Nightingale Floor: Concept

Today we start the last audio project. My new group is with Jenna and Ben Cornelius. At first we had more people, but it turns out the maximum group size was restricted to four people so we had to cut down to the original three.

To be honest I'm secretly glad that this happened. Before, I was trying to gather more people so that our group could be stronger in manpower and so that our budget would look amazing. Extra hands also means more detailed and specialised roles for each person. However, restricting the group size to a smaller size levels out all the groups and for me it reduces the absolute necessity for my group's project to be mindblowing. Not that I'm less motivated to push everyone to do their best work of course. I want my group to do our personal best, to do the best we can. So that our project would be amazing and so that we won't feel horrible in case we fail, because we know that we tried our hardest.

Anyway, our concept. We went through several possible ones, with the most prominent ones recorded in my journal. In the end we settled on our idea of the modernised nightingale floor.

A nightingale floor was used in ancient Japan as a security measure against assassins, specifically ninjas. The most famous example exists in Nijo Castle in Kyoto. In summary you sneak along these floors and the pressure causes special pins and bolts holding the floor together would rub against each other, the sound bounces off and into these urns underneath producing sounds like that of the Japanese warbler bird. That's a traditional nightingale floor.

Here's a video of a traditional one that's been made by someone else:



For my group we will be using special circuits and sensors underneath the panels to trigger a variety of sounds. The constructed floor itself would become a large musical instrument. The sounds would be louder with more calming timbre when treaded softly, since apparently nightingale floors produce louder sounds with lighter pressures compared to heavier pressures, and quieter, rough sounds when people stomp hard on it.

This is to highlight the presence, the idea of existing and what it feels like to exist. We're going with the Zen approach with constructing the sounds. It it meant to be peaceful and tranquil as the walker journeys across the floor, like a simulation of meditation. It is simply that. The person is simply walking across the floor doing whatever it is that they do on floors. As such, you exist simply because you are. There is no deeper meaning. You just ARE.

More on the concept will be developed as we go alone though. Perhaps we will find more meaning at later stages. I think we'll find it when we get to making the sounds.




Also went up to the Audio Foundation to check out the available spaces as well. We'd want a place with reasonable length and width to accommodate our raised section of floor. For us the corridor for the fire exit is the top candidate. It has great length, and if we put our floor there it won't be in the way of everyone else's work.

This is the corridor we're after.

And here are the other available spaces offered:



Another available space was a short length of corridor that leads to the toilets.




We had a lecture this afternoon as well, with Rachel Shearer showing us here work. My favourite is the recording of the clicking communications between fish and other sea life. I thought that was amazing, because I didn't know that fish could do that. If one day the speech of animals could be understood by humans things would get interesting.