Category Archives: General Art

Thursday 6th June, 2013 – Soundscapes and Young Children.

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Working with children:

Lately, some of my work has focused on young children and how they interact with the world.  This has included soundscape workshops, investigating sound and creating immersive environments.  My latest involvement has been creative play and theatre and this work with children has really highlighted how important sound and interactivity is in the experience of an environment; their unguarded reactions being very telling.

Tea Dance For Little People – ‘Spring Into Summer’ and my soundscapes:

Last week, I wrote about my involvement in Tea Dance For Little People’s production ‘Spring Into Summer’, for 0 – 8 year-olds.  For this production I created three soundscapes to enhance three separate areas of the performance.

Firstly, I created a ‘time hole’ – a place where there is no present, future or past… the area was a small enclosed space covered in various dark as well as silvery fabrics with netting materials bringing depth to the visual experience.  LED lights were draped inside the space and speakers were hidden.  For this space, I created the noise of the door opening which was triggered upon opening the door.  A themed welcome message then played to orient the children and a part of it warned not to “…touch the red button”.  This was played over the main soundscape which was displayed as surround sound.   With this soundscape I wanted to create a sense of wonder and peace.  I took my influences from the peaceful timelessness of being underwater and of deep space (or my interpretation of it!).  Stars, represented as twinkly noises randomly pricked the atmosphere from various directions while the whooshes of shooting stars and presence of colourful gas clouds also made up the soundscape.  This section also featured some simple interactivity by using a giant red dome button to trigger audio: when pressed the time hole giggled and exclaimed “that tickles”.

The children loved this space and enjoyed pressing the button, their sense of wonder and adventure had been stoked and the sound was very important in introducing this new environment. Click play below to have a listen…

 
 

Secondly, I created the soundscape for Professor Waitaminute’s time laboratory.  This included various clocks ticking in different time with alarms, chimes and cuckoos going off at random intervals.  This space was experienced directly after the time hole, which they were passing through.  The ticking and it’s more enclosed sense of space brought the children forward into a contrasting environment ready for further discovery.  Here, the Professor sung songs with the children and conducted an experiment to help her return back to the past…” which is currently the future and will be the present when it arrives…”. The feel I was going for here was something similar to the doc’s house at the beginning of the film ’Back to the Future’… except a little more crazy and eccentric.

The final soundscape I created was for the time machine, which the children helped to fix. This soundscape included some traditional cartoon ‘sciency’ sounds such as bubbles, whirrs and fart noises (of course).  Accompanying these noises were various digital computer noises that I created using various sources and processes.  Before this was played the time machine exploded into action with a pop and a bang.  Press play below to hear the main time machine soundscape:

 

The experience really stimulated the children’s curiosity and all had a great time.  The use of sound in this way rounded off the experience nicely and I could see how much the children were intrigued by their environments.

The Future and soundscapes for children:

Over time I will be developing my use of interactivity within such environments.  There are plans to create the sounds of faeries playing in a magical wood, with motion sensors triggering their voices and sounds to add to the realism.  Also, I am currently developing a musical instrument using an Xbox Kinect sensor.  This effectively acts like a Theremin, with movement of the arms influencing pitch, volume and echo.  Such an instrument really makes the musician think about their immediate environment and the subtle movements needed to make interesting changes in sound.  From this, it is hoped that children will learn about spatial awareness and be given the confidence to create music of their own; music isn’t scary or elite, it is a collection of sounds.  I am also developing ideas of creating a sensory room for children with special needs as well as mainstream children.  Such environments serve to teach children control over their environment as well as the stimulation of creative play.

Thursday 11th April 2013 – Immersing Your Audience (part two)

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Previously…

My last blog post was all about some talks I attended on ‘Immersing your Audience’ .  The talks were given by experiential marketing agencies RPM and Sense and the immersive theatre group Punchdrunk.  Last week, I mentioned the general concepts that I learned so this week I thought I would talk about my thoughts on these ideas in relation to getting creative with immersive audio.  These ideas could be used for any kind of experience and even song-writing to give the material a better chance of communicating your ideas or message.

