Bartlett Design Research

CHAPTER TITLE Folios

Paul Bavister

Audialsense

A
PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

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 BARTLETT DESIGN RESEARCH FOLIOS

Paul Bavister

Audialsense
 CONTENTS

Project Details 6

Statement about the 8

Research Content and Process

Introduction 10

Aims and Objectives 12

Questions 12

Context 14

Methodology 18

Dissemination 64

Project Highlights 65

Bibliography 66

Related Publications 67

1 (previous) Interior of Silo

468, Helsinki, 2016.

2 Silo 468, modelling

of apparent nodes and
antinodes, 2020.

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Project Details

Author Paul Bavister

Title Audialsense

Output Type Installation and composition

Projects Musicity x Culture Mile, Barbican, London (2019)

Musicity x MEMU, Hokkaido (2019)
Musicity Southwark, various locations, London (2017, 2018)
RIBA, London (2017)
Silo 468, Helsinki (2016)
Gjallarhorn, Science Museum, London (2014)

Commissioning Bodies/Clients Barbican, Culture Mile, Kengo Kuma and Associates, Lighting
Design Collective, MEMU Earth Hotel, RIBA, Science Museum,
Southwark Council, The University of Tokyo

Co-Designers Jason Flanagan and Ian Knowles (Gallery One, Gjallarhorn,

Silo 468); Nick Luscombe (Musicity)

Acoustic Consultants Arup Acoustics

Musicity Southwark Langham Research Centre, Tate Switch House; Hatis Noit,
Musicians/Sites White Cube; Shamus Dark, Hopton’s Almshouses; Sooski,
Siobhan Davies Dance; The Memory Band, Flat Iron Square;
Chisara Agor, Michael Faraday Memorial; William Doyle, The
Shard; Throwing Shade, Borough Market; Sean O’Hagan,
Peckham Library; Moses Boyd, Canada Water Bus Station;
Patten, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre; Hejira, Time &
Talents Settlement Building; Stick in the Wheel, Finnish Church

Musicity x Culture Mile, Howlround, Beech Street Tunnel; Alex Ho, Lakeside Terrace;
Barbican Musicians and Sites Rahere, Great St Bartholomew; EMS Collective, Smithfield
Rotunda Garden; Craig Richards, Fabric; Emma Kate Matthews,
Barbican Lower Ground Foyer; Fari B, The Charterhouse;
Mandhira de Saram, Barbican Sculpture Court; Tania
Nwachukwu and Bump Kin, Citypoint; Tom Richards, Museum
of London

Funding £30,000 Musicity x Culture Mile, Barbican; £10,000 Musicity x

MEMU; £15,000 each Musicity Southwark

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 PROJECT DETAILS

3 Musicity x Culture Mile,

London, 2019. Sculpture
Court, Barbican, site
of Mandhira de Saram’s
‘Anchor & Tangents’.

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Statement about the Research Content and Process

Description Methodology

This work consolidates a series of situated 1. Novel methods to generate acoustic

research projects that are a direct response phenomena and engage audiences;
to rigid conventions of acoustics and
architecture in commercial practice. There are 2. Acoustic research with acousticians
two types of practice documented: acoustic testing, surveying and developing
installation, where a sound’s response to a site performance parameters of sites that
defines an architectural representation, and are not traditional acoustic spaces;
situated composition, where a site defines
a musical response. 3. Deploying technology to simulate specific
spaces for musicians to respond to
acoustically;
Questions
4. Workshops and collaborative engagement
1. How can site influence acoustic with site owners, managers and musicians,
understanding and musical composition? investigating suitable sites for acoustic
and musical interaction(s) and how
2. How can acoustic phenomena be used volume and materiality can influence
to generate an understanding of space? compositions that can be listened to on
headphones or multi-channel auditory
3. Can digital processes simulate site systems.
conditions to generate a site-specific
composition?
Dissemination
4. Can an understanding of sound, space
and music influence how architects and The project was presented at the World
designers develop spatial and material Architecture Festival 2017 in Berlin. It has
proposals? been discussed in Architects’ Journal, The
RIBA Journal and Architecture Today. The
project has featured on national television
(BBC News and London Tonight) and on BBC
Radio 4. The work featured in the London
Festival of Architecture in 2017, 2018 and
2019. The author was part of a live
conversation around the project hosted
by the Barbican in May 2019.

