspot with a counter, whenever a set number of people cross the hot spot, the amplitude of the sound would increase by a level. When it reaches a max level of sorts, the sound would then be cut off totally, leaving a moment of bewilderment wondering where the sounds went.

Another part of the installation would be based on the speed and activity level of the crowd. Using a pre-recorded sound of footsteps, we would inversely change the speed of the footsteps according to the speed of the crowd. This is a reflection of how laid back the scene is during non peak hours or how busy the scecne is during the peak hours, when the timings are reversed.

Lastly, as a tie in with the online website, we would take the comments posted by the users and play it on site. Using a text to speech generator, we would play out the sounds like a whisper that follows a random target as he/she walks down the corridor. Based on the idea that people would tend to try to overhear people's gossips, we would replay the speech in a similar manner. Although the words would be significantly garbled just to the point of not being understandable, we would hopefully make the users perk up their ears trying to catch what the whispers are saying.

Possible interactive Mechanics

-Faster pace slower sound.
-slower pace fast sounds(foot step sound)
-Number of people affercts the loudness.
-Weather sounds reflects actual weather.
-Day and night which one louder?
-How to trigger the sound increment and eventually stop?
-people count, number of people who walk by.(Every 10 or 20)
-Timer based.
-Hotspot, whenever pass be will trigger it to stop.
-Vocoding?

When choosing locations

What factors?

-Aoustictically, which places have low noise level?
-away from traffic/roads.
-constrained space so that our speakers don't thin out.
-potenciall loud distractions.
-how the structure alters sound.
Visible speakers weaken the physicalogical impact of the sound installation.

But after further disccussion among us, high noise level doesn't mean is a disadvantage for us. Take AMK hub for example, there are alot of buskers performing, flyer distributor and people walking. So how are we going to make use of all these sounds?

Thoughts on the online website

Online Website: Thoughts about it

Since it's complementing the on-site installation, we can provide the following possible options:

1. Users can insert their own sounds which is either meaningful to them or sounds that is there at the surrounding but is not heard.
2. Translating the soundbytes given by the users to something different.
   
3. We can categorize the location(s) so that the users can input accordingly without much hassle.
4. Live Streaming of the on-site location in which we are deciding whether to have the option of letting the user insert sounds on the spot.
5. Filter Control of the sounds being sent to the database. Eg. advertisement soundbytes will not be played or soften down.
   

updates

Ok, so we have redefined the brief, and this is our own definition of what is given.

We want to bring people's attention to their surroundings so as to allow them to appreciate the space beyond its monetary value.

some values that might be good to include
-capturing and preserving the essence of the place
-slow down the pace of life of singaporeans
-evoke people's inquisitive nature that has been lost while growing up

A few things we need to do now
-The mechanics of how the people are going to interact with the installation
-The function and usability of the online website(restrictions to prevent spam)
-Site layout drawing(speaker placement and original artifacts in the area)

Possible Locations

We have a few locations in mind that are commercialised.

Because of the nature of what we are doing, enclosed spaces are better to get the sound heard. So we've decided to focus on a few underground locations.

Underpass
-Citylink
-AMK hub(the pathway to the MRT)
-Esplanade
-One Raffles Quay
-Northpoint (the pathway to the MRT)

In case we are touching on the site specific locations of the contrast between old and new spaces, these are the sites we would be looking at
-Padang
-Boat Quay(the bridges with the bronze statues and sculptures)
-Fullerton Hotel(used to be postal service)
-War Memorials

Heartlands
-wet markets(people bargaining)
-icecream men(bells ringing)
-playgrounds(children playing)

NYP
-keyboards typing
-lifts arrival bell
-canteen crowd sounds
-pantry gossip
-water fountains

idea: Box Of Memories

"Box of Memories" :

this idea more of collaboration from the online users. So here how it goes:

1. After successfully going to the possible location(s), we will let the online users suggest places which have an event happening few days ago.
2. Then, after getting enough suggestions, we will decide which place to go down.
3. We will then recreate the atmosphere of the event that happened 3 or 4 days ago. for example would be, let's say that place had a 'pasar malam' event there. We will recreate the atmosphere of it.
4. From there, the on-site users who remembered the event can contribute their experiences to the on-site installation.
   
5. Thus creating from what is only a sound to a new dimension of auditory space.
6. The atmosphere of the 'event' will actually degrade over time to create that feeling of the event finishing.

This idea is more of an add-on to the actual idea. =)

What are we trying to convey?

What are we trying to convey?

Story of the place
-The different atmosphere at different times of the day.
-busy crowds
-eerie silences
-bus movement

-Story of people
-personal story
-own interpretation of the place.

Emotion
-Through colours.

Revisit commercialised space
-reveal its past
-reveal problems

Bring the ambient sounds that people are desensitised to, to the foreground atention.

