Submitted by jonathan fletcher on Mon, 2007-10-22 10:33.
MA Interactive Media
Learning Activity: Research the Laurie Grove Baths:
Student Name: Jonathan Fletcher Date: 12/10/2007
My objectives:
Think of a project to do with current and past acoustic information relating to both the building and its various occupants over time.
Research history of building usage over the past century.
Collate statistics of people flow in relation to this usage.
Learn how to measure sonic amplification.
To learn MySQL to build databases.
To source and learn software that can manipulate and transfer data into sound.
To combine data and sound into an effective whole.
To learn how to time manage.
The resources and strategies I will use are:
Talk to Goldsmiths site office about access to building when closed.
Contact curator of Lewisham Voices web project to track down residents who used to attend the bath house when it was open to the public for both information and possible aural sources.
Check libraries and local historical groups for possible archive footage (for sonic purposes).
Construct database of statistical information to convert into sonic information.
Research potentials for sound as subversion (eg, William Burroughs) to glean different strategies of relocating noise.
Collate recordings of the acoustics of the interior and exterior of the bath house at various points during the day and night representing its current usage.
Explore the sounds of the rooms: the furniture, the pipes, windows, doors etc through amplification in an effort to analyse and playthe sound of the building itself.
Explore the acoustic information from outside of the building and what is prevented from entering the building through sound proofing.
To constantly monitor and re-prioritise these strategies to work within the allotted time frame and achieve the best results (ie, drop a strategy if necessary if its completion time impacts too greatly on a more important aspect).
The proof of accomplishing this activity will be:
To present the group with an idea that I think they would be interested in based on the research I have discovered.
To present the group with a variety of sonic information reflecting the history of the building and both the current hidden and visible acoustic information of the bath house.
To present the group with a database of statistics of people flow that can then be converted into sonic information/ disruption.
To be able to combine statistics and sound sources through the relevant software to achieve an end product.
Evaluation criteria and means of validation will be:
What the group feeds back to me about the quality of my research.
How efficiently I completed the tasks within the allotted time frame.
How the group takes the research forward in their own projects.
How satisfied I am with the job I have done.
I can create and manipulate an arbitrary MySQL database on another project.
I can locate and utilize necessary software to achieve end product.
My target date for completion will be: Monday 22nd October