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 STATEMENT ABOUT THE RESEARCH CONTENT AND PROCESS

Project Highlights

Collectively, the importance of this set of

projects lies in how they have advanced our
understanding of the ways in which
architecture affects musical composition and
the occupants’ acoustic experience of space.
Its role in this regard has been recognised
through international workshops in Japan,
Finland, Austria and the UK, and in public
outputs such as the source recordings from
the installation, Gjallarhorn, at the Science
Museum, London. These recordings were
subsequently released on Touch Radio – the
UK’s national collection of radio recordings –
and are part of the British Library’s
sound archive.

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Introduction 1. Acoustic Installation: Creating

Architecture with Sound

This work brings together a series of situated Silo 468

research projects that are a direct response
to rigid conventions of acoustics and As part of Helsinki Design Week 2016,
architecture in commercial practice. There Audialsense were invited to undertake
are two types of practice covered: acoustic a sound installation in Silo 468, a disused
installation, where a sound’s response to gas cylinder on an island outside the city.
a site defines a soft and plastic architectural The tank is a large highly reverberant space,
representation, and situated composition, perforated with illuminated holes creating
where a site defines a more consolidated an animated façade. Audialsense turned the
musical response. tank into a musical instrument, using local
For the first type, a site is studied and weather data and acoustic phenomena
surveyed for its acoustic properties and sonic to create a complex and spatially specific
signature, and then sounds are played back set of modulating timbres in the room.
into the space that allow occupants to
interact with it on a sonic level. For the
second type, a series of sites are chosen and Gjallarhorn
aligned with musicians and composers. The
composers are then asked to develop a piece An installation developed for Aleks
of music that responds to the space on both Kolkowski’s reconstruction of the Denman
an emotional and acoustic level. By Horn, the world’s largest speaker cone
responding to the volume and materiality of at 27 feet. The work used recordings from
a space, a situated composition is created the big engines on display at the Science
that holistically relates to site and composer. Museum in London to generate a site-
These practices have been undertaken specific installation based on the resonant
at many different sites over the years. This frequencies of the gallery space.
document features six case studies of
importance, undertaken by the author and
team since 2014. The projects featured Gallery One
include installations undertaken in the UK
and abroad, as well as funded opportunities As part of the Musicity Southwark launch,
in the UK (London) and Japan (Hokkaido). and the London Festival of Architecture,
Audialsense were invited to undertake an
installation in Gallery One of the RIBA
building at 66 Portland Place. The installation
ran for the duration of the launch, which
involved lectures and staged discussions
in the main hall of the building.

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 INTRODUCTION

2. Situated Composition: Creating

Music from Architecture

Musicity

Founded in 2010 by Nick Luscombe, Musicity

is a site-specific sound/arts practice that
invites musicians and recording artists to
compose tracks in response to buildings and
locations in cities around the world. Since
2017, the project has expanded into novel
architecture and acoustic research territories
that are documented in the following
projects: Musicity Southwark (2017 and 2018);
Musicity x Culture Mile, Barbican (2019) and
Musicity x MEMU (2019).

Musicity x MEMU

In 2019, the author was invited by Tokyo

University and Kengo Kuma Associates to
take part in and deliver a series of workshops
looking at sound, space and occupancy at
the MEMU Earth Hotel site in northern Japan.
The workshops opened up the methods of
Musicity, so that anyone with access to
music-writing software can create a situated
composition.

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Aims and Objectives Questions

1. Develop site-specific plastic architecture 1. How can a site’s physical constraints

using sound and perception; – volume, materiality and specific acoustic
idiosyncrasies – influence acoustic
2. Develop new ways of reintegrating understanding and musical composition?
architecture into compositional
processes; 2. How can acoustic phenomena, such
as standing waves, structure-borne
3. Experiment with different methodologies sound and natural resonance, be used
of disseminating music and sound; to generate an understanding of space
and occupation?
4. Develop new ways of understanding a
site’s materiality and aspect via sound; 3. Can digital processes simulate site
conditions to generate a site-specific
5. Research how conventions formed in composition?
commercial practice may be challenged
and reformed. 4. Can an understanding of sound, space
and music influence how architects and
designers develop spatial and material
proposals?

