Thursday 23rd May, 2013 – Spring Into Summer and Interactive Soundscapes.

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Jay

Interactive Soundscapes

As you may know I am really getting into adding interactive soundscapes to my work. These ideas enable me to provide an experience that is immersive and totally takes over your mind (not in a sinister way of course!). This all stems from my initial interest in creating immersive music after being unsatisfied that most commercial bands/music ‘artists’ seem happy to create background music. Sound defines every aspect of our lives, consciously and subconsciously and getting to the bottom of how and why, and using these ideas, fascinates me… enter my interest in soundscapes.

Tea Dance For Little People

Some of my latest soundscape work has been with creative play company Tea Dance for Little People (TDLP). TDLP are a social enterprise who aim to improve health and well-being of families with young children through creative play. They have an expansive area of work which includes creating immersive experiences, home-based parties, workshops and even party bags.

Spring Into Summer

The current project I am working on is an interactive adventure called ‘Spring Into Summer’: firstly, Marigold the fairy tells the story of how time was created. The children then get to play with the confusions of time in the Timekeeper’s laboratory. They help to save him from getting lost in the future forever by helping to solve codes and puzzles, conduct experiments, and add their ideas to the development of a new time machine.

The production really is a feast for the senses and I am very proud to be asked to provide three soundscapes and some interactivity to help create three distinct areas of the production. My first soundscape creates a time hole where there is no past, no future and no present – just a hole in time. This section uses a surround sound effect and includes some audio interaction that the children wont be able to resist. My second contribution is the creation of Professor Waitaminute’s time laboratory while my third is the creation of his new time machine that will enable him to get back to the past… which is the currently the future… and will soon be the present…

I cant give too much away but the emphasis on all these soundscapes was to create very separate areas and atmospheres within interlinked spaces and to create spaces that the children would find wondrous, fun, crazy and intriguing.

I will talk more about the soundscapes and their reception after the performances…

If you have children aged 0–8 and are looking for something very cool to do in London this half term then definitely check it out! The experience lasts an hour and costs £6/8 per child. Follow this link and search for Spring Into Summer to book tickets!

Thursday 9th May, 2013 – Interactive Soundscapes

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Jay

developing Interactivity

Some of my blog readers will know that I have been playing around with prototype micro-controllers and the computer programming platform Max/MSP for use with my soundscapes. In my quest to create immersive atmospheres I have been looking at ways that people can interact with audio to provide an experience that is even more enveloping.

But what do I mean by prototype micro-controllers? And what is Max/MSP?

Arduino

The micro-controller platform I have been playing with is called Arduino, a system devised at an Italian university in 2005 to make interactive electronics projects more accessible. The hub of the system is basically a small computer housed on a small electronics board. To this board you can attach any electronics you wish: temperature sensors, light sensors, pressure sensors, movement sensors and the various other components that will allow you to get a working circuit. As well as this, you can hook up things like speakers, screens, lights etc.

An Arduino board also contains a USB connector to hook the board up to a computer which allows you to transfer programming code to it. This is where things get interesting. You can effectively take data generated by sensors or interaction, process it in any way and use the results to control any output you wish. Hobbyists can make burglar alarms, thermostats, weird and wonderful toys and many other things. Of course, among all the hobbyist projects there are some very useful and practical applications too. Once you have tied up such projects in pretty enclosures you can have something far removed from a hobby.

Max/MSP

Max/MSP is fairly similar to Arduino in that it is a programming language that you can use to process data from input sources. However, instead of using an outboard microprocessor, Max/MSP is installed on your home computer and gives you the opportunity to create on-screen software that people can interact with. As well as this, through USB or Firewire, you can attach anything to your computer to use with the software. As an example of an application, imagine a drummer that has hooked up their drumkit to a series of lights. Each drum can have a different light so that when the drummer plays their kit, lights flash along with their hits.

Arduino, Max/MSP and Soundscapes

So, I am currently developing a number of ideas to make my soundscape installations more interactive. For one soundscape project, I am taking data produced by an Xbox Kinect to produce an electronic instrument that is played by moving your body around in front of the sensor. Moving your left arm up could increase pitch, while moving your right arm from side to side could change volume, echo or any other effect. In fact, any limb can be tied to any type of audio manipulation. Such an installation could be a part of a wider soundscape idea: maybe some kind of magical audio fills a room and maybe the kinect can be used to change one aspect of that soundscape. Such an application could have practical uses outside of music and fun; used with young children, it could teach them how their body works in relation to their environment.

