Tuning Our Soundscapes — Mid Review
Avery Hall is a world in and of itself, filled with a variety of environments that seek to help students to focus and learn. The collection of spaces that compose Avery Hall vary in many ways, including size, lighting, temperature, and sound. For this project, I have been studying how the presence of sound in a vacant space can effect an occupant’s comfort and perception of safety in that space.
Recent research by University of Michigan marketing professor Aradhna Krishna has shown that when ambient sound is played in vacant public space, individuals have an increased perception of safety.
“We provide some real-world evidence that appropriately chosen ambient sounds introduced in public spaces perceived to be dangerous can increase human comfort and feelings of safety,” Krishna said. “Bird songs and human vocal sounds give a sense of social presence and seem to be the most effective to use. They even lead to more positive consumer responses and overall higher satisfaction with these places.”
For an example of how sound can change the mood of a setting:
I decided to test how ambient sound may make students more likely to occupy space that would otherwise be vacant. For my test environment, I chose the basement of Avery Hall. Avery’s basement is filled with activity during the day when Brownie’s Cafe is open, but is often vacant late at night. My goal was to play a variety of sounds and to see how each would effect students likelihood to occupy Avery’s Basement after hours.
I placed a D-Link DCS-8010LH camera in Avery’s Basement and utilized its motion detection capability to trigger an Amazon Echo Dot to play sound when no motion was detected for a period of 5 minutes.
The Amazon Alexa application is compatible with D-Link products and can be linked with a D-Link camera to perform “routines” when motion, or a lack thereof, is detected by the camera. I have set separate routines to test the reaction occupants may have to two separate types of sounds.
The first routine was set to trigger the Amazon Echo Dot to play white noise for 20 minutes if the D-Link camera went longer than 5 minutes without detecting motion. This time restriction was set to more accurately test if occupants are more prone to leave the room once the music stopped.
The second routine was essentially the same, but played classical music instead of white noise.
I set my D-Link camera to record when motion was detected and was always present when this installation was in use.
The final result I found from this project was that most students either enjoyed or were indifferent to the white noise. I interviewed some students after the white noise played for a few minutes to see what their perception was of the sound being introduced to this space and they had either a favorable reaction to the noise or were indifferent to its presence. This reaction was in stark contrast to when students heard classical music playing. Most found the music distracting or out-of-place.
In conclusion, sound can positively or negatively impact a user’s experience of a space. For positive results, it is crucial that the sounds playing in an environment are “tuned” to enhance a user’s experience.
