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Designing the sound of the future

Designing the sound of the future informed by the sound of the present: a new method for the sound design of everyday scenarios inspired by combining methods in documentary filmmaking and sound computing

Abstract

This project aims to design the sound of the future through our understanding of the soundscapes of the present, and through methods of documentary filmmaking, sound computing and HCI.
The project will complement and run parallel to Erik Gandini’s research project The Future through the Present, which explores how a documentary narrative can create a projection into the future, and develop a cinematic documentary aesthetics that releases documentary film from the constraints of dealing with the present or the past.

The point of departure is our relationship to labour at a time when Robotics, VR/AR and AI applied to Big Data outweigh and augment our physical and cognitive properties, with automation expected to replace humans on a large scale within most professional fields. From an existential perspective this poses the question: what will we do when we don’t have to work? And challenges us to formulate a new idea of work beyond its historical role.

We see possibilities in a greater use of the conditional tense in documentary representation, that is, a speculative and hypothetical approach to reality that aims to explore the ‘potentially’ real, and the ‘what if’ in the process of documenting the world.

In this context, we ask if it is possible to design the sound of the future and, more specifically, the sound of work-places and related environments.

The project will produce a new method for the sound design of future everyday scenarios inspired by methods of documentary filmmaking and sound computing, and an initial reflection on how this new method affects workflows in documentary production.

Team

Roberto Bresin, KTH, roberto@kth.se
Sandra Pauletto, KTH
Jarmo Laaksolahti, KTH
Claudio Panariello, KTH
Erik Gandini, SKH
Henrik Frisk, KMH
Adrian Latuperissa, KTH
Dimitrios Ellinas, KTH
Ilaria Torre, KTH
Jolanda Leite, KTH
Bastian Orthmann, KTH
David Holmgren, KTH

Publications

[1]
G. van den Broek and R. Bresin, "Concurrent sonification of different percentage values : the case of database values about statistics of employee engagement," in Proceedings of ISon 2022, 7th Interactive Sonification Workshop, BSCC, University of Bremen, Germany, September 22–23, 2022, 2022.
[2]
D. Larson Holmgren, A. Särnell and R. Bresin, "Facilitating reflection on climate change using interactive sonification," in Proceedings of ISon 2022, 7th Interactive Sonification Workshop, BSCC, University of Bremen, Germany, September 22–23, 2022, 2022.
[3]
R. Bresin et al., "Looking for the soundscape of the future : preliminary results applying the design fiction method," in Sound and Music Computing Conference 2020, 2020.
[4]
C. Panariello and R. Bresin, "Sonification of Computer Processes : The Cases of Computer Shutdown and Idle Mode," Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 16, 2022.
[5]
E. Myresten, D. Larson Holmgren and R. Bresin, "Sonification of Twitter Hashtags Using Earcons Based on the Sound of Vowels," in Proceedigns of the 2nd Nordic Sound and Music Computing Conference, 2021.
[6]
N. Misdariis et al., "Sound experts’ perspectives on astronomy sonification projects," Nature Astronomy, vol. 6, no. 11, pp. 1249-1255, 2022.