Freedom of speech
-user can create or say what they want the space to be

Entertainment
-what kind?
-How?
-Perhaps the user ism't the one entertain but the people around him.

Another continuation of ideas...

People nowadays are desensitized to the background sounds of their surroundings. They are so busy in their own world that they can't stop to appreciate their surroundings for what they are.

The idea here is to bring these background sounds to the foreground, turning them into statements of their own right. After giving the sounds the right treatment, make people notice the ambience and better understand their surroundings.

An example of of that would be to turn the lift bells into a rhythm and the typing of the keyboard given different pitches. Sort of like a stomp effect...

Space and Place

Space and Place:

* based on "Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan" *

Ways of understanding the Space and Place.

We need to consider different ways how people feel & think about space, evoking "a sense of place."

Also to understand how people form attachments to home, neighbourhood and nation.

Then, how feelings about the space and place are affected by the sense of time.

For example, learning to know the neighbourhood requires the identification of significant localties such as 'street corners', 'architectural landmarks' and 'sounds'.
Also, long residence(natives) enables us to know a place intimately, yet its image may lack sharpness unless we also see it from the outside & reflect upon our experience.

Radio Signals

I realise radio waves were used to convey morse code at first... then in war, they started using radio to convey verbal messages.

Transmission of radio waves at that time weren't done in an area broadcast, its sort of a directional beam of transmission.

As radio waves are easily picked up and intercepted, the messages themselves were encrypted. "Alpha orange intercept wasp nest" etc etc...

But nowadays radio is more or less used for entertainment and news broadcast. I just had this thought, if wherever we are, we can recieve radio signals, so many channels somemore, does that mean we are in constant exposure of radiowaves at all times? will we get cancer?

Keyword: "Site Specific"

Based on what we have found out about "Site Specific":

It

• needs to relate directly to both the form and the nature of the space
• refers to works that are designed to be experienced in a specific location

Thus, experiencing about the place/space and the qualities of the place. Also the work can rely on the place/space to provide input to a process or by the users' presence, contributing to a new dimension to the place.

Morse code idea

Morse code was created for Samuel F. B. Morse's electric telegraph in the early 1840s, Morse code was also extensively used for early radio communication beginning in the 1890s, which sent pulses of electrical current to control an electromagnet that was located at the receiving end of the telegraph wire. Its a technology available at the time made it impossible to print characters in a readable form, so the inventors had to devise an alternate means of communication. As time passes by, morse code has been replaced by machine readable formats, such as Baudot code and ASCII.

Although morse code is going to obsolete due to minimal usage. It is important because you might need it for emergency signaling, Morse code can be sent by way of improvised sources that can be easily "keyed" on and off.

The concept behind this morse code idea is to play the message from online interface that the user can contribute their own stories or their interpretation of the sight to the “live” installation by translating it to morse code.

A soundscape can be said to be the audible equivalent of a landscape. Put simply, it is a representation of a place or environment through what can be heard rather than what can be seen. Like their photographic equivalents, soundscapes can be realistic and so be directly representational or they can use modifications of(and additions to) the original sounds to create a more subjective sound picture, rather like using a lens to change perspective or a filter to alter colour. Closely related to some aspects of acoustic ecology, the concept of the soundscape emerged in the late 1960s in the form of the World Soundscape Project. Led by R.Murray Schafer and Barry Truax, this research group first documented their own locality through audio recordings in The Vancouver Soundscape(1973) and went on to make extensive documentary recordings in Canada and Europe. Soundscaping is not only a documentary medium but is also used as a compositional form by practitioners such as Hildegard Westerkamp.

The fundamentals of sonic art & sound design by Tony Gibbs. page 28

Questions We Always Ask (???)

This is the list of questions we always ask ourselves.

1. What's our aim?
2. How to engage the users?
3. How to make those people think?
4. What's the purpose?
5. Free interpretation?
6. What happened at that location last time?
7. What emotion will capture?
8. Why not just play a prank?
9. How will people react?
10. What kind od sounds will have effect on the people passing by?
11. What acoustic properties do the place have?
12. What kind of people are there?
13. Any sounds that they can relate to?
    

Harmonic intervals create emotions

Music Harmony

Another Idea

Discussing yesterday with the group. We came out with the idea of letting the online users suggest the place & the event that had happened few days ago or something like that.

So We will use their suggestion(s) and go to the site, then we will playback the memory of the event there. For example, if the site 3 days ago had a 'pasar malam' going on. We will go there to recreate back the hustle & bustle of the 'pasar malam'.

Research on the word "CIRCUS"

More on the word "CIRCUS"

"A circus is most commonly a traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists.

The word also describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of acts that are choreographed to music.