The Importance of space

I mentioned that the key thread throughout all these talks was the idea of dipping your audience into a different reality based around a theme.  Audio really is vital to achieving this.  Sound defines any space we are in, whether we notice it or not.  The way sound bounces around a space gives our brain little queues through our ears.  Because the part of our brain that deals with sound has good connections with our emotion centre, these queues spark emotional responses and this is one of the reasons why spaces all make us feel different.  Of course, other factors such as light and previous memories have a say in this but sound is an important piece of this puzzle.

How can this be used in staging events?  Well, you could physically choose the right space to host your happening; a claustrophobic theatrical piece could utilise a series of small, enclosed rooms or an air of freedom could be created by large spaces or even the great outdoors.  Artificial audio could also be used to achieve these effects.  Choosing the right audio, echo/reverb and sound-wave frequency emanating from hidden speakers would all contribute to the desired atmosphere.

Tailor sound to emotional direction

Next, I talked about direction.  This is vital with any aspect of a project really but is more than just choosing the right thematic sounds that fit in with it.  An experience is always more than it’s theme so you are not always just pointing towards ‘burlesque’, for example.  How do you want your audience to feel?  Define the emotions and then tailor the work to these while using the burlesque theme.  Again, use of sound frequency, echo/reverb and the right audio will all contribute.

Realism

Realism and appealing to all of the senses was mentioned next.  The great thing about audio, as is seen with music, is that you can evoke emotion without the audio sounding like a real-world occurrence.  Of course using realistically accurate audio will have advantages in some situations but the sound palette doesn’t stop there.  Think about how a piece of classical instrumentation can make you feel, or the fact that gunshot sounds used in film are far more exciting and very different from the sound of a real gunshot.  In terms of the senses, the realistic crackle of bacon cooking can evoke the idea of the smell of bacon (if the audience is familiar with it).  Music can also be used to approximate the senses; sounds can be warm or cold, pungent or smooth.

Attention to Detail

The last posts mention of detail and backstory is the same with any medium.  Subtlety and attention to detail will enrich any experience and also make it seem more real and natural even if your chosen atmosphere isn’t real at all.  Many sounds are present in every environment and they all contribute to your experience of that environment even if you are not conscious of them.  The background rumble of traffic, for example, will be a cue that you are not in the middle of a jungle but you may not consciously recognise it’s affect.

Understand the Audience.

Knowing your audience is also vital to any experience.  This is probably most obvious with the use of music; different people have very rigid expectations of what they perceive good music to be.  They can’t all be right can they?  That very fact shows you that the definition of ‘good music’ is subjective and, ironically enough, not very useful in actually determining musical quality.  Replacing the idea of good music with the phrase ‘music this group will like’ is much more helpful if you plan to use music in an event.  Customer profiling will help this and to an extent a good result can be achieved using such scientific means; TV adverts show how successful this method is.  The music industry has tried very hard to mystify music to make it more appealing.  Releasing yourself from these shackles will make creative use of music much easier; think about the perceptions of your audience rather than providing ‘good music’.

And finally…

The last idea that brings all of these threads together is simplicity.  Of course, this is a relevant idea for most things – the most elegant solution is always the simplest one!

My experience has shown that audio and how it can be used in creative applications can mystify people.  Whereas this post hasn’t really unlocked tools of the trade, I’m hoping it has shown that audio isn’t so scary after all: you can think about it like any other creative aspect of a project.  And of course, there are always content providers like myself who are more than willing to delve deeper into the ideas behind audio use when needed.  I also hope the ideas I have written about here have given you food for thought as well as giving you ideas that you can take away with you!

