1- Telart Project
http://www.telart.org/
Telart was a collaboration between Bjørnar Habbestad and Jørgen Larsson. The project has been exhibited in Stavanger and Oslo in 2006 and 2007.
In Telart, messages and conversations transmutes the intended and becomes something else. Both as semantic objects and as sonic components, the way we talk to each other comes to life outside the context of our normal everyday interaction with telecommunications technology.
Telart is a three-legged project consisting of a series of modified phone booths placed in public spaces, a sound installation and a telephone server providing contact with the telephone users of the city. During the exhibition people in the streets can engage with the phone booths and leave messages of any topic to be communicated to an anonymous audience of local phone users. This slight transformation or perversion of the phone system allows the artists to create a large network of knowing and unknowing people - communicators, receivers, and participators - all connected solely by the artwork.
As Telart's phone system and the messages it is collecting will grow during the period it is exhibited, a sound installation will slowly evolve. The collected messages will find their way and place into a sound installation for people to eavesdrop on.
2 - http://www.icinema.unsw.edu.au/projects/prj_eavesdrop.html
Video cant be embedded .
Project Eavesdrop
Jeffrey Shaw, David Pledger
2004
Interactive Installation
Presented in a 360 degree purpose-built cinematic environment, ten people are forever doomed to repeat nine minutes of their lives. Exploring terrain that is at once spiritual, moral, ethical, psychological and physical, this ingeniously crafted artwork is driven by any member of the public who, as the free radical user-director, reveals the secrets embedded in the interconnected stories.
Eavesdrop is a multi-narrative mediation of psychological states in and around the theme of social action. The stories take their cue from middle Australia and talk around, speak to, allude and confront a certain condition of morality.
You`ll finding yourself at the middle of the installation platform trying eavesdropping every person on the scene , it look like an amazing piece of installation . Even sound can affects you is cognitively. You can't understand two people talking at once but in this case i find myself try and listen to the other one by ignoring the sound i don't wanted .
The artist of this project state eavesdrop project is intended to work on three layers: the interior landscapes of the characters, their public narratives, and the engagement with the spectator through the simple interactive medium of zoom and pan functions on a platform-module that the user employs to navigate the space.
Jul 15, 2010
Sound
People use sound all the time. We rely on sounds to communicate. Unexpected noises may warn us of danger. The sounds we hear tell us a lot about our surroundings.
What is sound?
Sound is a vibration or wave of air molecules caused by the motion of an object. The wave is a compression wave where the density of the molecules is higher. This wave travels through the air at a speed dependent on the temperature. A sound wave contains energy, which in turn means it can make things move. However, if the wave strikes something solid, the wave will bounce back -- an echo
Sound waves can travel through most types of matter. We are most familiar with sound moving through air, but it can move through other gases, as well as liquids and solids. In fact, the density of the universe was so great during its first 300,000 years that sound waves were able to ripple throughout it.
How the ears work?
Ear connects sound waves and pass information about them to the brain. The bigger the ears the more sound energy they can connect. The inner ear mechanism also helps maintain balance and the orientation of the head. We tend to think that sounds we can hear are the only sounds that exist. But a dog or horse's ears may pick up when we hear nothing though ear are sensitive, but they cannot hear all the sounds that come through the air. Our ears have a limited ability to detect sounds. A typical person can hear sounds from about 20Hz to 20,000Hz.Sound with frequencies lower than 20Hz do not simulate the ear; so we are unaware of them. Yet they do exist and some animals may be able to detect them.
What is Noise?
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is an unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal.
Noise perception is subjective; one person's maximum-volume music listening pleasure might be another's unbearable noise. Factors such as the magnitude, characteristics, duration, and time of occurrence may affect one's subjective impression of the noise.
How Loud is Too Loud
Noise is measured in dBA, which is a decibel scale modified to take into account the sensitivity of human ears to different pitches of sound. It is a logarithmic scale, which means that an increase or decrease of 3 dBA represents a doubling or halving of intensity, the energy it contains. So, for example, 73 dBA is twice as intense as 70 dBA. However, due to the way we hear sounds; a person with normal hearing will only think a sound has doubled in loudness when it is ten times more intense. For example: 80dBA will only sound twice as loud as 70dBA despite actually having ten times as much energy.
An average conversation will reach around 60 dBA while a busy street can peak at 80 to 90 dBA. Generally, exposures to sound levels below 80dBA are unlikely to cause any hearing damage. Prolonged exposure to sounds over 80 dBA can damage your hearing and the risk increases as the sound level increases. So at 140 dBA noise causes immediate injury to almost any unprotected ear.
As a general guide, if you have to shout to make yourself heard by someone two
meters away the noise level could be dangerous. Although there are laws about acceptable levels of noise in different situations, it is impossible to set an objective noise level that is safe for all. However, no two people will have an identical tolerance to noise. Research suggests that a genetic predisposition towards hearing loss is an important factor.
