Library Soundwalks

Here are a few raw audio recording of some of my library soundwalks:

The libraries which I have visited in Singapore exist in stark contrast to the bustling urban soundscape outside. Their well implemented sound insulation, combined with the veil of communal quietness, creates a distinctive listening experience defined by clarity. Every miniscule sound can be heard; scribbling pens, flickering books, children's happy feet.

Next time you find yourself in a library, focus on your listening and ask yourself what you can hear. If you close your eyes, do you hear things differently? Continue to listen intently when you leave the library and return outside (you might want to open your eyes before you do). How do the two sound environments compare?

Environments of such aural clarity are rare within cities. We should aspire towards creating more spaces like this.

Soundscape: Transforming

Mutant Urbanism

The piece within this zone reflects the dominant elements of Singapore's urban soundscape. It is comprised of a series of short compositions derived from various recordings of construction site machinery, transport / vehicles, and other typically urban sounds in Singapore.

  

 

The forms of the sounds in these compositions exist in a constant state of morphology - twisting and mutating towards an uncertain future. There is a variance from slight manipulation to severe alterations of the source material through digital editing techniques, sampling, and effects processing:

Even for the ‘severe' compositions, there is still some trace of the source of the sound, as to not obscure the potential meanings intended.

The overtly digital and unsubtle transformations of sounds within this zone perhaps mirror the fact that the impact of something like construction on the soundscape is very obvious. Also, the resulting timbre of such audio manipulation techniques are intrinsically tied to the digital; the framework that are lives are currently absorbed in. Through characterising the sounds in this way, they perhaps embody a sense of our increasing immersion within the digital technologies as we move towards the future.

Soundscape: Contemplating

Moments

I conceived of this zone as a platform for the sounds that often get drowned out, or even disappear, as a result of increasing urbanisation - the sounds of nature. I used a selection of recordings of different elements of Singapore's natural environments to encourage a moment of stillness within the listener: An internal space where they can contemplate their relationship to such sounds and reflect upon the lack of balance between natural sounds and man-made sounds within the urban environment.

I treated my sound material delicately once selected, as means of preserving the creatures / elements for which they represent and showing them respect. I applied minimal amounts of alteration to the recordings, simply shaping frequency content to gently shift the perspective of what is present within the recording.

Soundscape: Balance

Silent Chances

 

Singapore's soundscape, like most cities, is characterised by its high density; multiple layers of sound compete with one another to be heard by the listener as they pass through public spaces. 

 

 

In thinking about my approach to the compositions I asked myself this: In such a dense and intense sound environment would it be appropriate to introduce a continuous stream of new sounds? 

No: A better approach would be to utilise silence within the work, allowing space for the listener to experience the real soundscape that surrounds them. Between the Transforming and Contemplating zones, there is as much silence as there is composed audio:

 

In the above images, the gaps between waveforms denote a period of silence.

Many of the transitions between the short compositions and silence happen gradually, which will hopefully have the aural effect of an incremental slippage from the illusory to the real. The periods of silence were determined through simple chance operations using Max MSP:

Indeed, it is the real soundscape that I think we should wake up to. Hopefully the methods applied in this work will help stimulate the audience in to active listening to the acoustic environment.

 

Workshop

Introduction: Acoutic Ecology

One of the main influences of our work is Acoustic Ecology, defined by R M Schafer as:

…the study of the effects of the acoustic environment or SOUNDSCAPE on the physical responses or behavioural characteristics of creatures living within it. Its particular aim is to draw attention to imbalances which may have unhealthy or inimical effects.

Positive Soundscapes from wimrc on Vimeo.

If you're interested in Singapore's acoustic environment, you may like to take a closer look at the project I embarked upon last year, Sacred Soundscapes; an immersive audio-visual installation exploring the significance of sacred sounds in the context of Singapore’s contemporary soundscape:

http://sacredsoundscapes.wordpress.com/

References

Schafer, R. M. (1977) The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment & the Tuning of the World, Vermont: Destiny Books

Changes

The title of our installation is III Movement ―where movement can imply both the physical and the aural movements in a compositional piece. The ‘III’ has an abstract reference to book shelves that is incorporated into the design of the art installation at the site where the (former) National Library of Singapore was situated.


