THE IDEA
I find that stripping down the explanation of our bonds to nature to its very core is something nearly impossible, given our limited vocabularies. However, one thing I feel we all do possess in common is the craft of storytelling; we are able to describe our experiences and interactions with nature through personal narratives.
What if that narrative process could be reversed, in which we aren't the ones telling the story, but rather, the environments themselves in an evolving soundtrack?
Sound has the power to trigger memories; it transports the listener to other places; it can also make that listener more aware of his or her environment.
Rather than reducing sound to a classification of "background noise," I want to bring it to the forefront of our experiences and audio-visual perception; that is not to say that sound will be creating visuals for us to see — rather, it will serve to augment what already exists in front of our eyes, allowing our own imaginations to illusively create what's not there. As we are gearing up for a lifestyle set within future space colonies, one of the "natures" we will have to inevitably adapt to is the urbanized setting of our new homes. Granted, I don't believe this means we will be migrating without taking a portion of our familiar "mother nature" up to space with us; but that also doesn't mean we can completely emulate what's on Earth either, because that's impossible. In order to familiarize and encourage the inhabitants to explore the spaces in ways not imagined before, I want to utilize headphones with sensors that take into consideration one's location, movement, and mood within the colonies to create a responsive soundtrack, which in sense then becomes that particular area/environment's theme or narrative. Optional adjustments on the headphones allow listeners to choose whether they want to incorporate the actual sounds heard outside, or completely block it out. The more immersed the listener is in exploring, the more the soundtrack evolves; thus, turning the colonized world into a giant aural playground.
Image by Alexander Preuss
INSPIRATIONS
Games
They many places you have control of visiting within a particular game world each have their own soundtracks. At the same time, different events occurring throughout the game's story change the music.
+ e.g. In the
Final Fantasy game series, there is a song for the world map, for the towns you can visit, and even for characters when they appear on screen. During short cinematic sequences or a battle, the music changes.
Film/Movies
Soundtracks are essential for this medium because they add an extra narrative or "voice" to the overall story.
+ e.g. Sofia Coppola's
Lost in Translation, thanks to Richard Beggs, made the soundtrack and sound design a prominent force in depicting the fragile but hopeless relationship between Bob and Charlotte.
Life Observations
+ Some people, myself included, prefer listening to music over natural sounds. We are more in tune with our iPods than the things going on around us. As a result of the mp3 player's popularity, I've been seeing a rapid growth of people wearing headphones and ear buds.
+ In music, many producers have admitted that some of their songs are inspired by personal feelings and/or by the sights of the world; this is why some material we hear evoke imagery of, say, a desert, or the floating sensation of drifting underwater. It is also why we sometimes have strong emotional responses to the works.
Sound/Music Artists
+ Janet Cardiff — her works rely on sound, the immediate environment, and a narrative script to create unique individual experiences for the listener. In several pieces a voice guides the listener on what to do. Oftentimes throughout these guided "tours," the other sounds heard in the recordings can deceive the listener into a confused tug-of-war over what's real and what isn't.
+ Bill Fontana — he has created installations using sound as a sculptural medium that redefines our perceptions and interactions with architectural spaces. (He had a lecture in the EDA last winter — link to video page
here)
+ Future Sound of London's
Lifeforms album, 1994 — a pioneering classic in experimental ambient music. The many lush layers and foreign drones and glitches give the entire album a very alien sound.
+ Kid 606's
P.S. I Love You, 2000 — glitchy, futuristic, but also organic in a very airy way.
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Two short antennas send and receive signals via GPS to determine user's location within the colony. 
Heat sensors built into the headband measure changing temperatures of the user, the data which is then calculated to determine current mood.
A dial on the left ear cup adjusts microphone levels. The microphone (the three slits located on both cups) is used to pick up sounds that are occurring naturally in the environment; this feature can be turned off.
The pulse monitor is attached to the temporal lobe located directly behind the eyes, and gauges how active the user is through blood rate. The more active the person, the more variation there is to sound and its rhythm.
