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Writer's pictureSon Luu

Week 2: "Elevator" - a team project on sound walk

Updated: Sep 22, 2018

“Elevator” is a 3-minute journey that begins in the lobby of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU located at 721 Broadway. The school is known for producing some of the greatest names in film and theatrical performance.

Elevators are the only place where strangers actually spend time together in the same space. This walk highlights the nature of human interaction among students, faculty, and staff riding the elevators to the different floors that house various academic departments.

“Elevator” takes listeners on an everyday elevator ride. However, listeners are encouraged to stand in the back, observing, listening and experiencing every sound, whether it be human or mechanical, and silence while inside the elevator car.

Team: Olivia Kung, Jenny Lin, Son Luu


 

Reflections post sound walk show day:


Improvement areas: Input from everyone was very helpful. One drawback identified was too much unnecessary information was provided as part of the instructions. The instruction sheet was a page long while the most important points could have expressed in a couple of bullets. This put some level of pressure on the audience to pay attention and follow instructions closely for a good sound walk experience. Second, some felt uncomfortable pressing the all the floor buttons required for the sound walk. Without any advance notice, other people who were not part of the sound walk but riding the same elevator were a bit confused by the delay caused by elevator stopping at random floors, which was requested for the sound walk. The sound walk may have been too well planned or too much oriented that the delivery of emotions was not as effective as it could have been to its potential.


Observation: We observed the audience during the sound walk and similarly, noticed some distress during the elevator ride, caused by pressing many floor buttons and delaying the elevator ride for other people in the same car. This led to distractions which prevented the audience from the full experience of the sound walk. Many were either hesitant to close their eyes, or perhaps it was too distracting to do so, which also reduced the effectiveness of the sound walk. We did struggle with the decision on how much information or instructions to provide the audience, and the results showed.


Conclusion: The team felt that all the feedback was mostly anticipated, but little could be done to mitigate all potential problems. However, it was, overall, a very good sound project experience for all teammates. Our team was happy about the result, and was proud of the work by everyone. We learned that every sound walk is different, and regardless of how much we try to be accommodating to our audience, it is not meant to be a perfect experience. Every person will have a unique experience and feeling about each sound walk. The most important thing is sharing that experience with everyone and let it be each person's own experience.




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