These sound-studies highlights of the week are lightly adapted from the March 21, 2022, issue of the free Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter This Week in Sound (tinyletter.com/disquiet).
As always, if you find sonic news of interest, please share it with me, and (except with the most widespread of news items) I’ll credit you should I mention it here.
▰ “Sound Eclipse is a new prototype device that aims to give city dwellers a chance to fight back against the noise and reopen their windows. Designed by Moscow-based industrial design firm Kristil&Shamina, it’s a noise-canceling orb that’s meant to hang elegantly in a window, with the smooth black curves of a high-end stereo.” The device produces sound that canels out what the device’s microphone receives. It can reportedly lower volume by up to 15 decibels. ➔ fastcompany.com
▰ “[A]coustics is equally as important as lighting or air quality, and perhaps even harder to get right. If you are cold you can put on another piece of clothing, or open a window if you are hot. But in the case of acoustic comfort, it is very complicated to change the room to make it more comfortable.” From an interview with Professor Arianna Astolfi, whose work led to the current acoustic standard for schools in Italy. ➔ acousticbulletin.com
▰ “I have a suggestion — perhaps next weekend don’t just go see a movie … go hear a movie.” That was Mark Mangini when he, Ron Bartlett, Theo Green, Mac Ruth and Doug Hemphill accepted the BAFTA sound award for Dune earlier this month.
▰ “We want to give people cues that are familiar, but also communicate electric power.” Car manufacturers are sorting out the right balance for the sounds that new electric vehicles are designed to emit. ➔ freep.com
▰ You need to complete this “interactive puzzle and sound toy brought to you by Google Developers” to reveal details about the company’s upcoming I/O 2022 event:
▰ “Supporters of the crypto plant promised an expanded tax base and job creation. What residents say they got was the constant din from massive computers and equally massive cooling fans.” ➔ washingtonpost.com
▰ “Contrary to popular belief, roosters — this one included — do not just crow at dawn; they crow all day.” Ryan Kost on how a loud bird added one challenge atop so many others that define life in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. “Roosters, it so happens, are legal in San Francisco. (This is not the case in Oakland, or in the city of Portland, one of the epicenters of the urban farming craze.)” ➔ sfchronicle.com