Call for Sound Designs - deadline expired

Experimenting with Sonic Interaction Design

A difficult question in Sonic Interaction Design is to identify ways in which design ideas can be sketched, tested, represented and discussed. One possibility is to set a scene or context in which a person interacts with objects. For this scene, a variety of sounds may be appropriate although, this will depend on the particular interactive experience the designer is attempting to create via sound for the person interacting with the objects. Only the people interacting directly with the objects (and perhaps external observers) can then tell the designer if their experience effectively related to the initial intentions of the designer communicated via the sounds.
Following this idea, in this workshop, we have set a small theatrical scene, involving interactions with sounding objects, which is open to different interpretations and performances, and we set out to perform it with different sets of sounds. The designers will have a context, objects and a setting for which to create appropriate sounds, the actor will respond and react to the sounds (and therefore the objects) as a person could do when using those objects in a real situation and finally the audience will be able to observe the scene and then discuss how well the sounds have communicated the intended experience. In this workshop, we will explore this “theatrical” representation of sonic interaction designs with a twofold aim:

- To discuss the effectiveness of the sonic interaction designs proposed in light of the original designer’s intentions and the feedback produced by the actors and the audience;

- To evaluate the advantages and limitations of this “theatrical” method as a tool for testing and evaluating sonic interaction designs.

We invite submissions of originally designed sounds (in .wav or .aiff format) for the actions and objects of the following theatrical scene (download scene text ).

The sound files should be accompanied by:

1) a document clearly stating which sound file corresponds to which action/object in the scene;

2) a second document which should report briefly the sound designer’s interpretation and setting (time and place) of the scene, the designer’s intentions for the design of each sound and the technical strategies used to design each sound.

Actors will perform the scene with the selected sound designs on the day of the workshop. The actors will rehearse the scene a few days in advance but only knowing the setting (time and place) decided by the sound designer for the scene. The performance of the scene will depend upon the response from the actors to the sounds proposed for the scene. The actors will then prepare a document reporting their understanding of the sounds.

After the performance, during the workshop, audience, actors and designers will be given some time to discuss how successfully the sounds were at communicating the initial designer’s intentions, which will be revealed to both the actors (interacting directly with the objects) and the audience (observers of the interaction).

A final discussion will draw conclusions on this “theatrical” method of testing and evaluating sonic interaction designs.