Thursday 28th March 2013 – Immersing Your Audience (part one)

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THE POWER OF SOUND

As anyone that regularly reads my blog will know, my main interests in sound (and music) involve total immersion.  This stems from the idea that music is escapism and how this might be perfected.  The ability of music to provide such immersion is somewhat limited due to the ugly apparition of devout taste and the fact that this and other factors give it a limited scope of expression.  I therefore enjoy learning about what can be done with sound as a general medium and my adventures over the past couple of weeks have involved taking inspiration from ideas that are linked but don’t specifically deal with soundscape.

 

CROSS-POLLINATION 

Recently, I visited International Confex 2013 and the Live Experience Expo as well as an event at Discover Children’s Story Centre.  Confex and the Live Experience Expo were large trade events at the ExCeL put on for the events industry and Discover Children’s Story Centre puts on immersive experiences for children.

The talks I attended were all very different but they all had one thing in common: Dipping your audience into a different reality based around a theme.   Below are the main lessons I learnt from these talks and a few of my own relevant thoughts.  You will notice that I don’t really mention sound in the context of these ideas; I want to emphasise that you can gain inspiration from areas other than that of your own work.  Therefore, this post will be about the general ideas and next week I will work on connecting these ideals to sound.

 

DIRECTION

Before a project is worked on, there needs to be direction.  There might be a rough idea or theme that you want to create but this should all be distilled into one specific target.  This way, everything about an experience will be pointing in the same direction.  However, from personal experience, there is a lot to be said for pointing yourself in that rough direction and seeing what happens (although this unnerves many people involved!).  This looser approach can create a more intricate experience as the details will only be loosely related and therefore more varied and feel more organic.  Care is needed here though as there can be a fine line between chaos and ordered chaos!

 

ENVIRONMENT

The perfect immersion is to totally transform a space that appeals to all of the senses and to transport an audience somewhere that is totally different with no sense of the outside world.  Each experience should not seem staged and be relevant in the real world.  Also, its narrative should be loose enough that the audience can create their own stories and ideas within it.  As well as these ideas, the environment used needs to be a place that people want to spend time in.

 

EMOTION

Emotion is very important, as with music.   The only way to connect with people is through their emotions and connecting to people is obviously central to any event.  To have the most impact an experience needs to be emotionally engaging, using fear as well as and joy; connecting with emotion brings down a person’s guard and therefore their susceptibility to being immersed in an experience.  Also, to be fully immersive, an experience needs a comprehensive backstory.  This allows the minute detail to contribute to the experience; it is more likely that every thought an audience member has will be answered by the experience making the desired theme totally watertight.

 

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Knowing the audience is also very important; different things have different meanings for different people and you need to make sure that every person in an experience is fully engaged.  Every person that isn’t fully engaged will detract from the audience’s overall immersion.  To achieve this, everybody included needs to have a story-related reason to be present, from all parts of the audience to those delivering the experience.

 

SIMPLICITY IS KEY

The idea that brings all of these threads together is simplicity.  Ideas need to be simple enough that they are accepted and do not require too much thought to understand them. The audience shouldn’t be trying to figure out what is going on but accepting everything presented before them.  Of course, there could be situations where complexity is a virtue, such as bringing people into an extended series of happenings but these complications should be tailored to the audience as mentioned above.

 

APPLY THESE IDEAS TO ANY MESSAGE

As you can see, immersing people in a watertight experience requires a lot of thought as well as understanding of your audience but the rewards definitely seem to be worth it.  Creating such an environment will make sure that your audience are truly taking in everything you want to say and this means that these ideas have multiple uses.  Whether you are a musician, film-maker,  artist or corporate advertiser totally immersing your audience can only reap benefits.

Baralek Rendang in the Media

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Some work I created last year for an Indonesian event, Baralek Rendang, has had attention from the Indonesian media:

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=id&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metrotvnews.com%2Flifestyle%2Fread%2F2013%2F02%2F18%2F470%2F132025%2FMusik-Rendang-dari-Inggris

Here is the site in its native language: http://www.metrotvnews.com/lifestyle/read/2013/02/18/470/132025/Musik-Rendang-dari-Inggris

Tuesday 12th March, 2013 – Soundscape and Gaining a Fresh Perspective.

