I was with the half of the class that went to learn about the basic physics of sound and hearing and went into the reverberation and anechoic rooms.
The physics of sound was rather boring, but it’s still good to know how sound works for this project and gain a better understanding of it. One thing that caught my attention was the difference between a sound and a noise. We didn’t delve into a debate about that but I think that could be something we can explore later on with our one-week sound projects.
Later we had a brief visit to the reverberation room and anechoic room. The reverberation room was really cold and felt really hard. That’s probably because the materials it’s covered in is hard and smooth, so it reflects the sound off the surfaces giving that immense echo. I loved that, it was like being in a cave.
My favourite out of the two rooms is the anechoic room because it’s warm, bouncy, and it felt mushy because it was covered in sponge. It disappointed me though because nothing particularly cool happened. I was expecting a feeling of being pressurized and a sense of vertigo causing major discomfort and strangeness. However, it felt really normal. Just quiet and closed, with a barely audible humming in my ear.
The anechoic room made me think about something that my piano teacher once told me: Silence doesn’t exist. In the anechoic room when nobody makes a sound it's supposed to be completely quiet. So when the lights turn off you hear your pulse if it's a really well-made anechoic room. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether “silence” is emulated or not, you will still hear what's going on inside you such as your pulse, your breathing, and so on.
The afternoon is the part that I look forward to in EVERY project: Gathering my group members. I loved it today! I’ve mastered choosing who I want to work with in top speed and gathering them before anyone else can. I knew that always at the beginning of every project when the lecturer would say “Alright guys, sort yourselves out into your groups” there is a very short length of time that is the golden time for people like me who want to grab all the people I want in my group. It’s the first two minutes where nearly every classmate is in a state of apprehension and confusion as to how to form a group, specifically who to form a group with. I had no problem with that today because I’ve been working hard in the holidays planning out all my potential groups.
For the sound projects I had a specific group design going for a particular feel in combination with the various personalities I think would go fantastic with what we’re doing. In this project I’m working with Emile, Chris Lee, and Cory Beduhn. Emile’s a light blue, Chris is a cross between orange and blue while Cory is yellow with a bit of orange mixed in. I’m a medium blue. Now let me explain how I think this combo would work.
There are a few magic pairs in the class. These pairs of people are amazing because when you put them together it sets the atmosphere and tone of the group much more strongly than people who are a pure colour. What I mean by pure colour is when a person is, for example, strongly blue they possess blue attributes at the highest level. Chris and Cory are such a pair. This pair has a very warm feel, with medium high energy. Since Chris has more orange in her she gives a spark to ideas while the blue in her gives her that strong focus. Combined with Cory, who complements these qualities, the attributes in both people work together beautifully. So we’ve got a nice spark going on. This is why we have Emile. I think he has a knack for finding unique, unusual things. This quality I value very much, particularly in this sound project because I want something different from what most people would think of to happen. So Emile is chosen to give that extra little push in creating an idea. His attention to detail helps as well. I’m there to organise everything to make sure that all goals are completed according to our ideal mini-deadlines before the final deadline so that we have plenty of time to make mistakes, experiment, and of course finish our composition on time while making it the best composition we can.
I should draw a chart to really explain in full detail how my colour method works for choosing groups. More on that later.
After forming a group and getting a basic plan down for the week we went out to record some sounds to try it out, then tomorrow we can pick out the sounds we like and go out to record any more additional sounds we’d like to add. The idea is to find sounds and noises that we overlook in our environment. I really enjoyed that, it was fun for me.
It’s pretty amazing what you can hear through that mic. My favourite sound that we recorded that day was the sound of deep fried Korean food being made. I think it was the best sound of the day because you can hear the oil boiling and it sounds amazing.
We looked really hilarious when we recorded the sounds, the expressions and reactions of the public were hilarious too. Chris was trying to get the sound of a pigeon so she was following one around. It looked like she was stalking it and she looked really focused. The funniest ones were when Emile was running after a rolling grapefruit and when he was being an extremely conspicuous spy sticking the mic through the window in to an Auckland Uni class.
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