CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us

GeeksAreSexy: "Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices."

9 comments:

Robert said...

This was a unique article/ video showing how sound effects us. When he stared the sound that he was trying to invoke a sertent type of emotion he did like with the city nose he was wright when we are in that envorment we reaches the way that he sad and speque up. Also when we hear birds making nose we are combatable. Also when he should the stats about how people are so much more unproductive when they are in a mociy office the are 1/3 as efface if they where in a quieter envoremnt they would be 3 times more efficient. Also the states on retal was amazing that he showed. This article was a very eye opening one and he was so weight about every thing that he sad in my opine.

Unknown said...

i found it really interesting that part of the reason why we like sounds like ocean waves relaxing is because there are 12 cycles per minute, which is the same frequency of the breathing of a sleeping human. and that its healthy for us to hear relaxing sounds like birds chirping for five minutes a day, it just goes to show you that a lot of subconscious factors can affect your mood and productivity throughout the day and that you can control a lot more than you think you can

Brian Alderman said...

This article is more focused on the commercial aspects of sound (for example, the people who's job it is to create play lists of music for retail stores). It really is a huge industry, and those of us in the theater sound design areas can take lessons away from it. this video does a very good job i think of breaking down the idea of sound into four distinct areas that can be understood individually. I would love to see the book or guide that is briefly mentioned in this video about how to create a soundscape or analyze a soundscape using these categories. Another note- the presentation was a beautiful piece of theater in and of itself. well rehearsed and planned out.

Allegra Scheinblum said...

I totally agree with Brian on this one, I was actually thinking the exact same thing. I think that it is really important for sound designers to keep these things in mind when they are designing, because it is easy to over stimulate the audience and make them feel uncomfortable when that is not what you are actually going for. I thought it was really interesting when he was talking about the cognitive effects of sound, and how we can only really listen to one thing at a time. I think that this is a really important thing to keep in mind, I know that my brain was definitely working hard to hear both things that he was saying at that point.

Andrew said...

This is so cool! I love hearing this sort of stuff about sound. I remember Joe has said several times over the years about his job as a sound designer and the challenges when considering these emotional effects on audiences when putting together a show.

Sound is so abstract sometimes, and it's just really interesting to see this sort of thing being broken down. I really hope people begin to appreciate sound a lot more as it gains more presence in theatre.

MichaelSimmons said...

This is incredibly interesting way to think about design, not just sound but all areas. Sometimes we only thing about the visual idea-- what is it. However, I feel like many designers miss the overall effect of their work on a deep psychological level. Many of the sounds he played as examples of "bad sounds" are sounds I never would have even thought of as inherently uncomfortable, however, when I think about it, I realize they can drastically effect my mood.

David Beller said...

Every experience through life is affected by all the sensory input we receive. I am often surprised when going to the theatre, how little focus is put on the sounds that the audience experiences. Sound can not only add realism to events and actions, but it can also create mood, just as a costume/lighting/set designer can through visual elements.
I find it fascinating that the reason ocean waves are pleasing is because of how many cycles there are per minute and how that relates to something as familiar as a sleeping human. Sound is a powerful tool that can be used to drastically change someones outlook on the situation or even the mood that they are feeling.

Ethan Weil said...

It's great to hear talk about sound closer to the mainstream, It seems to still be a slowly growing field, but it's becoming more and more apparent how important it is. Jeremy and I are in a class about acoustics from architecture right now, and the professor was talking about how undervalued sound is when designing building, even though it is one of the most important factors in building performance. It seems like some folks are starting to realize it more now though, for example we saw a new building code that was recently published recommending acoustic performance for classroom spaces.

Unknown said...

This was really cool. You would probably think of all of these things on your own but, probably not all at once. having them juxtaposed like this really puts into perspective the different ways you can make someone feel through sound. As for behavioral effects, I guess that would depend upon whether you believe that dependent actions follow independent emotional states as opposed to them being both dependent on each other. either way, it's pretty nifty.