A circus is held in an oval or circular arena with tiered seating around its edge; in the case of traveling circuses this location is most often a large tent called the big top."

However, the definition does not apply to our 'Travelling Soundscape Circus' because we got no performers! Our 'circus' is to engage the users, example, to input the memory of the physical spaces??

EMOTIONS

Acoustic Expression Associated with Emotion by Friederich Marpurg(1718-1795)


Sorrow -Slow, languid melody; Sighing; caressing of single words with exquisite tonal material; prevailing dissonant harmony

Happiness -Fast movement; animated and triumphant melody; more consonant harmony.

Contentment -A more steady and tranquil melody than with happiness.

Repentance -The elements of sorrow, except that a turbulent, lamenting melody is used

Hopefulness -A proud and exultant melody

Fear -tumbling downward progressions, mainly in the lower register.

Laughter -Drawn out, languid tones

Fickleness -Alternating expressions of fear and hope

Timidity -Similar to fear, but often intensified by an expression of impatience

Love -Consonant harmony; soft flattering melody in bored movements.

Hate -Rough harmony and melody

Envy -Growling and annoying

Compassion -Soft, smooth, lamenting melody; slow movement; repeated figure in the bass

Jealousy -Introduced by a soft wavering tone; then an intense, scolding tone; finally moving and singing tone; alternating slow and quick movements

Wrath -Expression of hate combined with running notes; frequent sudden changes in the bass; sharp violent movements.

Modesty -Wavering, hesitating melody

Daring -Defiant, rushing melody

Innocence -A pastoral style

Impatience -Rapidly changing, annoying modulations

Research on the word "SOUNDSCAPE"

Soundscape: What is it all about?

It's the study of the subject, Acoustic Ecology which the relationship mediated through sound between living beings & their environment are studied.

Also to analyze how we interpret & are affected by natural and artificial sounds around us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soundscape is....

It's the combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment.

Also it refers to the natural acoustic environment, consisting of:

• natural sounds .
  
• animal vocalizations (birds chirping, cats meowing,etc.)
• the sounds of weather & other natural elements.
  

The 3 main elements of the "Soundscape":

1. keynote sounds
2. sound signals - meaning foreground sounds which are listened consciously; eg warning devices, bells, whistle, etc.
3. soundmark - the sound which is unique to an area.
   

Fiq's random idea(s) generator: part 1

Fiq's random idea(s) generator: part 1

well, i got this wild idea for the 'soundscape circus'. Use the circus as a sound therapy for those people passing by.

taken from http://www.biowaves.com/

"The effects of sound are apparent in our every day life... For example, we experience the energizing effect of sound and music every time we hear music with a heavy beat. Just think of the last time you heard a favorite dance hit and couldn't help but to start dancing along."

So i thought it could help those working adults to stop at their tracks and think what their way of life have become.

Random Ideas

In a recent article from the Sunday Times, foreign workers were interviewed.
A Mr Somkhit Krasae from Thailand commented that "Singaporeans are less friendly than the Taiwanese. They are always in a hurry and look busy all the time."

This comment made me realise, even the foreign workers think so, is this what we are portraying to them?

My idea is then to use the sounds of nature to give our audience a short escape from the hustle and bustle. But the thing is, when the whole crowd is talking and stomping their way to their destinations, what sounds of nature can still be heard over the noise? Its as if the people are a waterfall; yes, a waterfall.

When there are few people walking in the area, the soft gentle trickling of stream water would be broadcasted in the area, and as more people come in, the sound evolves into a river rush, and imagine the lunch time crowds of Shenton way, thats Niagra Falls.

Ideas

As for my concept, Im using contrasts between past and the present to replay the physical space. Take Boat Quay for example, it is an entertainment scene. With an eclectic mix of high end restaurants and alfresco dining and lively bars and pubs, Boat Quay is arguably the favourite place to “chill out” for most professionals and expatriates.

Imagine that only a century ago, Boat Quay was the hothouse for trading. When Raffles signed the agreement securing the auspicious title of free port for Singapore, this instantly opened the floodgates of immigrants from neighbouring countries. Within six months, a familiar scene in this location was sun-tanned coolies balancing heavy gunny-sacks of rice on their shoulders, with springy gangplanks under their feet, loading and unloading a bewildering plethora of produce.

From there, we can use sounds like rice grains falling of from the rice sack, wooden planks creaking, or even coolies having conversation using dialects to bring back the memories of the past.

The online website

The website of the travelling soundscape circus would of course explain our project, footage of sites we've been to and a comment board for people to input their thoughts of the location we chose.

The comment board would of course have to be filtered for the regular vulgar words, the plus point of using text to input the comments is that bad words are easily picked up by the system and eliminated.