Other ideas include using Max/MSP and Arduino to create a totally wireless surround sound system that can produce surround sound with any number of speakers; a great tool for totally immersive soundscape. Simpler ideas include using motion sensors to turn on aspects of a soundscape when a certain prop is approached or when a pressure-sensing mat is trod on. The idea in general is to add detail and interactivity to audio soundscapes and can be used to enrich an experience of any kind whether it’s commercial or aesthetic.

You can also think big…Imagine dreamy synthetic audio filling a arge darkened room; musical drones and sparkles with maybe the occasional subtle melody. Maybe one part of the room contains some kind of dark forest installation. You can hear some animal noises coming from inside but once you approach it these noises turn into something else; maybe mood lighting moves among the trees as you wonder through it. As you walk through one part of the room maybe you discover that your body seems to be influencing the localised sparkly sounds as if fairy dust is falling from your clothes. Maybe sitting down on rocks around a campfire triggers a colour change in the fire and the start of a spooky campfire story. My imagination could run wild with ideas for hours! Is there an experience that you could dream up? If so, using tools like Arduino and Max/MSP would probably enable it’s implementation. Get in touch if you would like me to tell you more about these processes.

Thursday 25th April, 2013 – The Lack of Innovation in Local Live Music Events.

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Jay

Amateur music events

You may or may not be familiar with your local live music scene and it’s related events. Whether it is a dusty local pub or a dusty, prestigious Camden venue they generally work in the same way for amateur musicians. My experience on the lower rungs of that system is probably as good as anybody’s. This is because local, live music seems to be stuck in a perpetual loop. Masses of bands play events in London’s live circuit, throughout the country and throughout the world over and over again. The vast majority of bands don’t go anywhere and are eventually spat out of the spin cycle to make way for others. Bands end up this way for a number of reasons but it is my personal opinion that the ‘live circuit’ is archaic and is holding innovation, and therefore good bands, back.

In the UK, bands hope that if they play enough gigs they will be given the right opportunities to turn their pre-career into a full blown music career. The better, more professional bands that also produce exciting events rise to the top, gain fans and eventually gain a record deal.

Well, since music teamed up with the Internet, the idea of aiming for a record deal has pretty much been dispelled as an ineffective myth among bands. With online promotion and recording technology now open to all with a fairly modest amount of cash, it is now possible to go it alone and the influx of web-based knowledge on the subject has dispelled the romantic rock-star myth. All this is very old news now though and behaviour has developed accordingly. However, this change in ‘business model’ for amateur musicians doesn’t seem to have updated throughout the entire system – namely the events that host the bands.

Promoters and their ways

Promoters still seem to be running events with these old rock-star ideals. As somebody that got involved with finding gigs for my previous bands to play, I ran into many promoters asking the band to play shoddy gigs or replace last minute drop-outs. Because their business is rightly very much bums-on-seats driven, they force you to bring x amount of fans although they give you little financial reward. However, instead of money they do dangle the possibility of playing with the bigger bands if you do what they say. Quite demeaning really, as ideally they should be judging such possibilities on your performance not on whether or not you can appease the venue owner. It’s music they love right?

This all brings you to a situation where bands do whatever it takes to please the promoters in the hope of gaining ‘great gigs’, ‘great opportunities’ and the ‘possibility to take your career up to the next level’. Of course, these promises rarely materialise. If they do, the exposure gained isn’t really worth that much anyway; it’s usually over-hyped in an effort to persuade the band to fill a slot. Among all this, the promoters always put the emphasis on the bands to bring fans, telling you they wont let you play their events anymore if you don’t fill your quota. Maybe these promoters aren’t sure of what a ‘promoter’s’ role traditionally involves and that good promotion doesn’t really equal a Facebook page, a few posters and placement in the swamped gigs section of the local newspaper?

The Reality

Maybe things work like this because it’s so hard to get people to come out and see bands play. The venues and pubs are under pressure to keep open, the promoters are under pressure to please their venues and the bands are therefore pressured to make sure that people come to see them and buy beer etc.

This is mostly fair enough really as the system is dictating that the people caught within it act in a certain way. What is clear though is that the system is perpetual. Bands come, bands go, occasionally a band makes a bit of money and are able to grow; but the promoters seem to stay where they are, churning out faceless bands at every event. This system does seem to be stacked in their favour but whether that is true or not, the system doesn’t work for the cornerstone of the live music scene – the bands.

What can be done?

