One of the main properties of sound as a medium of design is that however imperative it might be in creating a a holistic experience( movie, product etcetera ), it tends to be in the background, as visual stimulus takes more of the foreground. Which is one of the reasons it is given second priority.

Thus, revealing this quality is important for people to be aware of it’s significance, by observing the medium with focus and primary intent.

What The Sound is an interactive experience that tries to challenge the way we perceive sounds that we are so used to everyday. The design of an experience stems from the emotion that is be evoked among participants and my aim was discovery.

Thus I started ideating around the emotion, sketching out concepts ranging from abstract to exact. Through iterations, I honed into the perfect device for this experience in the form of Foley art. Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.

Foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience.

The user journey for the experience was broken down into three parts. The experience started with participants being introduced to Foley Art with demonstration of Foley objects in action.

For example, a thick plastic sheet was shaken to create the sound of thunder The second step consisted of re enactment of the famous egg hatching scene from Jurassic Park where participants were given the opportunity to produce the sound for the scene using everyday materials. The third was free play, where a collection of foley objects was kept at random for participants to interact with. For example, paper clips attached to gloves when tapped on wood produce the sound of a dog running on the floor.