One thing about the site is that, since we decided against live video feed, the online users cannot see the immediate effect that their comments make. So their comments will simultaneously be played on the website as well, just like how it would sound like on site. After all, who would want to feel like they don't matter?

Onsite studies 6

By 2:30, we reached the esplanade underpass to citylink.

There are a few art works on display, and so the people passing by are kinda laid back and walking at a slow pace. Although there aren't alot of traffic there, the people who are there take the time to soak things in. Mainly teenagers or youngsters make up the people passing through the area. A few tourists like to walk through this place as well.

from there we headed to the underground area where dancers hang out and practice. At 2.40, there isn't many people practicing, there seems to be a time slot that we missed.

While we are there, we spotted a few homeless people sleeping on the ground, a group of youngsters were sitting in a circle and discussing something. For a place as big as this, the people that we saw are few and far between. Theres a general feeling of mind your own business while we were there. Unwelcome i would say...

We didn't stay there for long, by 2.45 we were at the city link mall entrance, the area with the galleries.

People here are very chuplang... a few tourists, foreign workers, students... While we were there, the people were playing with the art works and not shy about it. Theres an air of more open mindedness here.

The securities here have too much time. I got stopped from sitting on the floor. I can't imagine if I actually started doing something here. Sure kena from the security one.

Onsite studies 5

12:40pm we arrive at Raffles Place MRT just to be greeted by the lunch time crowd.

The crowd there is thick and constantly in a hurry. The crowd is made up of offic workers from nearby office towers. The cafeteria area was crowded as well, i've never seen so many people use tissue packets to reserve seats before. There are alot of noise all over the place as well, shops blasting their music, throngs of people walking and talking.

After the rush hour around 3pm to 5 pm, this place is a ghost town. Shop keepers look bored, because there are no people walking around. other than security patrols and cleaners.

Alot of security guards patrol the area, and also security cameras all over the place... but we didn't get stopped or anything while filming the area.

Onsite studies 4

Still at chinatown. It is now 12:10, we are now at chinatown complex.

This place is the heart of the locals staying at chinatown. Old men playing chess and reminiscing about the past. Old women buying groceries, bargaining for a cheaper price. The occasional bunch of tourists who stray into an unfamiliar side of chinatown.

The crowd is thick with activity though. In a laid back kind of feeling, they are busy with their mundane daily worries...

The locals stare at us dubiously while we are filming... They look unwelcoming.

Onsite studies 3

We are out of the heartlands.

At 12 noon, we are deep in the tourist jungle of Chinatown. How do we classify this place as the tourist side? The stalls sell their kitschy souvenirs and shout out rudely at tourists.

Its surprisingly quiet though, maybe chinatown shines only at night, oh wait, a few minutes past 12 and the place picks up, the place is starting to get crowded... Its just mainly tourists walking around, a couple of students exploring the place... slowing down their pace to look at the kitschy souvenirs... imagine this is what the tourists must think singapore is like... oh the horror.

There are virtually no rules here, we can be as loud as we want, do as much funky stuff as we want... as long as we can beat the noise that the stalls are already making...

Onsite Studies 2

at 10:45am We arrived at AMK hawker centre/wet market.

At this timing, i guess you really couldn't see much crowds... At the market side of things, maids and aunties make up the majority of the people, but since the marketing timing is over, its only the sparse few people making their rounds. Of course, rowdy butchers shouting all the way across to the fish mongers probably adds to the noise.

At the eating area of the place, its the uncles who reign. Them and their seniors. They sit around nursing a cuppa kopi or teh, chit chatting their time away...

Generally sparse activity going on around.

I guess its safe to do abit of funny business here... so security guards and the like. But community spirit is strong, you do not annoy the locals here.

Radio Signals

I realise radio waves were used to convey morse code at first... then in war, they started using radio to convey verbal messages.

Transmission of radio waves at that time weren't done in an area broadcast, its sort of a directional beam of transmission.

As radio waves are easily picked up and intercepted, the messages themselves were encrypted. "Alpha orange intercept wasp nest" etc etc...

But nowadays radio is more or less used for entertainment and news broadcast. I just had this thought, if wherever we are, we can recieve radio signals, so many channels somemore, does that mean we are in constant exposure of radiowaves at all times? will we get cancer?

Onsite studies 1

Hokay, so we went down to a few places to check them out...

at 10:23 AMKhub was a relatively quiet place.
There are roughly 52 people walking past the spot i was sitting by in 1 minute. Maybe only because i was sitting near the pathway to the MRT station.
People are mostly in a hurry. Mums/Grandmums brings children to school... Aunties buying groceries... students walking around... tourists... people who are going for work...

Not much security guards there... although there was a camera looking where i was sitting... none came to find trouble with me...

It was here that i realise... our speakers are too soft... the people actually make more noise walking down the escalator than our speakers...