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 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES / QUESTIONS

4 Using balloons to map

room response, Silo 468,
Helsinki, 2016.

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Context This is understandable: the financial outlay

required for a performance space is
considerable, and as buildings for music are
Music and Architecture usually publicly funded, there is little scope
for designing anything that is not accepted
Historically, music and space have shared a practice. In contrast, the work documented
creative symbiosis, whereby music is written here establishes a critical position on the
to fit a space and spaces are designed to methodologies undertaken by conventional
support music. In this sense, we might say practice. It offers a complementary practice
that the history of music complements the in which a creative reciprocal link between
history of architecture. This reciprocal music and architecture can once again be
relationship continued unabated until the established. Specifically, it does so in two
early twentieth century when acoustic rules ways: by producing acoustic installations and
were consolidated, in part due to the work of situated compositions.
physicist/proto-acoustician Wallace Clement The first type of project, acoustic
Sabine and the accurate calculation of the installation, makes use of naturally occurring
relationship between volume, absorption and acoustic phenomena that, supposedly,
reverberation. Since the development of negatively affects room acoustics and is
chant in caves and cathedrals, the creative usually designed out by the design team
ebb and flow of ideas over time has before construction. In a gallery situation,
developed and ossified into architectural and however, such phenomena are free to be
musical precedent, so that symphony music interacted with and occupied as site-specific
is played in symphony halls, chamber music physical conditions.
in chamber halls, etc. More recently, however, The second type of project undertaken,
technology has developed synthetic situated compositions, responds to the fact
reverberation algorithms, allowing music that musicians have an intuitive sense of
to move out of physical spaces to inhabit space. By listening to the space around them
a more flexible synthesis of the digital and as they make sound, they respond to
analogue. Artists are no longer writing for returning acoustic signals by subtly
physical space but are looking towards the modulating a performance. This generates
digital and the synthetic. Between the a unique work that is entirely suited to the
containment of music performance in space. Historically, musicians have adapted
purpose-built spaces on the one hand and performances to suit architectural spaces,
the digitalisation and dematerialisation of gently changing the way that a piece of
musical performance on the other, the music is received and how spaces are
creative reciprocal link between architecture designed. It is, however, less common today
and music has been effectively severed. to see a musician or composer writing music
In commercial practice, architecture for in and for a space that will hold it. In removing
music is usually developed with economy- the relationship between music and
driven briefs that stem specifically from architecture, the historically intimate
repertoire and commercial viability. Audiences relationship between composer, musician,
are more likely to pay to listen to well-known instrument, space and the emotional
repertoires in spaces that are optimised experience of listeners is also diminished. It is
accordingly, rather than choose venues and these more intimate relations that various
performances of a more experimental nature. projects in Audialsense aim to reactivate.

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 CONTEXT

5 6

5 Poster for Silo 468,

Helsinki, 2016.

6 Poster for Gjallarhorn

at the Science Museum,
London, 2014.

7 Poster for Gallery One

at RIBA, an installation
to launch Musicity
Southwark, 2017. 7

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Wave Phenomena and Architecture

One of the central themes explored in

Audialsense is standing-wave phenomena:
a common problem that negatively affects
room acoustics, usually designed out by the
architectural team before construction. It
occurs when a (sound) wave oscillates in time
but the peak amplitude profile does not
move in space. The locations at which the
absolute value of the amplitude is minimum
is called a node, and the location where the
value of the amplitude is maximum is called
an antinode.
Where this matters for architects is that
the nodes are virtually silent, and the
antinodes are often double the volume of the
source sound. This can create a very uneven
soundfield that is not suitable for focused
listening. It does, however, generate deeply
interesting spatial conditions that can be
interacted with on a physical level; sounds
change as you walk through a space, getting
louder or softer throughout.
Composers have been using wave
phenomena in their practice for some years:
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s ‘Dream
House’ (1962) uses pure sine waves to
augment a physical experience; Alvin Lucier’s
‘Still and Moving Lines Of Silence In Families
of Hyperbolas’ (1972) uses sine waves to
modulate and choreograph a dance
performance; and Max Neuhaus’ ‘Times
Square’ (1977) uses wave phenomena to
further engage an occupant with the work’s
local environment.
As these works begin to suggest, by
actively generating wave phenomena in an
existing space, a soft and occupiable
landscape can be produced that creates a 8 Max Neuhaus, ‘Times
temporal ‘plastic architecture’ that is entirely Square’, 1977.
site-specific and unique to its environment.
9 Rehearsals for Lucier’s
‘Still and Moving Lines
Of Silence In Families
of Hyperbolas’, 1972.