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Rivers and People:

Over the past couple of weeks I have hosted soundscape workshops for two local primary school classes.   This was a really interesting experience for me and also got the children thinking about sound in new ways.

The workshops were tied to the Rivers and People production I took part in last September which was staged to bring attention to the regenerated area of Ladywell Fields, Lewisham.  For those that cant remember, Rivers and People was an immersive experience put on by the London Bubble Theatre company in collaboration with Lewisham Council.  Various artists and actors were involved, using the River Ravensbourne in Lewisham as a set.  I was commissioned to create three soundscapes to help animate three sections of the experience.  The main soundscape was paired with sculptures created by Other World Arts (OWA) to create a magical forest ambience.  OWA uses discarded items and litter in their work and this inspired me to create my audio using ‘recycled’ sounds found around the river and it’s local park, Ladywell Fields.  These sounds were all manipulated to sound like various inhabitants of the forest, creating an unusual backdrop.  The workshops were part of a legacy exhibition touring Lewisham libraries showcasing these sculptures and my soundscape.

Using the idea of creating an artificial soundscape from unlikely elements I thought I’d give the children a chance to work together to create the ambience of a stormy sea.  Continuing the recycled theme, I made a few instruments with old tins, bottles, rice, pasta etc as well elastic bands and old soup pots.  Alongside these, I also provided some very rustly grease-proof paper and old plastic carrier bags as well as some more traditional percussion such as maracas, wood blocks, sleigh bells etc.  The idea was to get the children thinking about what kind of sounds might make up a soundscape and also how they might go about making these sounds for themselves.

Each class was divided up into four groups and each group was given a different element of the soundscape to create: wind, rain, waves and thunder.  All of the children were then asked to choose instruments that they thought would be good at conveying their particular sound.  It was then my job to conduct them, treating each section as a different instrument, using hand gestures to tell them went to start, stop and at what volume to play.  The children reacted wonderfully, really getting into making their sounds; they really thought about how such simple instruments might be used to create sounds that were sometimes totally different.

The Inspiration:

It was great to see young imaginations at work and this really got me thinking about how difficult in can be for adults to use their imaginations.  Maybe this is due to the brain reaching maturity, and therefore losing it’s early flexibility?  After all, the more a pathway in our brain is used, the stronger and more automated that pathway becomes.  This is why ‘practice makes perfect’ and as we grow older maybe we just ‘practice’ different things that don’t call for imagination.  Imagination is vitally important in adult life though; it’s what we use when we need to solve a problem, exercise our minds and ultimately progress ourselves and the human race.

The Idea:

If you feel yourself losing grip of your childhood imagination why don’t you exercise it in a similar way to the children I worked with over the past couple of weeks?  Create an approximation of something using material that is only loosely related, or even totally unrelated.  You’ll find yourself creating wonderful art and also forcing your brain to get clever when trying to figure out problems.  If you are an artist of any type and are having a bit of ‘artist’s block’, pick two things at random and try to explain one with the other.  I would love to know what you come up with so please do share!

Tuesday 26th February 2013 – The Aeolian Harp and Soundscape

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After the last incarnation of my band, Lunar Rising, split I looked at various ways to become more self-sufficient.  I wanted to create big sounds using instruments but with fewer people, or at least fewer people with specific skills.  I looked into easy-to-play drone instruments such as the Shrutti Box, computerised sampling and looping and messing around with ‘found sound’ atmospheres.  During this research, I also started to look at drone instruments that I could make cheaply and without much fuss and this is when I came across the Aeolian Harp, AKA Wind Harp.  The nature of this instrument means that on it’s own, it wasn’t entirely suitable for use in a band (or was it…? more on this later) but I wanted to make one out of sheer curiosity and thought it could come in very useful for creating soundscape installations (more on this later too…).

