Wet markets, Food, and Us
1. Abstract:
The audio is binaural. This project focuses mainly on two points: soundscape and food. The soundscape created in this project will guide the audience to consider the relationship between food and our step-by-step by utilizing the three models of listening.
1.1 Food and wet market:
As lifestyles change, the pace of life goes faster. Instead of buying food in wet markets, we choose to eat in restaurants. Yet, the food we see in restaurants skips many processes, like selection, cleaning, and seasoning. Nevertheless, these processes are important to link us with food. In wet markets, we can touch the vegetables with our hands, feel the weight and texture, and select and cook them – wet markets have brought us closer to food.
1.2 Soundscape and the three listening models:
Soundscape is how an individual identifies the acoustic environment through listening (Truax, 1984). The information received can be diverse depending on circumstances, such as environment and time, as well as personal experiences like emotions and listening habits. The audio in this project is edited to lead the audience practicing the three levels of listening:
1. internal listening; 2. focused listening; 3. global listening, and thus bring out the main theme – how wet markets link us and food.
1.3 Layout of the audio:
The audio is divided into 3 parts:
– Part 1: Identifying the location: Soundtracks of wet markets are roughly edited to provide simple information to the audience. In this part, the audiences mainly apply internal listening to understand the information provided.
– Part 2: Arousing attention: The punchline is created to inspire the audience, giving them space and time to think about what is the theme of this audio. In this part, the audiences mainly apply focused listening.
– Part 3: Connecting: Soundtracks are edited to immerse audiences, extend their focus beyond the center, and gather information in the surrounding environment. In this part, the audiences mainly apply global listening.
2. Technical details:
2.1 Devices:
Zoom H3 recorder, as it is handy to be carried in markets.
2.2 Software:
Reaper for audio editing, like adding FX and format decoding.
3. Layout details:
Part 1: Identifying the location (Track1 _watermarket)
– The audio in the wet market will be played all the time.
– This soundtrack is placed in the center to locate the audience in the center of the wet market.
– The sound mainly contains shopkeepers hawking, radio sounds and people talking.
Part 2: Arousing attention (Track 10_water, Track 10_chopping, Track 10_rice, Track 10_stir-frying)
– Four audio clips of cooking are added while part 1 is playing. The sound is obviously different from the wet market to create a punchline for the audience, who starts to think about what is going on with these tracks.
– These soundtracks are placed on the front, back, left, and right, and are played one by one clockwise. These sounds surrounded Part 1 to illustrate the relationship between wet markets and food.
– The sound mainly contains water splashes, rice cooking, chopping, and stir-frying.
– FX applied in soundtracks:
1. Track 10_water: MultiEQ, reduce the noise produced by the range hood.
Part 3: Connecting (Track 10_water, Track 10_chopping, Track 10_rice, Track 10_stir-frying)
– Those four tracks play at the same time and rotate clockwise slowly. The volume keeps changing to immerse and extend the audience’s focus beyond the center and gather information in the surrounding environment.
– As a result, the diagram of the multi-encoder will look like a moving sphere, showing the linkage of wet markets, food, and us.
4. References:
Truax, B. (1984). Acoustic Communication. Ablex Publishing Corporation. https://monoskop.org/images/1/13/Truax_Barry_Acoustic_Communication.pdf