#week5blogpost

[mirandas-888]

Our Unknowing Symphony

We live on a giant musical instrument that is constantly and continuously composing. Not only do we listen to this melody, we are playing a part in its creation. The vast array of sounds that are included in this symphony can be broken down into three categories: geophony, biophony and anthrophony. Geophony refers to the sounds made by the earth and its elements; biophony to the sounds made by animals other than human beings; and anthrophony to all sounds made by human beings and our actions. I read some interesting content this week on geophony and anthrophony and the combinations that those sounds concoct. In Trevor Cox’s novel, The Sound Book, he spends the chapter “Singing Sands” exploring the sounds of sand, water, ice, wind, lightning and so many more natural producers. He describes these sounds as, “geology in motion, an auralization of forces that shape our planet” (Cox 190). And this is just the base layer. If we add all of the sounds made by animals and humans we get a lot—it can become quite overwhelming. Unless we train our ears to focus on particular sounds we run the risk of letting all of these beautiful tones fade into the background. We can start to associate them with “unwanted sound” as noise is defined in The Soundscape by R. Murray Schafer. He suggests we break down our complex sound world: “the only realistic way to approach the noise pollution problem was to study the total soundscape as a prelude to comprehensive acoustic design” (Schafer 181). We need to understand each element individually in order understand the soundscape as a whole. On top of the elements we can hear with our naked ear, there is a world of sounds we cannot hear. Technology has helped up be able to access this world and make sense of it. This happens through transduction. As described by Douglas Kahn in Earth Sound Earth Listening ‘transduction is the movement of energy within and between classes of energy’ (Kahn 54). It has opened a door into an entire new planet of sounds. Now all we have to do is, listen, understand, and compose.

[heisdorfamanda13-blog]

Week 5- Design Thinking

Tim Brown uses the term “design thinking” as a way to describe what designers these days are asked to do. Design is more about solving a problem effectively, rather than just coming up with something that’s pleasing to look at. It has to have function and be versatile, while still being unique.