So, what is an Aeolian Harp?  Well, legend has it that the ancient Greeks came up with the idea somehow.  Strings are tightened across a simple (or not so simple) body which is then placed outside or at an open window.  The breezes and winds then brush over the strings and this creates a very beautiful, ethereal sound.  Yes, the wind effectively plays the instrument for you!

You may be wondering how this is possible, as the wind isn’t agile enough to pluck or bow a string.  Well, apparently the jury is still out on the exact science but the basics are known.  Skip this paragraph if science bores you…  Each single sound, instrumental or otherwise is made up of different frequencies (or pitches).  These frequencies are usually mathematically related and these various frequencies all contribute to what you hear as timbre or tone (the way the instrument sounds).  A string that has been pulled taut has a pitch related to it’s length and the various frequencies making up this pitch can be teased out by lightly brushing the string at various points.  This is what the wind does to an Aeolian Harp and the (effectively) random nature of wind is why you can hear so many different, random notes all at the same time

So, how to make one!  I found out how to make an Aeolian Harp by watching this great You Tube video  by Stan Hershonik, a guy that has made many different types.

All you need is a bit of guttering, some wood, nails, instrument tuning pins and some fishing wire!

Soundscape creation

The video above shows you what you have to do but basically you fit wood blocks into either end of the guttering and screw your tuning pins into one end.  Thread your fishing wire strings through the tuning pins and pull them over the other side of the guttering where they are nailed in place.  Use two bits of thin wood as the bridges to hold the strings up.  Tighten the strings using the tuning pins and you’re done! Exact tuning isn’t really necessary as it will still sound nice!  If you fancy making one please do feel free to contact me if you have any questions or are having any problems.

Finished Aeolian Harp

 

Here is a video of my finished harp singing, including a duet with a train and some wind noise!  How does the sound make you feel?

So, you can use an Aeolian Harp to bring a bit of cheer and background noise to a space and this is where an involvement with them could rightly end.  However, how else might they be used?  As I mentioned earlier, could they be used in a band?  Well, mic’ing them up would provide a bit of a chalengle but maybe artificial breezes can be created so that human power can influence how the harp sounds.  Could it be possible to rig a harp up to electronic fans controlled by a user interface? Collaborator Christopher Konopka is currently considering this in some interesting depth… maybe more on this later…  The electronics and software programming could be very simple but considerations of breeze strength and fan noise would have to be taken into account.

If this set-up ends up not being possible in a band situation, these ideas could easily be transferred to a soundscape installation and various artists have already done this.  Using a few harps, big or small, outside could create a space that people can walk around and enjoy the sounds created.  If the fan ideas work out then maybe they can be used indoors as part of a more general soundscape.  The natural harp sound could be teamed up with noises coming from speakers and, again, interactive elements could be used to control what happens when.  The harps could be built into aesthetically pleasing sculptures to provide a visual spectacle as well as interactivity.  But what still remains though is the sound; a beautiful, otherworldly sound that creates a serene and interesting backdrop to any space.  I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to develop these ideas in my soundscape work.  Watch this space but until then, have a go at making one yourself, anyone can do it!

12th February 2013 – Music, Sound and War – Part Two

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This is the second part of a two-part post about the destructive capabilities of sound and sound design.  Specifically, these posts talk about how sound design is used during war and the factors common to these uses.  Maybe a look at such extreme usage will spur ideas of how sound design can be used in more constructive, peaceful ways.  

From reading the previous post, you can see that the use of sound design in this context is both psychological and physical and it’s strength lies in being able to affect both the body and the mind; potent stuff!  This is no less true for another, more sinister application: the use of sound in torture.

If the use of sound design in war strikes you as sinister, you may be shocked to learn that it is also used in torture.  The idea apparently came from the North Koreans and Chinese who used sound to brainwash captives during the Korean War.  The Americans realised how powerful this concept was and therefore conducted research into how it might be countered so they could defend themselves against it.  This research actually ended up leading to the US using similar techniques employed by the Chinese and North Koreans and these techniques have been used at both Guantanamo Bay as well as the Abu Ghraib prison.

