Sensory Overload of Sounds

Oct. 2019-Nov. 2020
Frankfurt, Germany
AIV Prize (Architekten - und Ingenieur - Verein) / Master Thesis Project
Architecture / Experiment / installation / Autism Spectrum Disorder / Art​

Thesis Advisor : Prof. Ulrika Karlsson
Tutor : Anna Arlyapova, Yeon Joo Oh
Special thanks : Prof. Johan Bettum, Stefan Wieland, Engineer. I-Ming Hsu
From living with my autistic brother for more than 25 years and my previous research in special education school. They have their unique way of reading voice and walk, they walked along the wall or any objects. It is the way to shape the space and deal with the world.

And most of them have sensory overload of sounds.

What is sensory of sounds?

John Cage experienced sound in a silent room with the sound of his nervous system in operation and the circulation of blood in the 1950s. And he said:” Therefore, even if I remain silent, I was, under certain circumstances, musical.”; Xenakis described the sound of burning charcoal which cut into one-second fragments and raise them together in Philips Pavilion, "lines of sound moving in complex paths from point to point in space, like needles darting from everywhere."; Alvin Lucier’s project, I am sitting in a room, shows pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself, by layering the recordings.

There have thousands of questions that I ask myself every day. Why are we so different? What is the meaning behind his motion?
“The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism”,written by Naoki Higashida, depicted the inner voice of Autism, answered my questions somehow. While they see an object, they look the details first; while they listen to the others, they are looking at the voice with all of their sense organs. Further, their memory is not linear. It is more like a pool of dots. They always have to pick up the dots.

I’m not sure what kinds of memory pool he has. In my pool. I can find he was running away from the moving shadows of trees; the leaves were rustling in the wind…

In Curtis Roads’ book, Microsound, "As sound passes from one-time scale to another it crosses perceptual boundaries. It seems to change quality. This is because human perception processes each time scale differently."

​My brother has his comfort corners with the boundary he draws. He always places a machine to play a repeated song, and turn the train video on with the correct time when the train is ready to move in the real world. He is tripping the space and time, move the sounds into another scale. Then, overlap them together.
How is the space composed?

In this empty room, you can hear architectural materials and accessories, which already existed while it built.
These spatial frames divide the space physically, visually and auditory.
There are three categories that I have identified for composing a room: Filter as door and windows to filter in or out the sounds; the connector, like sockets, doorbell intercom, heaters and so on. And separator as wall, floor and ceiling to separate the room as a space.
These elements draw the new architectural boundaries.
Filter
(Door, Windows)
Connector
(Architectural Accessories)
doorbell intercom
light switch
radiator
socket
network socket
Separator
(Wall, Floor, Ceiling)
Architectural Boundary Models
Sound Models
The room has been restructured by one to ten tables, it arranged by the most diverse movement possible and the ultimate of circulation.
It recorded by the visitors from 14th to 16th, February, 2020. Generated by the hand movement with microphone on it.
Feel free to enter the sound models' website! Use your mouse and headphone to compose a new room with sound models!

Left-click: Add the models / 3D rotation
(Left window: max: 1 model; right window: max: 2 models)
Right-click: Clear
Middle: zoom in / out

*Can only used by laptop / desktop browser
*​Engineer: ​I-Ming Hsu
Installation / Rundgang
​14th-16th, February 2020
Installation  / Final Installation
A process of recognizing sound and space
​2nd-13rd, November 2020​
Each room is a sonic time machine. It keep deforming by human behaviors. “We have been so concerned with language that we have forgotten how the sound flows through space and occupies it.” Alvin Lucier said. All of us have our sensory limits in memory, not just people with autism. When the past stretched to a certain extent, the dots of the sound and memory persist in the room. It drift between the past and the future. Sound moves at various speeds in the space. They rise and fall, resonate back and forth, and the subtle sounds constantly deform the space.

Sensory Overload of Sounds - Behavior Imitation and Sound Experiment

Mar. 2019-Jun. 2019
Frankfurt, Germany
​before Master Thesis Project / Research and Experiment
​Art / installation / Architecture / Experiment​ / Autism Spectrum Disorder
​​
Thesis Advisor : Prof. Theodore Spyropoulos
Tutor : Ivan Tavarez Blanco, Christos Voutichtis​
Special thanks : Prof. Johan Bettum, Jennifer Yu, Prapatsorn Sukkaset, ​Shivani Tawde
​The sounds of the space in Licht Halle.
It surrounding by 40 speakers. It plays original recording file and the file which transfer to the midi file. Midi files represents the information of the characters. Every event becomes a beat or a note. People can walk through it and use different ways to listen. We stand in the same space and listen to the sounds were pass through. Time, events and space overlapping. The subtle sounds are loading from then till now, and keep loading.
 
MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface

Sensory Overload of Sounds - Sound Experiment from Experience

​Mar. 2019-Jun. 2019
Frankfurt, Germany
​before Master Thesis Project / Research and Experiment
​Art / installation / Architecture / Experiment / Autism Spectrum Disorder
​
Thesis Advisor : Prof. Theodore Spyropoulos
Tutor : Ivan Tavarez Blanco, Christos Voutichtis​
Special thanks : Prof. Johan Bettum
Picture
Click here to edit.
Before Sunset
Birds Singing
Silence
Night
Wake Up
Turn Off
Turn On
There was a time when my brother sat on the bed while the streetlights were on.
He stared at the streetlights outside the window until sun rose and the streetlights were off.
​The dawn was the time he lay down to sleep.
Gradually changing light (without sound)
​I had experienced a series of events, which reconstructed my perception and spatial organization. This series of events is a way of understanding him and a process of mutual healing.
 
─There was a time when he sat on the bed while the streetlights were on. He stared at the streetlights outside the window until the sun rose and the streetlights were off. The dawn was the time he lay down to sleep.

─There were three groups of Autistic children and teenagers. They have a special way to walk. Walk along with objects such as walls, handrails and so on. 

─He can hear something that we can’t hear. 

─His time can be changed. He can adjust his clock easily. But sometimes, his schedule can’t be change even the time pass in our real time zone. Time based on his mind. Based on the event he faces. 

─There was a time when he saw the shadow of trees at the night time. He ran away and became frightened.

─He turn the stereo up to maximum volume, put the machine close to his ear. Start to jump up and down. And shaking the body left and right.

─He squinted at the moving vehicle/metro/train from the window with his smile.