Listening

After exploring music and its qualities, I have decided look at sound and the way we are concisely and unconsciously affected by it.

I have conducted a test, in which I asked people to identify 13 sounds I recorded while also describing any feeling and/or memories it arouse. Some of the sounds reminded people of personal experiences that the sound was related to, but there were a few interesting similar results.

The sound of a boiling water in a kettle was identify either as a kettle or as rain or the sea. The natural sound of the water made everyone (!!!) feel calm and relaxed.

As for an iphone ringtone/alarm, all people found it annoying, stressful and disturbing.

The data I've collected relates to the data Julian Treasure presented about sound. Treasure gives 4 main ways in which sound affects us: physiologically (can change our heart rate, breathing, hormone secretions and even brain waves); psychologically (affecting our moods and emotions); cognitively (changing how well we think); and behaviorally (we move away from unpleasant sound if we can). Most of these effects are non conscious: we have become used to suppressing sound because we’re commonly surrounded by noise in the modern world.

I have found out that Sound has a fundamental part in enhancing communication between people and objects. I wanted to explore the associations of sound by implementing well known sounds on human and social interactions.

The sounds are so embedded within us that we can actually make sense of this video.