The materials for this installation comprise salvaged construction "waste" procured from nearby construction sites that reflects our considerations for conservation of material resources as an appropriate and sustainable design strategy in response to the temporal course of the installation. These materials are then crafted into a volumetric and visual rhythmic composition, while performing synchronously as a receptacle of sounds for the audience to the chosen site, Bras Basah.Bugis and beyond. This integrative treatment of the visual, aural and architectonic materiality therefore highlights the physical articulation of our collaborative proposal for this public art installation as an urban intervention.


One interesting point to bring up was the irony of the changes of the site of our initial proposal at Plaza By The Park. The Plaza By The Park (PBP) site is an interesting plot of land sandwiched between the PBP Carpark and Kopitiam, a food court. We are very much intrigued by this overlooked/leftover/disregarded space. We learnt that it was owned by an old lady who refused to sell the land. It remained untouched (only covered with gravels) for years until LTA takes over it for the current MRT construction. In fact, many changes have taken place in that area since we submitted our initial proposal. One of the most obvious changes is the removal of almost all the trees along Bencoolen Street on the side of the PBP site to make way for the construction.

We chose the PBP site because we thought it was the best site to discuss our concerns about the lack of balance between human-made sounds and that of nature in the city's soundscape. It would have also provided a possibility as to how such a public space can be activated. We think it could become a sanctuary for people to contemplate on these issues through active listening of sounds in the Bras Basah.Bugis area, and thus titled it The Aural Sanctuary.


The idea of using construction wastes was actually inspired by the Plaza by The Park site. The gravels covering the ground of the site would have become the ‘ready’ material for the construction of our sanctuary’s walls. We intended to return it back to the site after the exhibition is over.

Therefore, it came as a shock that we had to abandon the site, almost immediately after we learnt that our proposal was selected by the Hub- to-Hub curators. When it became clear that we definitely could not use the site for our installation (in fact, a few of the sites listed for proposal could not be used later because of urban development - one other good example is the site opposite Selegie Centre), we embarked on a search for a new site around the Bras Basah.Bugis area. We found quite a few disregarded/unused/overlooked sites in the area during our walking trips. It was a great city study on foot, and we must say the experience was enriching and an eye-opener. It took us about 4 weeks to settle on our current site. And because the site has changed, the context of our proposal has to change a little. The current site is now a transitory space. It is already a sanctuary with flora and fauna. Thus, the sanctuary idea has to be dropped. However, the part about environmental sustainability and the reuse of construction waste remains.

Map

Our installation, ||| Movement, can be found next to the National Museum of Singapore, by the escalators that lead to Stamford Green.

Team Aural Biography

Team Aural was unofficially formed when atelier | small, Tang Ling Nah and Zai Tang met together for the first time at the National Library’s Hanis Café and Bakery on 9 June 2011 to discuss the Hub-to-Hub project. The members work on the common concerns of enriching the experience of place, and encouraging the public to slow down, stop and contemplate on the perpetual cycle of urban transformation.

Individually, the member atelier | small is an architecture collective formed by three National University of Singapore architecture undergraduates (Quek Li-en, Tan Yong Shen and Wu Huei Siang). Their contemplation of space, materials, details and sustainability is reflected in their design approach in which simple and thoughtful ideas are conceived in pursuance of enrichment of the environment. Tang Ling Nah, on the other hand, is a Singapore-based visual artist who is fascinated with the city’s transitory spaces. Her work seeks to reflect and address the conditions of the modern city, particularly its speed and the lack of interpersonal intimacy in urban life. Zai Tang is a sound artist whose projects focus on the evolving relationship between sound and space, in both real and imagined environments. He regards his work as a means of engaging the mind’s eye of the audience through the act of listening.

atelier | small: ateliersmall@gmail.com
Tang Ling Nah: http://activatedcstudio.blogspot.com/
Zai Tang: http://www.zaitang.com/

Site Study: Day & Night