Speculation 1: Context — situation
appetite
Eating is something that is a basic human necessity. From just overcoming hunger to fulfilling the desire of the tongue to eat delicious food. Usually, we eat by looking at what food is in front of us. In that way, we can determine the portion, see how tempting the food is, then eat it.
Food is also inseparable from the place to eat itself. Despite these filling needs, today, places to eat exist because they want to serve a variety of menus that are not at home or different from other places. Various types of restaurants, various menus, atmosphere, way of eating, price, and others.
(not) free
Let’s move on to discussing our current situation. It’s been eight months since we built a lot of new habits. Activities that are usually done freely and as much as possible become limited by all the rules. New normal is already running, activity is starting to return, but it remains unsafe and the biggest possibility is to go back to the lockdown moments or we call it as PSBB. This situation has a profound influence on every area of life.
About PSBB — the point is the restriction of crowding in public places. Lately, there has also been news of public places being closed for violating this regulation, one of which is a fast-food restaurant that has just opened in Jakarta. Even though it’s new normal, people still can’t be free. But, what if in the next five years it stays like this or even worse.
sensory
Then, with this pandemic, what if every place of eating is merged into one, yeah think of it like a food court. This food court is present in each region (e.g., sub-district/kecamatan) while providing various types of food. But not as normal a food court as it is now. This food court can also present an atmosphere when we eat in the original restaurant. With this grouping of regions, it can help control the mass more easily
Then how? Just imagine the atmosphere when we eat in an Italian restaurant but join Padang Restaurant. Hmm… A mix of scenes that I think will end up c h a o t i c.
It is said that according to communication experts, eighty percent of human activity in obtaining information is obtained through the sense of vision (visual) Of course this applies to people who can normally see. Lindstrom (2005) mentions that views often override other senses and that it has the power to outsell all logic. This means other senses have a chance to fix this.
Sound also provides information about the perspective and the environment. Our sense of hearing can hear around the acoustic chamber 360 degrees, from all directions that the sense of vision does not have to 180 degrees.
Okay before we get there and we’re talking the visual impact, let’s talk architecture first. Architecture. At first glance, we also talk about the shape of mass, color, light, the scale at which people recognize it through vision or visuals. Through visuals people can recognize a space, atmosphere, orientation — experiencing from the body — embodied — this is directly related to the term formal architecture.
Several aspects affect formal architecture: body position and orientation, ability to move, and the way our vision prioritizes certain aspects of our visual fields. What vision means here is to use vision. Can we conclude (temporarily) that architecture — relies heavily upon — visuals instead?
If we go back to that embodied, architecture should be experienced by all parts of the human body, not just vision. Whether it’s sound, touch, smell, or tasting. Other senses may have functions similar to visuals.
According to William Moylan (Professor of Sound Recording Technology and Music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell) the sound contains information about direction, height, distance, and character. Sound also plays an important role in understanding space and improving the sensory perception of vision. Sound can complement vision to see space, in terms of magnifying a person’s spatial awareness to include areas around it that cannot be seen. Sound dramatizes the spatial experience.
So, what if we replace architecture’ visual (with sound)?
Speculation 1.1: Technology
The 21st century is very closely related to technology. That said, there’s nothing impossible to make. Technologies like VR, AR, and MR are limited to visuals only? I don’t think so.
So what’s the role of the voice then?
Here we will eliminate the visual aspect of architecture so that other senses (hearing) will be more sensitive. If any visuals appear in the slightest, people will be distracted. When architecture loses visuals as identity, it has to move to sound quality to assert it.
Then the sound itself if directly using physical sound (the sound that comes directly from the vicinity) will not be easy to capture. This led to the need for the intensity of the digital world to assert it. The quality of the physical atmosphere comes from the digital.
As already mentioned, that sound has a wider range of dimensions than vision. With this principle, we can manipulate the sound localization of the sound. Sound will shape the spatial — totally. Localization performance generally refers to the degree of accuracy with which listeners can identify and/or discriminate the location of a sound source.
Speculation 1.2: Integration
Go back to the food court. In this case, the voice determines not only the spatial but also the experience of a person when eating until the person responds like he or she is looking.
The first thing is sound as wayfinding someone in motion. The sound of bamboo floor squeaking when trampled will be heard when he orders Javanese food that will usually be present in the lesehan restaurant. Or second, sound like someone’s ‘companion’ when eating. He can hear the slurp of someone eating noodle soup or crispy fried chicken, yes like ASMR.
What he ordered was the key. Through his hearing, one can better understand what is around him. Because the visuals do not exist (blind), it increases the sensitivity of other senses to get to know the surroundings. This experience cannot stand alone without technological interference.
Now let’s put this idea in the neighborhood. I took the area famous for its culinary areas namely Soekarno-Hatta (Suhat), Malang, East Java. The area houses many types of places to eat with each of its characteristics.
Scenario
- From outside this place will look like a mall, utilizing the location of shophouses that were previously used as culinary areas here –
- When he enters, everything will be calm, quiet, dark –
- When he uses the headset, he can hear the sound of the floor squeaking out of the mop, the sound of others chatting, the sound of the cash register, the sound of the frying pan –
- When he finishes ordering, the atmosphere he hears will adjust his order —
- When he eats, he can hear what texture is in his food
- and visuals shouldn’t appear at all
