NOTICE : The Re-awakening

Well this project has fallen dormant in comparison to some of my other projects.

Since my last series of posts I have developed my initial ideas further and have re-thought what I wish to try and show through my concept.

My previous ideas included a rear window-esque look fomr the window of my flat, which overlooks the living rooms of 12 other flats. My other initial idea being to create a stalker-like photographic essay showing the various voyeuristic ways that we may see people through the course of a single day - yet this would all be of just one person.

Anyway, since then I decided that I would look at audio voyeurism. Overheard Conversations.

My ideas have been various but have all relied upon the use of recorded audio, capturing the overheard conversation. The difficulties that have arisen from this have been numerous. My main problem however has been actually capturing conversations. I know that when I am sitting in the location where I am recording, I can distinguish between the general background noise and a conversation - this has been nigh on impossible when using a range of microphones and recording devices.

Since I have managed to record some audio, and since the project is all about visual design I decided to create a series of experiments that each exploered a different method of displaying the overheard conversations.

I re-read an old issue of Computer Arts Projects titled '100 Rules of Graphic Design' and although lots of points where useful, one alone stood out to me. The point was made by Simon Yuen, one of the directors at GR/DD. His point is as follows:

"Develop a good theoretical angle on your project to give you leverage when it comes to the design stage"

Bearing this in mind I tried to come up with an underlying concept for my experiements.

I decided that I wanted to allow other people to 'overhear' the conversational snippets that I had overheard myself. I have began to think of these overheard audioclips as a product almost. I am aiming to attempt to brand the range of experiements as a collective whole. By doing this I think that I will be able to create one overall style/brand to maintain throughout each experiment, whilst still being free to explore a wider range of visualisation tools.

Previous Concepts in PDF format [left click to view, right click to download]:

Idea 1

Idea 2

Idea 3