Childhood Wonder
My project focuses on recording the sounds of my experiences at Jumping Gym U.S.A from a personal point of view. Jumping Gym U.S.A is an indoor amusement park company in Hong Kong. It provides a variety of game facilities for people of different ages without an entry fee. The reason I chose this location is because my family often took me there to play when I was a child, and now I occasionally go there with friends. I aim to recall the happiness in the good old days and capture the joy and excitement experienced in the bustling indoor amusement park environment.
I mainly used a Zoom H3-VR handy recorder to record the sounds. I also used a Zoom H4N handy recorder for some ambient sound. The soundscape of Jumping Gym is incredibly rich and distinctive because the categories of game facilities in this place are very diversified. For the Sports category, there are basketball machines, bowling machines and air hockey. Also, there are machines with gambling elements, like the coin pusher machines and Lucky Rainbow. Therefore, the most recognizable sound in this place is the jingling of coins. In addition to this, there are other sounds such as background music and sound effects from different machines, the laughter and screams of children, the sound of tickets from the machines and the voice of staff hosting Lucky Rainbow. During my childhood visits, I never paid much attention to these sounds as I was completely immersed in the fun of playing. However, after listening back to my recordings, I found that their background music and sound effects are quite unique which contribute to a joyful experience for players.
By presenting this recording from a first-person perspective, I want to provide listeners with an immersive experience, allowing them to feel the same happiness and excitement I felt while playing at Jumping Gym. I have recorded around thirty soundtracks from different game facilities and filtered some special sounds. Firstly, the recording is the sound when I was playing Lucky Rainbow. I captured the sound of people talking and the jungling of coins. Secondly, I recorded the sound of bowling machines. Lastly, the recording is the sound when I was playing different coin pusher machines with different background music and sound effects.
Sound is important in an interactive environment. It can affect people’s emotions, attention and physical reactions. The immersive ambisonics can increase engagement and enhance the interactive experience.1 Through this project, I want to show how sound can evoke powerful memories and emotions and how the auditory environment plays an important role in creating the joyful atmosphere of an indoor amusement park.
1 Kenwright, B. (2020). There’s more to sound than meets the ear: sound in interactive environments. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 40(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcg.2020.2996371