Sound is becoming increasingly important in spatial design. In scenography concepts, sound is no longer used merely as a supporting element, but is increasingly gaining a defining role. Whilst the sense of hearing used to take second place to the sense of sight, technological innovations and a new understanding of sound have now often reversed this situation. Rather than merely serving as an accompaniment to visual narratives, sound also functions as an independent, guiding element through which the dramaturgy of a space can be directed, shaped and emotionally enriched.
At ‘gewerk in the garden #6: Sound in Space’, sound artist and sound designer Felipe Sánchez Luna will talk about his work with sound in spatial design. Drawing on a number of projects from his sound studio Kling Klang Klong, he will illustrate the effect sound has on the audience when it plays a central rather than merely a supporting role in the scenography. The focus will be on multi-channel, interactive and modular sound environments. The talk demonstrates how sound can transform spaces into narratives and how spatial hearing directs movement, attention and emotions. Using examples from exhibitions and large-scale installations, it shows how music and sound can become a language – a language that creates emotional connections, enables intuitive understanding and transforms physical spaces into living stories.
In a live performance, musicians Arne Imig (electric bass) and Lukas Backs (flute) will electronically sample natural sounds from our garden and improvise on their instruments to accompany them. The inspiration for their music originated in the valleys of Piedmont, by a meandering stream, amongst trees and stones, accompanied by the rustling of the wind. The flute and bass do not take centre stage, but rather seek to become part of the space – to immerse themselves in the surrounding sounds, to connect with what is already resonating. Music is everywhere: in the rustling of the leaves, in the buzzing of insects, in the creaking of old wooden steps, in the silence between two breaths. They listen, they respond, they intervene – and then let go again. The flute breathes, electronically distorted, chopped up, mirrored. The bass responds with vibration, with depth, with physical resonance. Effects stretch time, break down the moment, and create new spaces.
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Project Team
Gewerkdesign
Stefan Rothert
Birgit Schlegel
Jens Imig
Kristina von Bülow
Christina Storch
Antoine Laurent
Gabriel Tecklenburg
Summary
To illustrate why sound is such a powerful tool, Felipe Sánchez Luna outlined various types of sound experiences, some of which we are all quite familiar with, whilst others are less well known: 1. Album production, through which we realise that music is a language that conveys emotions and is closely linked to memory. 2. Live music reveals that music is an immediate physical experience which has a particularly powerful effect when shared collectively. 3. Film music demonstrates that different sounds can give an image a completely different meaning. 4. In UX design, which focuses on the user experience, it is the small but carefully chosen sounds of devices and programmes that influence their image and the experience they provide. 5. In sound branding, a distinctive auditory element is added to a brand. 6. Sound in game design helps to create quasi-real spaces that feel as though they have been individually composed for each player. 7. Sonification is the process of converting data into sound and can represent objective facts. And last but not least, 8. soundscapes, which interest us most as scenographers, as they allow entire spaces to be staged immersively and complex content to be conveyed emotionally. Using a number of practical examples from museums, world expos and his own art projects, Felipe Sánchez Luna outlined the different types of sound experience from a practical perspective, before we got into an open discussion with the audience.
The guests, most of whom were themselves highly experienced in the exhibition sector, asked insightful and critical questions, which made the audience discussion very interesting. For example, a museum director asked: “How can sound be used in exhibition projects without manipulatively influencing visitors’ perceptions?” Ultimately, it is impossible to design an exhibition – whether using sound or images – without being ‘manipulative’ to some extent, as the aim is always to achieve a specific effect. However, it is possible to shape the experience and tailor the sound design sensitively to the specific project in order to support the messages and convey the content. A curator, on the subject of sonification, wanted to know how emotional tension could be generated through a sound analysis of politicians’ speeches. The solution lies in mapping frequently used terms and phrases to the range of emotions identified in behaviourist psychology. Generally speaking, sound design establishes connections between the objective and the intuitive, reality and the imagination, space and people, the external and the internal.
Just how effective such a fusion of opposites can be was also demonstrated by the musical performance by Arne Imig and Lukas Backs. To shelter from the unstable, rather rainy weather, the musicians had set themselves up with their instruments and sound equipment on the roof of the studio, in the open lift shaft. They were able to utilise the unsettled weather conditions for their improvisational style of music-making, weaving the sounds of the weather, the garden and the surroundings into their flowing, ethereal sound. Real and electronic sounds thus created a new, context-specific space in which the boundaries between interior and exterior were dissolved. The sounds spread clearly throughout the entire office via the open lift shaft and merged with the soundscape in the garden, thereby uniting the architecture and nature into a single resonating body. In this way, the theme of the event, ‘Sound in Space. Sound as an Invisible Architect of Experience’, was staged and validated almost of its own accord, without much intervention or planned direction.