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CONTEXT

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Methodology

1. Using novel methods both to generate

acoustic phenomenon and engage audiences

Silo 468
10

Key to Audialsense’s work is an understanding

of site-specific acoustic phenomena,
gathered from measured data and digital
production tools. By measuring a site’s spatial
properties and recording acoustic
phenomena in a building’s materiality using
contact microphones and digital recording
equipment, processing the results and
11
playing them back in the space, it is possible
to create new environments in sound.
The acoustic phenomena generated in
Silo 468 has its roots in simple synthesizer
design. Subtractive synthesis is commonly
found in synthesizers developed in the 1960s
and 70s, where the partials of a rich harmonic
audio signal are modulated by a filter to alter
the timbre of a sound. An analogue model
12
of this process is the human mouth, with the
vocal chords acting as an oscillator and the
mouth and throat as a filter. By changing the
shape of the mouth, some harmonic partials
are retained and others removed, forming the
complex timbres of the words we speak.
An example of using subtractive synthesis
as an architectural tool is turning Helsinki’s
Silo 468 into a musical instrument and using
acoustic phenomena to generate drawings
with sound in the space.

10 Spectrogram analysis
of a Sine Wave at 440 Hz
(frequency vs. amplitude).
12 Spectrogram analysis
11 Spectrogram analysis of of a filtered Square Wave
a Square Wave at 440 Hz at 440 Hz with a centre
showing upper partials. frequency of 3 kHz.

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 METHODOLOGY

The process for generating the work was to The effect was surprisingly powerful and the
firstly survey the space, understanding its resultant soundscape was deeply resonant
volume and core dimensions. The room was and in constant flux. The antinodes
15,500 m3, 35 m in diameter and 16.15 m high. generated by the non-fluctuating sine waves
The interior was fully circular with parabolic created a clear geometrical pattern on the
soffit. The resonant frequency of the space floor plane that could be physically felt.
was the equivalent wavelength of its Alongside this, the square and triangle waves
diameter, 35 m equalling approximately 8.5 Hz. were gently modulating and shifting,
This is well below the threshold of hearing, generating a fleeting experience that seemed
so the wavelength was scaled in units of ten, to tease an occupant by constantly moving
generating a base tone of 80 Hz, which is around the space.
a very low but musically satisfying bass hum. As a way of physically engaging with the
In order to generate a more elastic intervention and connecting with the
soundscape that is both sited in the installation, occupants were given inflated
building’s volume and size, as well as being balloons and were instructed to walk through
fluid and engaging, we wanted to let the the space holding them with their fingertips.
soundscape be a complementary part of the When entering an antinode, the wave
existing light installation that ebbs and flows oscillations of the sine waves excited the air
with the illumination of the tank. molecules in the balloon, creating an almost
Building on a base of amplified sine waves, electric vibration that clearly defined the
we added additional square and sawtooth spatiality. Engaging in something so
waves with a more complex harmonic ephemeral and invisible was an unexpected
overtone sequence, so that we had a bed of and powerful physical experience.
scaled tones to generate a base drone. These
waves were output from speakers in a circular
arrangement around the room, constantly
on and droning. We took data from the
environmental sensors located around the
building and used it to modulate a filter of
a series of complex waveforms. As the wind
eddied around the silo, generating high- and
low-pressure points, the sound was
modulated by changing the cut-off
frequency and resonance of the waves’ upper
partials to reflect this environmental change.
This created a complex spatially specific
timbre in the room, generating a sonification
of the local environmental changes.

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 METHODOLOGY

13

13 Silo 468, Helsinki, 2016.

Illustration showing the
perceived nodal response
to the site shown arrayed
using speakers, generating
emergent architectures.

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 METHODOLOGY

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14 Silo 468, Helsinki,

2016. Modelling of
apparent nodes and
antinodes.

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15 Silo 468, 2016.

Using balloons to map
room response.