How Does Noise Damage Hearing
Repeated exposure to excessive noise can kill the hair cells and damage the hearing nerve making them unable to work properly and resulting in a permanent hearing loss. This is called a ‘sensorineural’ hearing loss. Someone with noise-induced hearing loss will first notice a difficulty hearing the high-pitched sounds that are important in being able to hear people talk. So although some sounds will remain reasonably clear - like people’s actual voices - the words they are saying will be distorted. For example, you may be watching a TV programme and be able to hear that the characters are talking, but what they are saying will be hard to understand. Naturally, this makes trying to understand a single person in a noisy background or with other people speaking very difficult and frustrating.
However, it is possible to recognize signs of hearing damage quite early. If you have difficulty hearing people or you suffer tinnitus on leaving a noisy environment, your hearing may well be damaged. Repeated exposure to noise at a high level can leave you with a permanent hearing loss or tinnitus.
Reference :
Sound in Everyday Life
The 4 ways sound affects us
Julian Treasure, a corporate consultant on sound environments, gave a TED talk explaining how we are influenced by sound in everyday life. It's a great, short and simple talk. I think this a very important topic and one that often goes unnoticed.
Some notes:
Most sounds in everyday life are accidental and unpleasant.
Four major ways it affects us:
- Psychological – breathing, heart rate, brainwaves
- 12 cycles per minute is soothing – waves, sleepers breathing
- Psychological – emotion, mental state etc
- Our feeling, mostly associated with music
- Cognitive – can’t listen to two things at once.
- You are 1/3 as productivity in shared, noisy spaces. Inappropriate retail sounds decreases sales 28%.
- Behavior
- The actions or reactions of a person
I come in conclusion that curiosity in sound are affected by psychological and behavior effects, we tend to notice strange/unusual noise in our normal environment, often lead to our curiosity to find the source of the sound or to find out where the strange/unusual noise come from.
Survey
I did a short survey on the web, for the list of the question you can visit:
By the time I write this, I only have 36 people that participate in the survey.
In age of Range: 19 to 33 .
Here are the charts made up from the survey:
A) Male B) Female
Question 4 : Eavesdropping is the act of secretly listening to the private conversation of others without their consent or listen to others without permission .
Have you ever try eavesdropping on somebody/something through a wall using a drink glass ?
B) Curiosity
C) Movie Scene
D) Experimental
E) Habit
F) Spying
G) Other
B) Find out the source
C) Other
A) Unethical
B) I dont mind , its a natural action to be curious
C) Other
B) I dont mind , its a natural action to be curious
C) Other
A) Psychological Only
B) Behavior only
C) Both
D) None
B) Behavior only
C) Both
D) None
Summary :
I personally fell the result is surprising, 86% of the participant of the survey have try eavesdrop through the wall using glass , and out that 86% ( 31 peoples ) . 40.6% ( 13 peoples ) doing that for the sake of sound curiosity and only 2 people are influence by the movie they seen .
As i said in previous post , i personally don't mind people eavesdropping in public place , and i myself sometimes did it . Look like 80% of the participant also have been eavesdropping in public places yet 36% people finding it unethical .
From the result of the survey i find out that 50% of the people aware that sound can effect us psychologically and behaviorally and 20% people doesn't aware that everyday sound can effect their mood , emotion and behavior .
At the end of the survey , I can say most of us have try eavesdrop and spying , in different forms and to different degrees because human are such curious creatures. We explore, question, and wonder, and by doing so, we learn. From the moment of birth, humans are drawn to new things. When we are curious about something new, we want to explore it. And while exploring we will discover.
Curiosity
Defination
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition defines curiosity as:
- A desire to know or learn.
- A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.
- An object that arouses interest, as by being novel or extraordinary: kept the carved bone and displayed it as a curiosity.
- A strange or odd aspect.
- Archaic. Fastidiousness.
noun
- Mental acquisitiveness: curiousness, inquisitiveness, interest. Idioms: thirst for knowledge.
- Undue interest in the affairs others: curiousness, inquisitiveness of, investigate. Informal nosiness, snoopiness.
After observe couple of resource ,it can be summary as :
Curiosity is actively exploring your environment, asking questions, investigating possibilities, and possessing a sense of both wonder and doubt.
Why Curiosity Is Important
Curiosity is an important trait of a genius. I don’t think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman was especially known for his adventures which came from his curiosity.
But why is curiosity so important? Here are four reasons:
- It makes your mind active instead of passive
Curious people always ask questions and search for answers in their minds. Their minds are always active. Since the mind is like a muscle which becomes stronger through continual exercise, the mental exercise caused by curiosity makes your mind stronger and stronger.
- It makes your mind observant of new ideas
When you are curious about something, your mind expects and anticipates new ideas related to it. When the ideas come they will soon be recognized. Without curiosity, the ideas may pass right in front of you and yet you miss them because your mind is not prepared to recognize them. Just think, how many great ideas may have lost due to lack of curiosity?
- It opens up new worlds and possibilities
By being curious you will be able to see new worlds and possibilities which are normally not visible. They are hidden behind the surface of normal life, and it takes a curious mind to look beneath the surface and discover these new worlds and possibilities.
