Sound Feedback for Social Distance: The Case for Public Interventions during a Pandemic

Within the field of movement sensing and sound interaction research, multi-user systems have gradually gained interest as a means to facilitate an expressive non-verbal dialogue. When tied with studies grounded in psychology and choreographic theory, we consider the qualities of interaction that fos...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electronics (Basel) 2022-07, Vol.11 (14), p.2151
Main Authors: Primett, William, Da Silva, Hugo Plácido, Gamboa, Hugo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Cities
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Feedback
Live performance
Medical research
Pandemics
Psychology
Public spaces
Sensors
Social distancing
Socialization
Sound
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Within the field of movement sensing and sound interaction research, multi-user systems have gradually gained interest as a means to facilitate an expressive non-verbal dialogue. When tied with studies grounded in psychology and choreographic theory, we consider the qualities of interaction that foster an elevated sense of social connectedness, non-contingent to occupying one’s personal space. Upon reflection of the newly adopted social distancing concept, we orchestrate a technological intervention, starting with interpersonal distance and sound at the core of interaction. Materialised as a set of sensory face-masks, a novel wearable system was developed and tested in the context of a live public performance from which we obtain the user’s individual perspectives and correlate this with patterns identified in the recorded data. We identify and discuss traits of the user’s behaviour that were accredited to the system’s influence and construct four fundamental design considerations for physically distanced sound interaction. The study concludes with essential technical reflections, accompanied by an adaptation for a pervasive sensory intervention that is finally deployed in an open public space.
ISSN:2079-9292
2079-9292
DOI:10.3390/electronics11142151