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Gjallarhorn

In the 2016 project, Gjallarhorn, we were very

lucky to have access to the big engines on
permanent display in the Science Museum.
We wanted to extract the structural borne
noise from the engines and play the sounds
back into the gallery space. We wanted to
make the sounds more site specific, rather
than playing them back in a straight way, and
in a subtractive way only play back
frequencies that match the resonant
frequencies of the gallery space.
We used contact microphones to extract
the sounds from the engines. These are
magnetic microphones that pick-up material
resonances rather than air-borne frequencies,
as typical microphones do. It is worthy of
note that the mechanics who maintain the
engines saw us use this technique and
commented that for quick diagnostic
purposes they insert the rounded handle of
a screwdriver into an ear with the other end
on the surface of the engine. They can then
listen for any issue that may be invisible
to the eye.

16 Gjallarhorn, Science
Museum, London, 2014.
Collecting data: different
points yielded different
sounds.

17 Gjallarhorn, Science
Museum, London, 2014.
Collecting data: powerful
pressurised steam from
boilers.

18 (overleaf) Collecting
data in the Science
Museum, London, for
Gjallarhorn, 2014.

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METHODOLOGY

16

17

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Gallery One

This installation was intended to build on the

principles undertaken in Gjallarhorn,
extracting the physical sounds of the building
and playing them back into the space rather
than using mechanically sourced noises and
tuning into their resonant frequencies.
Contact microphones were used to extract
sounds from as many resonant surfaces as
could be found: balustrades, lift linings, floor 19
tiles, etc. The sounds were then used as the
basis of a spatialised generative composition,
bisecting and quartering the space on
a quadraphonic sound system that provided
flexibility to create sonic figures in the room.
The acoustic phenomena generated in
Gjallarhorn and Gallery One question and
creatively use a common failing in
architectural projects – structure-borne
sound – that is usually designed out. The
Building Regulations Approved Document E
defines structure-borne sound as ‘sound
that is carried via the structure of a building’.
While insufficiently insulated vibrating
materials will generate audible noise that can
be annoying, Gjallarhorn and Gallery One use
these sonic phenomena creatively.

19 Gjallarhorn live at the

Science Museum, London,
2014.

20 Gjallarhorn installation
with the Denman Horn,
Science Museum, London,
2014.

21 Listening for nodes

onsite at the Science
Museum, London, 2014.

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METHODOLOGY

20

21

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

2. Acoustic research with acousticians,

testing, surveying and developing
performance parameters of sites that
are not traditional acoustic spaces

Musicity

For the Musicity, different processes and

technologies were developed and employed
to choose, survey and simulate specific
spaces for musicians to respond to
acoustically. The aim was to enable musicians
and composers to write for the acoustics of
a specific space and generate a unique piece
of music that is intrinsically linked to the site.
22
First, a series of spaces were selected for
use by musicians, chosen for specific
qualities that may positively inform a creative
process. Once the spaces were selected, they
were acoustically tested: in some cases
(Musicity Southwark 2017 and Musicity x
MEMU) by a balloon-pop impulse response
and in others (Musicity Southwark 2018 and
Musicity x Culture Mile 2019) by a team of
world-leading acoustic consultants at Arup.
The acoustic test is commonly used in
surveys of concert halls and other
acoustically critical spaces. For the tests
undertaken by Arup, a sine sweep was played
into the room; a pure tone that rises from
20 Hz to 20 kHz over 20 seconds. The sweep
is recorded, and then analysed for acoustic
properties: reverberation, clarity, definition,
etc. The locations of the speaker and the
receiving four-channel microphone are called
the ‘source’ and ‘receiver’ positions
respectively. These also represent the spatial
relationship between a performer and 22 The Musicity logo.
a listener or audience.
23 Musicity Southwark,
By use of B-format impulse responses London, 2018. Acoustic
taken from specialist surveys, it was possible survey of White Cube
to develop acoustic simulations of spaces via Bermondsey, site of Hatis
Noit’s ‘White Cube’.
acoustic virtual reality (AVR). This allowed
musicians to engage musically with a space 24 (overleaf) Spectrum
without visiting it. analysis of a sine sweep.

