The noise of a city can be relentless. There are the chopping rotor blades of helicopters, the howling screams of sirens, the boomboxes and delivery vans and the endless growling and honking of cars.
The last thing cities need is probably more noise. But an emerging type of sound-based design is being incorporated into public spaces across the country, superimposing the chaotic cacophony of urban space with new and curated sounds. When the designers of these projects are successful, they don’t add the noise to the noise, but a way to counter or even flood the annoyingly inevitable noise of the city.
[Image: courtesy Made Music]One such project has now opened in downtown Dallas, where communications giant AT&T has converted four blocks around its global headquarters into a sound-enhanced public space. It’s called the Discovery District and is a 1.5-acre public / private space, vehicle-free and surrounding office buildings and hotels in the center of the city. The district, designed by the global architecture firm Gensler, includes outdoor seating, bars and restaurants in a former barren office zone, as well as an eight-story media wall that creates visual tension. 130 loudspeakers are strategically placed around the site and have been programmed to output a soundtrack that corresponds to the daily routines with ambient music, water sounds, carillon and bird calls from the region.
“You go from the sounds of downtown Dallas to an experience where the music and audio output is fully curated,” says Alex Coutts, executive director of Made Music Studio, a Sonic branding agency that makes audible trademarks for everything from network news has created programs for robotic vacuum cleaners.
The Dallas Project is an extension of the sound-based work Made Music Studio has done for AT&T over the past several years, from the music on hold on its customer service lines to the ringtones on its phones. The Discovery District is one of the studio’s first projects to reach into public space, and Coutts says much of the design process focused on figuring out what sounds were already present in this urban setting and how, by adding more, the less pleasant ones Noises could be offset from the city.
“It’s about seeing the realities of the architecture and the environment in which we work and then understanding how to either maximize these variables or even tackle what we call sonic litter or unwanted noise that harms an experience can. ”Coutts says. “Especially in urban areas, there is the opportunity to see how we can get close to the perceived silence and then use it as a canvas to create something more imaginative and magical,” he says.
The soundscape that Made Music Studio created is largely a subtle background atmosphere. The project is designed not to be overwhelming or disturbing, and features an evolving, random sound generation so that the created music and effects are never created in a loop. It’s also set to produce varying levels of calm or vibrancy at different times of the day – subtle noises during the work day when the space can be used for meetings and work outside, and happier sounds during happy hour.
An architectural feature of the site is the Globe, a brightly lit, canopy-like room with its own speakers and sound design. The room changes its musicality through sensors, depending on how people move in it. “It’s like an evolution of the bean in Chicago,” says Coutts, citing the large mirror sculpture that has become a tourist attraction. “It’s something you can interact with and it’s very social media friendly.”
Another sound-based public space project aims to create a similar spectacle, but in a more subtle way. In a recently opened park in the Seaport neighborhood of Boston, a system called PlantWave is being installed on four trees. Using sensors that measure the electrical activity between two points on the trees, PlantWave converts the data into algorithmic harmonic sounds that are broadcast every week for a kind of performance in the park. “Basically, we design instruments for plants to play with,” says Joe Patitucci, creator of PlantWave. “Every single note you hear from a PlantWave is selected by this data from the plant. It’s a real-time music stream. “
[Photo: WS Development]Each of the four trees connected to a PlantWave device – three sassafras and a sugar maple – play sounds from individual instruments, including flutes, bells, chimes, and voice samples. Visitors to the park can turn on the sounds of each tree at a kiosk or come back on Sunday afternoon for the entire choir from four trees. With sounds generated algorithmically that are always in the same key, the trees emit music based on the natural electrical activity in their systems.
[Photo: WS Development]“The range of variations in the melody changes over time,” says Patitucci. The sensors in the PlantWave system collect signals based on the amount of water in the trees’ vascular systems, which can change seasonally and at different times of the day. “Some days you might go there and the trees might just play a few notes. Maybe there are times of silence. Other days, the trees may be more active and you may have a lot more wealth. ”During hibernation, records of previous activities are played, he says.
Over a video call from a New Hampshire forest, Patitucci says the project is not just about adding unnecessary sound to a public space, it is also about empowering people to connect more with nature, even in an urban setting .
“The ability to get in touch with these trees if people so desire, and to give people the opportunity to see trees as active beings, active participants in their experience, is something that I think contributes to the To steer people’s thoughts out of everyday life. Stress factors for the day, ”he says. “It enables people to see themselves as part of something bigger.”
Aside from previous installations at music festivals, this is the first permanent installation of the PlantWave system and Patitucci hopes more installations will follow. “It can be experienced as an achievement, and it can be experienced as a way to monitor the activities of plants over time,” says Patitucci.
For Coutts of Made Music Studio, such sound interventions in urban space are not just more noise in already noisy cities. Instead, he believes that they can start getting rid of the annoying noises of cities by replacing them with sounds that provide peace, escape, and even a bit of whimsy. “I think there is an opportunity not to add too much, but simply to create a better experience than we have today,” he says.
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