So, what has this torture consisted of? Well, reports say that very loud, aggressive music is played as an integral part of stress-based torture; loud sound is extremely fatiguing to listen to.  On its own, the music serves to isolate the captive and draw them into their mind while learning dependence on their captor.  Used for hours, the music keeps the captive awake and disoriented; the idea being that talking and divulging information will be seen as a release from the stress of not being able to rest and also of escape from the sound.

An interesting point to note about this audio torture is that Muslim detainees at these two prisons have also talked about how culture has played a part in their discomfort.  Music has very different, religious meanings for a lot of Muslims and being subjected to intense rock and metal music offends their beliefs, which are at the very core of their existence.  When paired with isolation and hopelessness, this imposition could be very powerful in changing thought patterns.

It is probably pretty obvious to you that very loud sound is very uncomfortable and you instantly want to remove yourself from it.  However, something called dissonance also contributes and is used in sound design with great effect.  Heard in much modern metal music, dissonance also produces an uncomfortable feeling.  Sound is basically the vibration of air molecules and the speed at which they vibrate is called frequency.  The frequencies of sounds that go well together have a mathematical relationship, one number is divisible by the other.  When sounds are dissonant, this numerical relationship does not exist and our brain interprets this as uncomfortable, making it a great tool for violent, unsettling music!  This effect comes from a cross between physiology and culture though:  Our cultures train our ears to what sounds acceptable but the effect is directly related to how sound moves as well as the way our brain is structured in interpreting these sounds.

So, as with the militaristic uses of sound design  as described in the previous post, torture also uses the basic power of sound as well as the psychological affects it has, creating an overall sound design. Too much of any sensory input is always painful so there is perhaps not much we can learn from this.  But sound is very important to our psychological make-up; sound is always around us, we cannot easily switch it off like we can with sight and the fact that sound is a constant in our lives (even when asleep!) means it can easily obtain meaning when paired with emotion.  Reverse these negative sounds to positive sounds and the affect remains.  Think of a nice relaxing summer afternoon in a park; what can you hear?  The gentle, hypnotising swish of the trees in a breeze; delicate birdsong and maybe even the calm of running water.  Now, keep the scene exactly the same but replace those sounds with violent, uncomfortably loud smashes and crashes and have a think about how your mood changes. The emotional pairing and content of sound is driving the feelings you are experiencing.  

24th January 2013 – Music, Sound and War – Part One.

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This blog post has been inspired by the documentary ‘Songs of War’ aired on Al Jazeera and is the first in a two-part post on an extreme use of sound: the use of sound in war.  This is a fascinating subject although you may be shocked to hear about how sound can be used and what is actually happening today in our own armies.

I’ve talked about it before but sound has been used to trigger emotion in film for a long time, reinforcing the emotional content of what you are seeing, creating a much more integrated atmosphere that draws the viewer in.  Also, the importance of sound, not just music, is being accepted more and more in the marketing world. Sound tends to focus on the positive here as brands fight to associate their goods with attractive, positive attributes that gain customers.  However, as with everything, music and sound aren’t always used for good, sound has also been used in war for a long time.  The very fact that sound can be used in such extreme ways shows how very potent sound design can be, both a strong physical force as well as psychological one.  The characteristics of sound and music that cause them to be manipulated in such a way are what makes this subject so interesting for marketers wanting to convey messages as well as those just interested in sound.

The first uses of sound in war were to intimidate the enemy.  Drums, trumpets, shouts and the crashing of shields and swords have been used to show strength and power, whip soldiers up into a frenzy and strike fear into the hearts of the enemy.  These are all very physical, powerful sounds that seem to remind us of danger no matter what our cultural norms are.  Particular to the UK, the sound of bagpipes in battle is both stirring for the British and fear-inducing for soldiers on the other side.  This sound is different in that it is more complex although it is still rousing and powerful.