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METHODOLOGY

24

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PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

25

36
 METHODOLOGY

26

25 Musicity, testing
a four-channel
omnidirectional
microphone at UCL, 2018.

26 An omnidirectional
sound source.

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

3. Deploying technology to simulate the tracks available online, downloadable

specific spaces for musicians to respond via geotagging. The music is available for
to acoustically download when a listener is on the site
that was used for the composition.
Acoustic parameters developed from site
surveys are important to both
acousticians and architects. They inform Musicity Southwark
how a space works acoustically and what In the spring and early summer of 2017
interventions are to be undertaken to |and 2018, as part of the London Festival
optimise the space for use. For creative of Architecture, Musicity commissioned
use, however, it is critical that a musician a series of music by artists linked to the
uses their ears to develop London Borough of Southwark. Spaces
an intuitive response to a space. In included The Shard and Tate Modern, as
addition to the acoustic parameters, the well as smaller more intimate spaces such
sine sweep from the acoustic survey can as Hopton’s Almshouses. These spaces
produce what were used as sites for musical intervention.
is called an impulse response. This is
a computer-generated retort or snap that
contains 3D spatialised acoustic data
from the space. It is fairly meaningless on
its own but allows a space to be convolved
in real time when dropped into a
convolving reverb effect in a studio
environment, which digitally simulates the
acoustics of the space.
Convolution is a process that is getting
much more common in studios and can be
used to generate differing effects, from
outlandish sounds to the simulation of
space. Most software has the ability to
import impulse responses, e.g. Logic Pro’s
Space Designer, turning them into reverbs
defined by physical space. This allows a 27
musician to use their intuitive responses in
the creative process without having been
in the space or having any prior knowledge
of it. The process generates a unique piece
of music, linking site and sound.
As the sites chosen for Musicity are
working spaces, and have considerable
practical limitations for live performance,
the music that was generated via this
process could not be performed live,
creating considerable problems with
dissemination. This was solved by making 28

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29

27 Musicity Southwark,
London, 2018. Hopton’s
Almshouses, site of Shamus
Dark’s ‘Bank Side Story’.

28–9 Musicity Southwark,

London, 2018. Acoustic 30 (overleaf) Musicity
surveys of the Switch Southwark, London, 2018.
House and Turbine Hall, Acoustic survey of Flat
Tate Modern, site of Iron Square, site of The
Langham Research Centre’s Memory Band’s ‘Flat Iron
‘Terminal Voltage Traces’. Square’.

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31 Spectrum analysis
of Langham Research
Centre’s composition
for the Turbine Hall,
Tate Modern, London.

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METHODOLOGY

31

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Musicity x Culture Mile

As part of the Sound Unbound festival held

at the Barbican in Spring 2019, Musicity
commissioned ten pieces of music by ten
artists linked to the Barbican site.
Asking an artist to fully engage with an
unfamiliar process has its particular
challenges. Each artist developed a track in
their studios using equipment that they were
familiar with, creating a unique series of
results. Emma Kate Matthews developed her
track to be coincident with the nodal
frequency of the Barbican’s Lower Ground
Foyer, which emerged from the impulse
response. This created an intense bass
response:

The low clarinet and bowed bass parts

provide frequencies which sit below the
majority of the foyer’s ambient noise; from
air handling units, conversation and
catering. The low register in which the
music is written, deliberately coincides
with the most intense region of the
impulse response file, as visualised by the
spectral frequency display. This means
that the music contains a lot of energy
around the frequencies which the foyer is
particularly reflective to, capitalising on
the reverberant potential of the space and
thus its ability to blend sounds as they are
reflected, as if the foyer has the ability
to become an instrument itself (Matthews
2019).

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32

32 Musicity x Culture Mile,

Barbican, London, 2019.
Interior of St Bartholomew
the Great, London, site
of Kassia Flux’s ‘Rahere’.

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PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

33 Musicity x Culture Mile,

Barbican, London, 2019.
Acoustic survey of Beech
Street Tunnel, site of
Howlround’s ‘Heavy Works’.

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33

34 (overleaf) Musicity x
Culture Mile, London, 2019.
Acoustic Survey of
Barbican Lakeside, site
of Alex Ho’s ‘Upon Brick’.

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35

35–6 Musicity x Culture

Mile, Barbican, London,
2019. Acoustic survey of
Smithfield Rotunda
Gardens Ramp, site of EMS
Collective’s ‘Eternal
Descent’.

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36

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37 Musicity x Culture Mile,

Barbican, London, 2019.
Acoustic survey of Fabric
nightclub, site of Craig
Richards’ ‘At Home at Fabric’.