Maybe promoters should focus on providing good events rather than piggybacking off the friends of the bands they work with? Maybe they should think about how they can make their events more interesting? Maybe prolonged efforts to produce events people want to go to will enable them to provide their own audience? Music isn’t always enough to sell something, which is why bands also sell various add-ons in addition to their music. So therefore maybe promoters should think about adding value and intrigue to their events; maybe the ‘unknown band in pub’ idea isn’t a good business model? To be fair though, some promoters do a great job of innovating: one of the most memorable gigs I played involved comedy acts, burlesque and also allowed us to have an improvised jam with our audience. The audience loved it!

If the music industry hadn’t spent so much time and money creating gods out of ordinary musicians maybe amateur musicians would be more cynical about promoters dangling fame and fortune in front of them like a glittering carrot? (Notice that even the music industry has to sell image and not solely music – no matter how ‘indie’ the band is).

So, how can the local live scene break its cycle of mediocrity? Maybe educating young musicians on the realities of business will allow them to add reality to what promoters tell them. Maybe this will force promoters to offer new rewards to young bands and maybe they will have to start providing interesting content rather than relying on bands to bring their friends to buy drinks etc?

What does innovation mean in practical terms though..? As marketing and more mainstream events companies now practice, people should think about every sensory aspect of the event and focus it towards their brand or theme; a gig can be more than a band/act and some booze. Contrary to popular belief, adding creative flair doesn’t have to be expensive, just thoughtful. I doubt things will change any time soon but maybe this thinly veiled rant will be food for thought…

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

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jay

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)

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jay

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

Status

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

Thursday 10th January 2013 – Positive Thinking for 2013.

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Jay

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…

Thursday 22nd November 2012 – Interactivity in Sound and Experiential Marketing.

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Jay

Experiential marketing is a fascinating subject and it follows my interests in creating immersive experiences. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it is a way to imprint a brand on people by allowing them to experience it. This is a very powerful tool.

Interactivity has been a long-standing interest of mine with regard to music and these ideas can easily be adapted to create a richer experiential marketing campaign. You may remember about the band that I started called Lunar Rising. For those unfamiliar with the band, we were a folk/rock band that had to split due to members following other non-musical ambitions. Anyway, before the band split, I got thinking about how to make our gigs stand out from the crowd (it’s a sad state of affairs that music is only a small element of this, especially in London for some odd reason – but this isn’t the post to talk about that lengthy subject!).

Partly inspired by a situation we once found ourselves in, I had the idea of getting the audience involved as in true folk-music fashion. One evening at a gig in south London our singer conjured up a disappearing act after sound-check so, not being people to disappoint, we decided to go instrumental and improvise. It turned out that the venue had a bountiful supply of percussion instruments so we seized the opportunity and handed them out to the crowd. The next thing we know, we are jamming with a room full of people and everybody is having a fantastic time!

I started to think about how this could be developed and created into a selling point for the band. There were many ideas; some bad, some good and some probably more at home in an art gallery than a music venue. I thought about entrusting the use of a simple drone instrument to a volunteer; ordering the controlled chaos of jamming somehow so that the crowd could play along to our songs; positioning ourselves among the audience for an acoustic gig so that people could get close and personal and experience being with the band; using samples of conversations and other noises recorded in the venue queue, manipulating them and working them into songs or instrumentals.

This is when I started to think about what else could possibly join music when creating a musical experience, and this was one of the seeds that led me to wanting to get involved in sound for events and experiential marketing. Various sound artists have shown us that involving the audience can create events and such ideas in folk music are very old indeed. With wireless, touchscreen technology; silent discos; sound gardens and trails included, there are many ways to lift an experience by getting the audience involved. On one level, this is great fun but on another it brings each individual to the centre of experiential marketing activities that they will remember for a long time; creating sound is a very rewarding experience.

In terms of audio ideas to bring an events or experiential marketing audience to centre stage, there are many possible routes. As briefly mentioned, current iPod technology has been used to create touchscreen access points that trigger various happenings, but then there are the more primitive ideas where people can interact with sound sculptures; maybe such ideas work in harmony… It doesn’t have to be a gimmick either; given a theme as a starting block, related ideas are always possible. What is also clear is that audiences no longer have to be passive and when they are not the experience is far more rewarding for everybody involved. The rise in experiential theatre as well as experiential marketing embodies these ideas and I believe this is the future for sound and music. And vice versa, sound really is truly immersive and it’s use beyond music in experiential marketing will definitely grow.

Thursday 25th October 2012 – The Sound Portal (part four) – Sound in Design and Audio Branding.

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Jay

Here is the last post in my four part series on the Sound Portal, displayed in Trafalgar Square as part of the London Design Festival last month. The Sound Portal displayed five soundscapes created by five sound artists. This post talks about sound in design and audio branding.

