Posts Tagged ‘audio’

Sight of sound

Your eardrum converts the motion of the air into something you can hear, but what if everything around you could work the same way? In a recent TED Talk, MIT researcher Abe Davis demonstrates cutting edge research into extracting audio from silent video of everyday objects exposed to sound. Using high-speed video equipment and even a consumer-level camera, he extracts intelligible music and speech just by watching a nearby houseplant or a snack bag—the proverbial “fly on the wall”. Acknowledging the surveillance possibilities (which were already feasible using lasers), the research pushes beyond audio to expose the natural modal movement of an object by simply ensonifying it and recording what happens, allowing one to push, pull, and shake something virtually without ever touching it.

those gosh darn mystery noises ….

Above Average via YouTube

Pandora design awarded

Our office interior project for Pandora Media with ABAstudio continues to earn recognition from the architecture community, recently winning an Award of Merit from AIA New York State to add to its prior accolades.  We are glad to have been able to contribute to the project and grateful for the recognition!

AIA Award of Merit for Pandora Media

Hudson views

Architectural Digest recently featured one of our residential projects, a home overlooking the Hudson River in upstate New York.  Designed by architecture & design firm BWArchitects for a private client, the house occupies property farmed by architect Basil Walters’ own grandparents for over 50 years, which he recounts visiting as a young man.  The design is informed both by the landscape and by the architect’s experiences there, and includes a dedicated listening room with carefully controlled acoustics.

Hudson Valley Riverhouse

Pandora’s media

We recently completed a fun and “musical” office interior for Pandora Media in Midtown Manhattan in conjunction with ABA Studio.  The project was recently featured on both ArchDaily and Architizer, as their Project of the Day.  Congratulations to the project team and we wish Pandora Media sweet sounds in their new space!

Pandora Media NYC

But I know what I hear

This week, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is opening its first major exhibition of sound art, “Soundings: A Contemporary Score”.  Through November 3rd, visitors will be able to immerse themselves in auditory pieces designed by sixteen of the most innovative contemporary artists working with sound.

Forty-Part Motet

Not to be outdone, on September 10th the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Janet Cardiff’s “Forty-Part Motet”, pictured above.  This first foray into sound by the Met (to be installed in Fuentidueña Chapel at The Cloisters) combines forty separately-recorded voices from forty loudspeakers into a 16th century choral ensemble, a synthesis that the New York Times notes has brought visitors to tears.  The Times also provides audio clips from the MOMA exhibition, noting that “while you can close your eyes to an image you hate, you can’t close your ears to a noise”—a risk without a parallel in the visual arts.