Slogan idea: We put the "reek" in "Ureka" | Main | McDonald's Daycare
October 16, 2003
Sound Sculpture Idea
This is an idea I had a few years ago, but I don't think it got the exposure/celebration it needs.
I met this guy once (a friend of friends) who did sound sculpture, and his work included, as I remember it, one piece outside a restaurant where you heard sounds of dishes and glasses clinking and people talking and eating, etc. Here it is.
This reminded me of this restaurant in Seattle where you heard foreign language lesson tapes in the bathrooms. Then I read about these machines in bathrooms in Japan that make the sound of toilets flushing to cover up other sounds and prevent water waste (this was one of those stupid "aren't the Japanese crazy?" stories that was making the rounds on NPR and stuff). These are the elements that inspired my idea for a sound scupture.
It would be place-based, and the place would be the bathroom. There would be no visual component (at least that I've thought of yet).
It would be the recorded sounds of bathrooms from around the world. In one version, they would be live -- piped in from afar -- but I'm thinking that might pose some technological challenges we're not up to -- but maybe not if it was web-based. Anyway, it would just be all the sounds you hear in bathrooms. Ambiant sounds. Possibly edited to make it more noisy, or you'd end up with a lot of dead air, I expect (you'd encounter the same problem with a live feed).
It would obscure which sounds were live and local, and which sounds were mechanical, which shy people would like. Intellectually, it would explore the idea that humanity is bound by the commonality of its basic animal functions, and then explode that assumption, because the noises would actually be quite different -- you'd have your third-world bathrooms, outdoor bathrooms, french bathrooms, your public bathrooms, your private bathrooms, your bidets (sp), your sex in bathrooms, your people snorting coke in bathrooms, changing diapers, etc. etc. etc. And of course going to the bathroom.
And if I were commissioned to do a restaurant sound sculpture, I think I'd do one that was close up sounds of stomachs growling and people smacking their lips and stuff.
Posted by mary at October 16, 2003 12:06 PM
Comments
I hear Solex playing as your site's background music.
Posted by: .kes. at October 22, 2003 11:59 AM
Japanese do have the strangest toliets. My host family had one in a tiny room that had a remote hanging on the wall. Why a remote? It's not like you can be across the room and use the toliet. And the remote was entirely in kanji which make if completely unreadable. The first button I pressed was the bidet and not the flush that I had hoped for. That was a surprise.
Posted by: grigs at October 22, 2003 12:08 PM
Those crazy Japanese and their crazy toilets!
When I asked for a $100 toothbrush for my birthday one year my mother said, "Next you're going to want one of those toilets like they've got in Japan!" she was teasing me, and everyone knew what she was talking about.
While I'm on the subject, I have to say that my $100 toothbrush has done me very well. It broke down after I'd had it for just under a year, and when I called the customer service number, they were great!
First, they had me re-boot it. Seriously. By holding down a couple of the buttons it reboots. It kind of shivered and shaked in its little docking station. When that didn't solve my problem, they sent me a brand new one for free! Granted, they'd have to send me about fifty of before it was as good a bargain as a plain old toothbrush, and consumer reports says you'll get results that are just as good if you use an egg timer and force yourself to brush for 3 minutes straight. But who do you call when they break?
As far as toilets go, I think squatting is great and I wish we'd get more squatters here in the states. Finicky girls are always squatting anyway and peeing all over the place. We might as well institutionalize it.
I'm going to see if I can get Chris to make it so that when you click on my blog you hear music. Everyone would love that, right??
Posted by: Mary at October 22, 2003 12:25 PM
Apparently the idea of adding acoustic effects to aromatic ones in toilets is widespread.
Posted by: Ed Osborn at October 27, 2003 1:39 AM
OMG! OMG! OMG!
I can't believe how every idea I have seems (to have) appear/ed in some shape or form at some point.
I especially like the title of that project.
And I like the mens room/womans room thing -- I forgot to list that among the "cross cultural" links I was aiming to make.
Posted by: Mary at October 27, 2003 9:59 AM
HGH Oral Spray. Human Growth Hormone.
Posted by: The hgh spray Dude at November 17, 2004 10:46 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)