As time went on, the use of music and sound became more sophisticated and strategic. A famous example is how Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels controlled music in the Third Reich through the Reich Music Chamber. Stirring militaristic marches full of bombast, powerful brass sections and simple crashing beats were used to ignite war in the population.  Also, during this period, the famous Stuka dive bomber used sound to inflict terror on the people it fought against: as the plane dived to release it’s bomb, a siren let out a shrill whine.  You might notice here that context played a big part in this terror rather than sound in isolation, accenting fear already there much as cinematic sound designers do.

Later on, the use of sound in war is got ever more sophisticated. During the Vietnam War, the American military used speakers in the jungle to project eerie, ghostly sounds. This was intended to affect the Vietcong spiritually and break their morale; they believed that if they died away from home their spirit would get lost and be forced to wander the earth forever. Here you can see that power is not so much of a contributor but again, playing on context, emotions can be influenced by knowing about your ‘audience’.

Modern times have seen the invention of the directional speaker. Conventional speakers project sound outward in a 90 degree arc meaning that sound can be heard even if you are not directly in front of a speaker. Directional speakers use a carrier wave to hold the sound waves and this only travels in straight lines. This means the speaker can be pointed at just one person or a group of people and even though it is delivering intense sound levels, those standing outside of this ‘beam’ will hear a much reduced sound. It can therefore serve to incapacitate a select group of people without having to fire guns and it’s inventor even goes so far as to say that this invention could end war as we know it.  Again, power is the theme and the importance of this is also shown in the continuous thread of battle music:  modern American soldiers have been known to listen to music while actually in battle; tank crews in particular listened to hard rock or heavy metal while fighting to keep them motivated and fearless.

As you can see, sound can be terrifying and it can be used to control as well as to injure.  There are a few constants that appear throughout these examples, highlighting general effects that sound can have.  My next post will talk about taking these ideas away from the front line and their use in torture, an even more sinister application.

Thursday 10th January 2013 – Positive Thinking for 2013.

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Happy New Year!  Here we are, 2013!  We have escaped a Mayan apocalypse and there are reports of the UK’s financial situation improving!

Whatever your stance on the last two pieces of information, a new year always kickstarts new ideas and positive thinking. Most of us seem to be back at work now, looking forward to an exciting new year …despite some still being on the turkey sandwich diet…

I’ve heard more than a couple of times this January that people are keen to keep this New Year positive thinking intact, not allowing the usual January lull to depress us; a kind of new years resolution to stick to our new years resolutions… So, instead of giving up the fitness plan on January 17th (supposedly the most miserable day of the year), losing track of all those books you want to read for self-improvement purposes, or chaining an entire pack of cigarettes (…on the 17th…) lets join them and put plans in place to make goals and targets a reality. All you have to do is have ideas to improve yourself and plan out when you will see them through… and stick to it!  Whenever you get tempted to leave something until tomorrow, do it right that second instead. You’ll feel better for it and actually see progress!

As far as myself goes, I am developing and expanding my work to make things more appealing to more people and am relishing the new challenges that this brings. After discovering that making sound and soundscape interactive is well within my grasp, I am now working on new systems to achieve this. Motion sensors, pressure sensors and more can be used to add a whole new dimension to soundscapes for events. Immersing an audience now becomes even more complete as people take ideas on-board by thinking about them while interacting with them. This is a powerful way to bring people into a branding or experience.  For example, when promoting Crunchy Cornflakes, maybe Kellogg’s could use a doorway entrance mat that sounds crunching noises when walked on. Or maybe a company promoting it’s eco-friendly status could use an interactive rainforest of noises that appears when a display of its products is approached.

Innovating and pushing your ideas to their limits is key to success so don’t let January pass without making sure you stick to improving yourself and developing ideas!  What plans and ideas have you got for this year?  How do these ideas push your past thinking to it’s limits? Let me know, maybe we can share ideas…