GREG BAKER

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

THIS THESIS PROJECT EXPLORES NOISE AS A BYPRODUCT OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM WITHIN A LARGER FRAMEWORK OF SOUND AS (SPATIAL) TERRITORY, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 1. DIGITAL TOOLS (LIVE SOUND VISUALIZER, SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA 2012) By using digital tools, a user interface provides a link between the physical world and a virtual (visual) representation of how sounds change. Two kinds of microphones are plugged into an input device that digitizes the incoming sounds and sends them to a computer. The computer divides the frequency range of the sounds into equal bands that are given visual characteristics, such as brightness, contrast, and color saturation. These visual characteristics are applied to the computers built-in video camera input so that users see themselves manipulated by the sounds they are making through the microphones. One microphone is a dynamic vocal mic that has been programmed to be sensitive to the frequency of percussive utterances. The other is a contact mic that has been similarly programmed to respond to different materials. 2. MATERIAL STUDIES (PROJECT PROPOSAL, 2012) Materials give off different sounds depending on their density, molecular configuration (including phase changes). This experiment develops this idea even further, attempting to investigate differences between different sides of a box made out of one material. In this case, a wood box is tapped on each side, and a microphone is suspended inside the box. The microphone allows the specific frequency spectrum of the tapping. Using different materials to tap and scrape the surfaces give different spectral signatures, but each side of the box has a unique signature among a range of excitation methods. This is a new way of studying room acoustics, since it studies the properties of how placement affects frequency response rather than testing how a frequency itself is manipulated by the size and configuration of the room. 3. ACOUSTIC SURFACES The technology of acoustic surfaces has come a long way since its humble beginnings about a century ago. The term transondent comes from this line of study. By using ceramic, paper, and other material techniques applied to creative use of non-traditional building materials, new acoustic assemblies for use as architectural surfaces can be uncovered. One special ceramic tile that uses an inner core of seaweed would be an underlooked example of this method. Many of the more visually appealing acoustic surfaces use this method as well, and have come to the point in their development that they stand on their own as intriguing architectural finishes. Each type of surface comes with its own rules about how it should be arranged in a particular space, often combining with the unique form of the surface itself to form aural spaces. 4. ACOUSTIC TYPOLOGIES Ever since Wallace Clement Sabine established the reverberation equation in 1900, concert halls have undergone obsessive acoustic measurement of their reverberation time. The equation is meant to describe how long it takes for a sound to die out in a room. Short reverberation times are associated with clarity, but long reverberation times are associated with the beauty of sound in a large religious space such as a cathedral, temple, or mosque. The negotiation of this acoustic time scale becomes the task of an acoustic engineer in the design of a performance space. The audience is generally assumed to want a balance of clarity and sound saturation. By studying the reverberation times of various performance spaces, it is possible to develop these methods further and apply them to unconventional situations.

BAKER 2

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

READING RESPONSE Material explorations have always been and will always be part of the way sound is controlled in spatial environments. Transondent architecture combines material studies with digital sound analysis tools to understand acoustics from different angles. The material side explores the reflection and refraction of sound, including specifying the medium by which an observed sound is travelling. The analysis tools, on the other hand, uncover the underlying properties of sounds and materials. By looking through the tunnel from both ends, so to speak, it is possible to piece together new ways of understanding the relationship between sound and materials. Although architecture has the potential to let us hear certain sounds, and not others, it also emits its own signature frequencies and resonances. Just as mechanical resonance shook the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge to structural failure, everything vibrates; even a page in a book. In order to understand what kind of implication these vibrations have on architecture, measuring the vibrations of surfaces with a contact microphone and creating a typology of frequency spectrum signatures suggests what kinds of materials will be effective in future design explorations. If a low-frequency space is desired, then using sheet metal in the room would not be the correct application. A thorough study of this type is necessary to understand what will make certain shaped material surfaces perform for the appropriate effects. The development of a toolkit for acoustic surfaces will answer the question of how to acheive a design solution. In this case the major potential is the development of a series of architectural interventions that accentuate the existing resonances of urban society.

BAKER 3

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

1. DIGITAL TOOLS (LIVE SOUND VISUALIZER, SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA 2012)

BAKER 4

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

2. MATERIAL STUDIES (PROJECT PROPOSAL, 2012)

BAKER 5

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

3. ACOUSTIC SURFACES

BAKER 6

RECOMBINANT NARRATIVE - METHOD

4. ACOUSTIC TYPOLOGIES