- It brings excitement into your life
The life of curious people is far from boring. It’s neither dull nor routine. There are always new things that attract their attention; there are always new ‘toys’ to play with. Instead of being bored, curious people have an adventurous life.
Curiosity helps you clarify problems, ideas, and situations, and it encourages you to explore how they could be different. Actively exploring the environment, asking questions, investigating possibilities, and possessing a sense of wonder are all part of being curious. Questions are key. Once you open up to the nuances of life, it's easy to find things that fascinate you and to begin wondering "why?" and "how?"
Questioning takes you to deeper levels of knowing and helps you relate to others. When you develop heightened curiosity, you improve the quality of your life by asking better questions and being receptive to new ideas. The desire to expand your understanding motivates you to go beyond the surface. You learn more because you have a desire to know more. When you approach an idea, person, or situation with a heightened sense of curiosity, your natural tendency is to "quest" for additional information
Another advantage of being curious is that your brain is designed to reward you for exploring fresh ideas and trying new activities. When you experience novelty, your brain produces more dopamine -- an important brain chemical that lifts your mood and increases your sense of wellbeing.
John Glenn talk about Curiosity :
John Glenn talk about Curiosity :
Other References:
Curiosity Killed the Cat: Curiosity and Advertising by Richard F. Taflinger
Curiosity and Exploration By Susan Edelman, California State University
Curiosity: The Fuel of Development By Bruce Duncan Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
Curiosity Jump Starts Your Personal Brilliance by Jim Canterucci
4 Reasons Why Curiosity is Important and How to Develop It
by Donald Latumahina
by Donald Latumahina
Curiosity , Problem with Defination
When I decided on curiosity as my topic, I did some poking around and found surprisingly little about this subject online. The conversation or article about curiosity doesn’t run nearly as deep and wide as topics such as creativity, innovation, community, relationship building, social media…
The first response in a Google search of the word curiosity that opens up as follows:
Curiosity is an emotion that causes natural inquisitive behaviour such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity. As this emotion represents a drive to know new things, curiosity is the fuel of science and all other disciplines of human study.
- Wikipedia entry
Emotion? I would say... I have to disagree with that. Emotions are complex psychological state and I believe curiosity is closely tied to one’s conscious desire to understand more about themselves and the world around them. When asked how you feel, you may decide at that moment that you’re curious about something which I feel describes your mental awareness, not your psychological state.
Which makes me wonder how curiosity is, or should be, defined. I’ve decided curiosity to be as the dictionary — Curiosity is actively exploring your environment, asking questions, investigating possibilities, and possessing a sense of both wonder and doubt.— which sounds very clinical because that’s the best way to describe it in the moment
“The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity."
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
Eavesdropping ( critical commentaries )
It has got many names or rather aspects: spying, eavesdropping, "curi dengar"...and it's considered negative most of the time. This feeling that you need to know everything that's going on or most things keeps making you carry out some weird actions sometimes.
I think there are 2 kinds of spying:
1. The healthy one: mostly constructive, it makes you want to know more about anything or anyone. When it doesn't help anyone, it doesn't hurt any either.
2. The unhealthy one: wanting to spy on people to have fresh material for gossips or spying to expose individual’s weakness.
To say that spying is bad and unhealthy is not altogether correct. What's important about spying or eavesdropping is the intention. What is the purpose of spying? If the act is done to ensure that a person, company, or country can be saves from destruction or war then spying cannot be deemed as unhealthy.
While in other hand, my opinion is differ when it come to eavesdrop in public places, since in a public place people know that others often cannot help but hear what we said sometimes. Eavesdropping is just part of social interaction and people should assume it is happening in public places.
I sometimes listen to conversations around me; I don’t use glass to listen through the wall, I don’t sneak under your table or chairs, and I don’t move closer to you at the train station or in the restaurant so that I can hear your conversation.
One reason I don’t do those things is I don’t have to. To generalize, Malaysian people are loud, so a lot of times people consciously make their conversations public. I am sure most of people have met at least 1 person that talk so loud on the phone in public.
Last time I was traveling with train alone, I have to sit beside a woman around 35 years old, I immediately trying to sleep as the train departs and these women next to me still with his laptop doing his own work. Suddenly, I can’t help myself eavesdropping the woman talking her husband over the phone with furious tone telling her husband that someone had removed her as a facebook friend. She took it very personal, tried to figure out what she had done to upset this person, and was ready to remove the person from her handphone contact. I fought the temptation to say “relex kak, facebook isn’t important, some people just decide to cut down to only a few friends, or maybe she made a mistake.”
But I knew the best thing to do was keep my eyes closed pretending I like I am asleep.
When I listen in to what other people are saying, and by extension thinking, I’m expanding my perspective on the different ways people interpret their surrounding and make sense of the world. Which I think it’s a natural activity on my brain.
There is a lot of innovation that is catered for these behaviors, mostly gadget in the name of army equipment. I didn’t come across any installation or art that related to eavesdropping yet.One of the gadget is Inspector Gadget Audio Listening Device.
For more info on this gadget you can visit
How does “eavesdropping” related to my project...
Eavesdropping is part of curiosity in sound.
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