In the previous posts I talked a little about my thoughts on the soundscapes and how these soundscapes relate to the human experience and how this might relate to design as well as audio branding. This week I’ll go into more depth on my thoughts about what these soundscapes can teach us regarding the use of sound in design and how sound can make any design brief stronger through audio branding (aka sonic branding).

The first piece contained a chanting, processed voice. Language was central here and it’s use had a calming effect that induced security; but what is interesting here is the language used wasn’t decipherable and the fact that the voice was so heavily processed further removed it from humanity. Even so, the brain could still make out that some form of talking was going on. The fact that meaning had been removed from the voice seemed to allow the listener to experience the calm, meditative effect of the chanting while still appreciating that the voice had something to say. This shows that sound only needs to seem like a voice for us to register it emotionally. This could be important in the same way that some TV and radio adverts use audio branding. Popular text message bleeps to activate our attention and awareness to make us more susceptible to receiving information. We are social animals and we like human contact, so the voice is emotionally stimulating to us; it just appears that content isn’t necessarily important to gain an emotional reaction. If we pick out the qualities of the voice that provide emotional reaction, maybe we can use them to add emotion to a work of sound. Of course, film sound designers have been doing this for years by creating evil voices that speak invented languages etc, but there could also be less obvious, more subtle applications that contribute to audio branding…

A couple of ideas stood out with the second soundscape. Firstly, the use of birdcall seemed to have a pleasant effect, even though the birds were caged. For some reason, the human brain responds well birdsong. You could say that this is due to melody but birdsong is still very pretty, or maybe even more so when there are so many birds that you cannot pick out individual songs. Again, what are the qualities of the sounds that evoke this emotional response? It could be said to be a product of evolution. Birds aren’t dangerous to us so we recognize their calls as comforting. If this is the case, then using ‘friendly’ animal noises in soundscape will produce favourable emotional responses. In terms of branding and audio branding, connecting positive emotion to a product helps people relate to that product, makes them more open to accepting it, and therefore increases the sale volume of that product.

The second idea that stood out here was the use of space and how this could be use din audio branding. During this piece, the soundscape moves through various spaces. On one level, as this happens, the listener gains a sense of journey as the scene changes, giving a sense of wonder and intrigue. On another level, the listener is moved through various sensations and emotions related to the spaces. Both ideas could contribute to audio branding. Think about how it feels to be in a large cathedral, a walk-in cupboard or on an open field; a sense of freedom and large space could be beneficial for somebody living in a small flat/apartment or a sense of coziness could be set up for those who want to get away from a sterile atmosphere. This could all be done purely in the audio realm, but space could also be manipulated by use of audio delivery – positioning of speakers, headphones, subwoofers could all be used to different affect. All could enrich audio branding.

Tom Jenkinson’s piece, talked about last week, used hardware as well as sound. A quirky, interesting use of speakers could add so much to audio branding; imagine hidden speakers giving out sounds every now and then, or even speakers that are activated when somebody sits in a chair, etc.

The soundscapes exhibited at the Sound Portal also used music to varying affect. As described in an earlier post, using musical instruments to make sounds that don’t follow the rules of music invites the listener to think about the piece as music; this could allow the listener to create their own meaning. Of course, this relinquishes some control of the experience to the listener and their memories, which isn’t right for every design situation, but when you know the tastes and experiences of your target market, this could actually work for the designer; music genre in adverts is always tailored to the target market. Of course, the rules will change if the sounds used only suggest music but a stimulus that provokes meaning will offer intrigue and deeper cognitive processing that will cement an atmosphere and it’s associations in the listener’s mind.

The use of actual music can have more subtle effects away from audio branding too; did you know that faster music is used to encourage people to act more quickly in a store with the goal of increasing sales? Obviously, this is to do with tempo and rhythm not the likeability factor of the popstar, therefore designers do not have to pay huge copyright charges to gain this particular effect. On the flipside of music, in other situations where less is known about an audience, simplifying delivery and removing idiosyncratic meaning from audio will make it more relevant to more people. Some sounds are pretty much universally recognised as they reference the world in general and not a particular lifestyle; birdsong, gentle waves on beach, wind, rain, heartbeat, breathing, a calming melodic hum made by a person, etc.