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38 Musicity x Culture Mile,

Barbican, London, 2019.
Lower Ground Foyer,
Barbican, site of Emma
Kate Matthews’ ‘Similis’.

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39

39 Musicity x Culture Mile,

Barbican, London, 2019. The
Charterhouse cloister, site
of Fari B’s ‘The Visitor Book’.

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 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

4. Workshops and collaborative engagement

with site owners, managers and musicians,
investigating suitable sites for acoustic and
musical interaction(s) and how volume and
materiality can influence compositions that
can be listened to on headphones or multi-
channel auditory systems.

MEMU

In July 2019, we undertook a series of

workshops at the MEMU Earth Lab in Japan.
The focus of the research was to look
at the complex interrelationships of sound,
space and the body. Experiments with
multiple participants were undertaken, both
indoors and outdoors, in order to develop
a situated and environmental approach
to sound.
The example documented here focuses
on room acoustics and music. Due to the
inaccessibility of the site, the acoustic
testing methodology used a balloon-pop
retort as an impulse response, rather than
a full sine sweep as used previously. The
results were not as high resolution but were
good for sketch purposes.

40 Même by Kengo Kuma

and Associates, Hokkaido,
2019.

41 (overleaf) MEMU site,

Hokkaido.

56
METHODOLOGY

40

57
PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

58
METHODOLOGY

41

59
PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

42

42 The interior of Même,

Hokkaido, by Kengo Kuma
and Associates, 2019.
A very quiet, almost
anechoic environment.

60
 METHODOLOGY

43

43 Nest We Grow by
UC Berkeley College of
Environmental Design
at MEMU Earth Hotel,
Hokkaido, 2019.

61
 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

For MEMU, a series of sites were selected

according to relevance, visual interest,
accessibility and sound. Spaces were chosen
that show a blend of rich acoustic qualities,
from the intimate to the cavernous. We
wanted spaces that have a voice and that
could be a creative springboard for writing
music. Once selected, they were acoustically
tested by the workshop participants. The
output of the tests provides acoustic data
that can tell us how the space performs 44
acoustically and how it could be used
by others.
The impulse responses generated by the
workshop attendees are available on the
MEMU website and are available for open
download. We have encouraged artists to use
these to develop their own compositions
based on the site and its architecture. We
encourage the sharing of these tracks to
broaden the understanding of what music
works well in spaces not necessarily designed
for it. This project opens up the methods
defined by the Musicity project and 45
democratises the process so that anyone
with access to music-writing software can
engage with situated composition.

44 Planning balloon-pop
acoustic tests at MEMU
Earth Lab, Hokkaido, 2019.

45 Workshop in progress 46–7 Balloon-pop

at MEMU Earth Lab, acoustic test, MEMU
Hokkaido, 2019. Earth Lab, Hokkaido, 2019.

62
METHODOLOGY

46

47

63
 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Dissemination Conference Papers

· Bavister, P. (2019). ‘Evolutionary Processes

Installations and the Latent Aesthetic Potency
of Sound and Space’. Sound of Space
· Musicity x Culture Mile, Barbican, London Symposium. Bartlett School of
(2019) Architecture, UCL
· Musicity x MEMU, Hokkaido (2019)
· Musicity Southwark, various locations,
London (2017, 2018) Lectures
· RIBA, London (2017)
· Silo 468, Helsinki (2016) · Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (2019)
· Gjallarhorn, Science Museum, London · Architectural Association, London (2019)
(2014) · Innsbruck University (2018)
· World Architecture Festival, Berlin (2017)
· Westminster University, London (2015,
MEMU Workshops 2014)

