Designing Sound for Public Spaces Through a Research-Creation Collaboration Framework
Valérian Fraisse, Marcelo Mortensen Wanderley, Nicolas Misdariis, Catherine Guastavino · Proceedings of DRS · 2024
When designing a sound installation in public spaces, creators consider a wide range of factors related to the site where it will be deployed as part of the artistic statement. However, anticipating the impact of the sound installation on user experience is difficult in the absence of established methods to inform the design and evaluate the outcomes. Based on three case studies involving sound artists and soundscape researchers, we propose a research-creation collaboration framework through four stages: 1) field recordings of pre-existing sound environments; 2) diagnosis of pre-existing sound environments and public space usage; 3) sound installation prototyping in laboratory settings; 4) evaluation after deployment. These stages, alone or in combination, can systematically inform – or eventually drive – the design and evaluation of new sound installations in public spaces.