Although sound has been designed to meet a brief (arguably) since Walter Murch worked on Apocalypse Now the late ‘70s, there are various applications that you may not even know about: the spaces inside cars are designed with their effect on acoustics in mind, as well as the audio for indicator tick-tocks, the engine sound and even what noise the door makes when it is closed. Audio branding is a growing application: companies think about what sounds they want associated with their business to allow them to project the correct image. This includes the music used in adverts and call-waiting as well as the noises their websites and software applications make. Music can easily be used to target a particular audience – taste and consumer habits are related – but the use of sound outside the realm of music really taps into the psyche; the space the sounds are recorded and played back in, the physical qualities of the sound, associations between sounds and emotion, evoking memory with sound, etc, etc.

Sound has uses from being specifically tied to a product, such as the noise of car indicators, to subconsciously imprinting atmospheres and emotions on a group of people. Powerful stuff. Recognising that sound is as important as sight and touch opens up many exciting possibilities for design and also gives the opportunity for forward thinkers to get ahead of their peers and offer something unique to the world. Audio Branding in design could be applied to any type of event, a company’s reception office, a business website, retail environments, public spaces, promotional material; in fact I’m pretty sure sound can be used to bolster any brand or atmosphere in any traditional design situation.

If you would like to know about how sound and audio branding relate to your own work, please feel free to get in touch.

Thursday 18th October 2012 – The BE OPEN Sound Portal (part three)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Jay

This post is a continuation of a series of blog posts about the BE OPEN Sound Portal, displayed in Trafalgar Square as part of the London Design Festival, 2012. The BE OPEN Sound Portal exhibited five soundscapes created by five sound artists. The first post introduced the event and talked about the first soundscape exhibited and last weeks post talked about the next two pieces I experienced. This week, the third post talks about the remaining soundscape as well as the talk on the Sound Portal I attended which was hosted by Ben Evans, the Director of the London Design Festival. The fourth and final post will be about the application to real-world design of the ideas and lessons gained from this wonderful experience.

The last piece I experienced in the BE OPEN Sound Portal was by Tom Jenkinson, who created a classical guitar piece for the space. Here, different notes came from different parts of the room to create a whole singular piece with individual notes and note runs moving around the room, enveloping the listener. As with last weeks instrumental piece, meaning became unimportant except that instead of the focus being on the sound created, focus was shifted to the delivery of the sound. This interesting delivery also took the focus away from trying to understand the piece, contrary to how music usually makes us think; as the sound totally enveloped the listener all that was left to do was to sit back and experience. The experience of lush music swirling all around really was very special and this highlights just how important delivery of sound is; if the piece (however nice) was experienced with a plain mono or stereo delivery, it would have been just another guitar piece; many guitarists are capable of this standard of playing even if only in a band setting. For me, the use to design here was pointing out that other ways are needed for music to captivate an audience; especially in London where talented bands and live music are ten-to-the-penny. However talented the musician, the use of music still needs to stand out to be useful in a commercial setting.

The final day contained a piece by Jana Winderen who used subsonic sounds made audible to create a soundscape not normally for human ears. I didn’t manage to experience this one so please feel free to comment about it below if you did!

On the second day of the exhibition, I attended a talk hosted by Ben Evans, the director of the London Design Festival; sound artists Jo Thomas and Nathaniel Robin Mann; a representative of Arup who designed the portal and a representative of Sound and Music, who selected the artists. The talk was a fascinating exchange of ideas and commentary on sound, and soundscapes in particular, with regard to design. One of the first issues to be highlighted was that the idea of including soundscape as part of a more general design is fairly new. Look, and later on, user experience has been very central to design; however, the very fact that ‘sonic branding’ is actually taking place as a part of ‘sensory branding’ shows that people are realising the potential of sound. Rolls Royce reportedly hired an entire team to work on the sound of their car doors being closed, and Kellogg’s even worked on getting the crunch of their cereal just right. Paying attention to detail like that may seem very expensive and highbrow, but it needn’t be; the whole purpose is to immerse clients and customers in a brand and sound can do this very easily and in a way that doesn’t make the cost prohibitive. People out there are curious about how sound can affect people and about how they might be able to use it to differentiate themselves from the competition in an ever-crowded marketplace. The talk showed that people who share these curiosities are innovating and experimenting, and that there really are real-world commercial applications for soundscape that go beyond the aesthetic and gimmick values. Sound changes your perspective; transports you to other places and experiences; and also affects your emotions. Business and marketers are always looking for new ways to enable people to ‘live’ their brand and to get people to associate positive emotions with their products so that they will be more likely to buy them. Sound is a very immersive way to do this, and the use of it beyond plain music seems to be gathering pace. Next week, I will talk more about these potential applications using the experiences of the Sound Portal as research.