A passage way
In the design of the different elements in combination with the use of materials, such as aluminum and silver colored corrugated sheeting, the new faculty has a somewhat futuristic character. This new faculty is connected by a 30 meter long tube to the main brick building dating from the fifties. This connection between two worlds made me think about similar spaces at airports, where one is 'scanned' before taking to the air, but also about the space in an airplane itself, where information about the flight is visible in real-time on a row of monitors. My proposal is based on a combination of these two elements. It begins with the idea that the movements of the users of the passageway are scanned and that the results are made audible in the passageway in the form of spoken information. The user then walks through a variable cloud of voices which is built up from information about the usage of the passage way itself. On the monitors this information will be visible in the form of color charts and tables. Proposal. Eight sets distributed over the length of the passageway are fixed to the ceiling. Each set consists of a video camera to scan the movement of the passage's users by means of image and sound, a computer with a two-channel sound card and loudspeakers to make heard the results of the measurements audible in the space and extra monitor ( a monitor in both directions). Measurements include: - the amount of people that use the passageway - the average speed of the passageway's users. - the distance between them - the amount of noise made by the users. - The amount of light in the passageway – influenced by the amount of users. Further there are software related provisions that can be built in , through which the information is presented in real-time or more in the form of averages over a given time. Parameters in the presentation of the sound: - number of active sets (sounding) - the volume of the sound. - The rhythm of the frequency in which the information is repeated, as a result of which rhythm variations arise in the whole. - Repetitions of information between the different sets. All sentences, words and numbers are stored in the memory in spoken form, and will sound – through each other -depending on the circumstances. The quality of the voice used, the sound reproduction and the acoustics of the space must be such that a pleasantly audible soft cloud of sound arises. The user of the passageway can walk through this soft cloud and experience the whole sound, of which elements are sometimes clearly understandable, while she/he can also stand still and hear the information from one single set. The proposal was not chosen for realization.
| year | 1995 |
| performed by | soundproposal, voice: Dagmar Baumann
recording: studio Charley van Rest |
| curator | Norbert Rademacher |
| project or event | architectural extension University of Kassel D. |
| materials | sound / electronics |
| technical | Harry Stokman |