Deep Listening

Mihael Ruja

Michelle Lee

Int Studio 2

 

Site Investigation: Deep Listening

Are there manufactured sounds present?

What is the background music/sound designed to do?

How loudly or quietly do people speak in this space?

Are there free flowing conversations occurring?

Are there any natural ambient noise that contribute to the total soundscape?

Is “white noise” present? If so, what is creating it?

What are the people in this space doing? Working, playing, in-transit?

Is there a need for creative intervention in this space?

How would you intervene within this soundscape? Enliven, shock, soothe, torment, cajole, terrify, praise, flirt, welcome, accept, or preserve, challenge, inspire?

 

The Lenfest Center of the Arts is a cube of manufactured sounds. Its depriving walls isolate the interior space from the outside world of rumbling train tracks, leaving the sounds of its internal functions to flourish. The only remnants of outside life and natural sound (coming from a living thing) originate from overheard conversations between security guards and the patterning of footsteps. Amplified by the spaces sonorous design, it is difficult to tell if the security guards are speaking loudly or softly because of the close proximity of bodies in the space. Whispering sounds like talking and talking would sound like yelling and each degree of volume is all encompassing. The ambient sound that greets the user is produced from the latent piping system and unknowable machinery. As you approach the grates that line the periphery of the building a mechanical pecking intensifies. This could be white noise, but it is more specific than just a dulling background noise. There is also the whir of air being forced through the conduits of the ventilation system. The only music is prowling of soft jazz that lures you to the security gates in front of the elevators. Aside from these mentioned sounds, the space was empty and desolate. Security Guards securing nothing, gates opening to no one, elevators elevating no one, and music playing to an invisible audience. I imagine that the spaces does not emphasize its entrance or lobby because its function is not to house but to carry as a locus that prepares the spectator for the necessary mindset of the museum space. I would consider livening the space by allowing more sound from the outside to come in, but otherwise I think if the space was at full occupancy there would not be a need for more noise.