· A Recipe to Live, Waseda University, Japan

· Barn House, Darko Radović Laboratory, Events and Media
Keio University, Japan
· Colobockle Nest, Kyushu University, Japan · The work featured in the London Festival
· Horizon House, Mark Mulligan Laboratory, of Architecture in 2017, 2018 and 2019;
Harvard University, USA · The author was part of a live conversation
· Infinite Field, PAN-Projects, Japan about Musicity hosted by the Barbican in
· Inverted House, The Oslo School of Sound Unbound 2019, where Emma Kate
Architecture and Design, Norway Matthews, one of the musicians involved
· Même, Kengo Kuma and Associates, in the project, was also interviewed;
Japan · The ideas featured in this folio were
· Nest We Grow, UC Berkeley College of presented at the World Architecture
Environmental Design, USA Festival 2017 in Berlin. This was mentioned
· Studio MEMU, Toyo Ito & Associates, as one of the highlights of the festival in
Japan an editorial by Paul Finch in Architects’
Journal;
The impulse responses generated by the · The work has been featured on national
MEMU workshop attendees are available at: television (BBC News and London Tonight)
https://memuearthlab.jp/2019/07/30/ and on BBC Radio 4 where the process
musicity/ was undertaken live on the Today show;
· It has been published in The RIBA Journal
(2017) and Architecture Today (2019),
as well as on various online platforms,
including The Quietus (2017).

64
 DISSEMINATION / PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Project Highlights

Collectively, the importance of this set of

projects lies in how they have advanced our
understanding of the ways in which sound
affects the architectural design process
and our occupancy of spaces. Its role in this
regard has been recognised through
international workshops in Japan, Finland,
Austria and the UK, and in public outputs
such as the source recordings from the
Science Museum installation, Gjallarhorn.
These recordings were subsequently released
on Touch Radio – the UK’s national collection
of radio recordings – and are part of the
British Library’s sound archive.

65
 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Bibliography

Bavister, P. (2020). Paul Bavister.

[Viewed 7 December 2020].
www.paulbavister.com
Luscombe, N. and Farrow, C. (2020).
‘MSCTY_EXPO (LDF Zone): Curated by
Nick Luscombe + Clare Farrow’. MSCTY.
[Viewed 7 December 2020].
www.mscty.space/
Matthews, E. K. (2020). ‘Construction 005:
SIMILIS’. EKM. [Viewed 7 December 2020].
www.ekm.works/construction005
MEMU Earth Lab (2019). MEMU Earth Lab.
[Viewed 7 December 2020].
https://memuearthlab.jp/2019/07/30/
musicity/
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local
Government (2015). Resistance to the
Passage of Sound.
[Viewed 7 December 2020].
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/468870/ADE_
LOCKED.pdf
Sabine, W. C. (1908). ‘Melody and the Origin
of the Musical Scale’. New Series. 27 (700).
pp. 841–7.

66
 BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Related Publications by the Researchers

Bavister, P. and Gage, S. (2018). ‘Artificial Intelligence and the

Generation of Emotional Response to Sound and Space’.
Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics. 40. pp. 427–34.

Related Writings by Others

Architecture Today (2019). ‘Envisioning Acoustics’. Architecture

Today. 9 January.

Barbican (2019). ‘Musicity X Culture Mile’. Barbican.

BBC (2017). ‘Musicity App Launches in Southwark’. BBC London

Tonight. 8 September.

Culture Mile (2019). ‘Musicity X Culture Mile’. Culture Mile.

Finch, P. (2017). ‘WAF Highlights: From the Gulag to Disneyland,

All Human Life was There’. Architects’ Journal. 20 November.

Foster, R. (2017). ‘Musicity’. The Quietus. 12 September.

The RIBA Journal (2017). ‘Musicity Thaws Southwark’s

Architecture’. The RIBA Journal. 7 September.

Printed article


Online article
(clickable link)

67
 PAUL BAVISTER AUDIALSENSE

Image Credits Bartlett Design Research Folios

All images © Paul Bavister, unless ISSN 2753-9822

otherwise stated.
© 2022 The Bartlett School
8 © The Estate of Max Neuhaus of Architecture. All rights reserved.
9 © Mary Lucier
17, 19 © Asako Bavister Text © the authors
22 © Nick Luscombe
32–9 © Solen Fluzin Founder of the series and lead editor:
40, 42 © Courtsey of Kengo Kuma & Yeoryia Manolopoulou
Associates
43 Photographer: Shinkenchiku-Sha Edited by Yeoryia Manolopoulou,
44–7 © MEMU Earth Lab Barbara Penner, Phoebe Adler

Picture researcher: Sarah Bell

Additional project management:

Srijana Gurung

Graphic design: Objectif

Layout and typesetting: Siâron Hughes

Every effort has been made to trace

the copyright holders of the material
reproduced in this publication. If there
have been any omissions, we will be
pleased to make appropriate
acknowledgement in revised editions.
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