HARMONISCAPES
COMPOSITION THROUGH AFFECT, ACOUSTIKINETIC ARCHITECTURE, AND SOUNDSCAPES IN PUBLIC SPACE
ABSTRACT
|| The acoustic environment found within the urban context has progressively filled with noise since the introduction of technology to the city. By analyzing the acoustic quality of public spaces, a deeper understanding of the greater sensorial environment begins to take hold. ||
|| Applying the concepts of musical tone to define and understand tonal quality, an analysis of existing sound in space begins the process of redesign and furthered comprehension. This starting point through real-world application of on-site recording is then expanded upon to define frequencies that are perceived as noise and frequencies in the environment that bare an initial tonal quality. ||
|| This design thesis aims to combine the existing sonic elements found in public spaces with a consideration of materiality sourced from a simplified application of acoustical physics in an attempt to improve the affective quality of those spaces. By rejecting methods of singular analysis, but instead utilizing a wide range composed together, alternate means of organizing form and quality of these spaces will be proposed. ||
Case Studies
PROCESS
Western music keys are inherently imbued with specific emotions in a general sense. Designing this grid of apathy to passion and misery to joy, the major and minor keys can be identified as intrinsically "positive" and "negative" audacities.
Material arrangement functions as a means to absorb and refract vibrations in the environment, defining a physical language in creating an acoustically charged space. Utilizing a combination of hard and soft , warm and cold, and fabricated and natural materials, an audibly, visually, and tangibly unique public space takes on numerous qualities that improve the perceived experience.
KEY MAPPING
FREQUENCY MAPPING
MATERIALITY
The twelve notes that create form the western scale each belong to a specific frequency. For example, the standard frequency for instrumental tuning is a 440Hz "A". By diagramming the the "notational" frequencies, sounds found in our public spaces can easily be identified on the western scale and considered for appropriation or cancellation.