SNER
Brief | Monomedium
Project Leader | Stefano Cardini
Project Assistants | Renzo Giusti & Sigrid Wiederhecker
Group Members | Ekene Ijeoma, Su Rim Kim, Giorgio Partesana
Idea | Problem | Context
SNER (Secret Noise Explorer Recorder) is about how we can perceive objects in our environment through sound. When we were kids we could listen to the sounds of objects such as seashells, which would play the sounds of the ocean. What if we could listen to other objects in a similar way?
What is it?
SNER lets people record and play the secret sounds of objects. Regardless of whether the object has a perceivable sound, SNER records the energy of the object and plays that energy as hear-able sound similar to a seashell. With SNER objects can share their secret sound with us. We can also play with the sounds by changing the orientation of SNER near our ears. With SNER we can share recordings with our friends by connecting them together.
KEYWORDS:
SECRET SOUNDS
SEASHELL
RECORD
LISTEN
SHARING
How it works
How do you use SNER? First you may ask yourself what does a box sound like or maybe… what does a rock sound like? Once you have an object you would like to hear in your environment you go to that object and you set the SNER to record and then rotate the ring of the SNER to select a track (the SNER has 16 tracks) to record to, push the SNER against the surface of the object. Once the SNER touches the object and clicks the recording starts. To stop the recording you can either push again or the recording will stop after 5 minutes. Then you can repeat for each object. Once you have all your recordings you can go to other friends and play your recordings on their SNER by connecting your line out to their line in. You can also connect more SNER by similarly connecting the line in and line outs of other SNERs. If one of your friends like what they hear they can record what you are playing to their SNER by pushing down on the SNER to start, then pushing again to stop the recording.
How does SNER record the secret sounds of objects? Since objects SNER is recording are assumed to have no hear-able sound, we thought about what sound the device should be capturing. Sound is essentially energy, which propagates through air so when you record sound you are recording energy. Therefore only objects such as blow dryers and washer machines, which move or have moving electronics or mechanics can produce sounds; but what about other objects such as rocks and trees? Fortunately hearable and non-hearable objects have electromagnetic energy thanks to the sun, and we want to use this energy to make sounds. These sounds are called “secret sounds” because SNER makes the objects energy hear-able.
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