Intimate Acoustics
A Solution: Low frequency sounds?
This week, I presented Andreas with my vibrational pillow. Surprisingly, he thought the air packaging material itself was fine;it was just the lack of vibrations that was a little disappointing. He suggested I check out Strudel.cc, a website that allows you to program your own sounds. Funnily enough, I remember playing around with this website at the start of the semester but not getting anywhere with it. We then got onto the topic of low-frequency sounds—how did I not think of that!
Low-frequency sounds encompass sound waves with frequencies below 300 Hz, and can sometimes be very loud or very quiet. Low-frequency noise is typically perceived as a low throbbing or deep rumble – exactly the effect I was looking for with my pillow.
I tried a few Strudel.cc variations on the pillow, playing low-frequency sounds of different intensities through it. It worked pretty well; the vibrations were apparent when played through. Now, all I need to do is to find a solid backing for my transducers, as I noticed them starting to overheat due to them being in direct contact with the air pillow layers.
strudel trials!
I tried planning out how I could present my vibrational pillow prototype in a cleaner and polished manner - and realised I could give it a flat base, so that everything feels more sturdy and easier to lie on.
Making noise with foraged items
I started gathering more items from home to make noise with, using discarded material or picking up things I thought could produce interesting sounds. Things like twigs, leaves, stones, bottle caps, and other discarded materials. Rather than buying new materials, I wanted to work with what was already around me.
There's something honest about foraging. Instead of using overly curated, polished surfaces to make instrument-like objects, I wanted to see if I could challenge myself to produce sounds through these foraged objects. I think I had the intention to do this from the start, but because I was hesitant it might seem too DIY, I lost a bit of time trying to curate something more "polished" and "designed."
If I were to expand on this mini exploration, I think I would try using household discards too, to widen the variety of objects I'm making noise with. With all the materials collected, I plan to categorise them into different sequences for different sound categories. For example, glass, nature, and trash.
As of now, I'm not sure whether to label this experiment as a prototype or an experience. I'd like to view it as a "thinking piece"—a performance that invites people to pause and simply listen to the tiny sounds these objects make, with the help of DC and vibration motors. In activating these objects, they are brought to life through mechanical movement, creating something interesting to both look at and listen to.