Development of ideas:

Initial Ideas:

Potential Themes: Global Warming

We attempted to portray it using the elements of the earth:

1. Fire and water – coal and water sizzling
2. Fire and Air – crackling matchsticks
3. Water and air – bubbling sound
4. Earth and Water – blurping, squishy, sticks and mud (melting of ice caps)
5. Earth and Fire – burning sound (deforestation/burning fossil fuels)
6. Earth and Air – wind blowing trees, leaf sound (CO2 gas)

End with fire extinguisher-extinguishing global warming

Environment A:

Different grades of air quality and objects (surroundings like position of trees (if you are in a park)) are held constant = different outcomes

• Natural earth sound (EARTH SINGING-microphone into the soil) and then it got ‘tortured’ by the other elements. Throughout the process, the rate increases as elements are added. This is to depict global warming happening to earth. It explains the increasing rate of global warming as the sounds are added in. Eventually the earth gets overwhelmed with all the activities and ends off with fire extinguisher.

We tried to create a synthetic nature environment portraying the effect of air pollution. With different degrees of air pollution, there will be varying amount and number of air/dust/pollutants particles in the air, making it increasingly difficult for the sound to be transmitted if the air pollution gets worse. Hence, this pushes us to think about the effects of air pollution and raised the awareness of it.

Inspiration page:

Toothbrush:

 

Airplane:

 

An alternative I thought of:

• Create an installation with modified sleeping bags. Remove the inner lining of sleeping bags and replace them with stones, gravel, sand, soil etc to simulate “earth” with a heating tube inside. Pillows with mini speakers are placed on the top of the sleeping bag.

The viewers are supposed to lie on them and listen to the audio mentioned above. The longer they lie on the sleeping bag, the hotter the heat element will be, allowing the viewer to feel the direct impact of global warming.

However, after consulting with Michael, it turns out that we have a wrong direction in the project. Although he did not disapprove the global warming topic, what he wanted was the sound or sound story of a single object. It has to be revolving around the object.

 

New Proposed Idea/ Concept:

MICROWAVE + Food + Utensils

1. Unhealthy eating- Processed food goes into the microwave
2. Electricity- physics- sound from water vibration in the food (that’s how microwave works?) /consumption?
3. Experiential sounds
4. Popcorns?

HOW? 

Different type of food choices would lead to different a type of outcome. (Example: Unhealthy food and the very unhealthy food) The fact that we didn’t choose healthy food is because using the microwave is unhealthy in the first place and most of the convenient food are unhealthy. (e.g. Microwavable food packs/ pizzas / sandwich etc => mostly sold at convenient stores like 7-eleven, cheers etc)

WHY?

We were walking around ADM for inspiration when we realised we decided to pause and do some on site research and monitoring at the ADM lounge. This was when we realised that many people were either eating packed food or simply microwavable sandwiches / food packs/ pizzas / hamburgers from the nearby 7-eleven store at canteen 2. Realising this unhealthy trend, we decided to do a sound art to reflect this harmful and unhealthy practice, as well as to inform, alert and remind people about how unhealthy this is.

Microwave Area at ADM Lounge: 

SEQUENCE: 

Ear piercing sounds when opening the microwave door

Please choose the food of your choice(Robotic sound) aka instructions to prompt the user

Sounds – Warning/ Alarms etc

SOUND EFFECTS:

1. UPBEAT (Best one) – New (Nuclear Evacuation Alarm) Sound Effect
2. Second best one – (Less upbeat, more dramatic)
3. Alarm Sound Effect – at 0.28 –
4. Nuclear Alarm –
5. Ball bouncing –

Attempts:

SOUND CLIP VER 1:

Final Sound Clip: 

Part 1:

Part 2:

Final Test Run Video with microwave:

Introducing the MACROWAVE: 

Microwaves are kitchen appliances that almost everyone owns in their home. They heat and cook food quickly and efficiently by exposing the food to microwave radiation and thereby altering the molecular structure of the item. We are basically consuming irradiated food items with altered molecular structures that – due to said exposure to radiation – has it’s health benefits reduced and instead is detrimental to our health especially in large doses, which is why we are advised not to use microwaves too much in our daily lives. However, despite knowing this, we continue to use these appliances frequently because of the ease and convenience of it. Coupled with our busy lifestyles, it provides us with a more convenient excuse to use it even further. Perhaps, since the effects do not manifest immediately, we don’t see the extent of which our body is being damaged. Through this experience, we want to get the people thinking about the damage that microwaves are causing to our body.

AIM: 

We want to stimulate the viewer in a way that they would react negatively. This is to push across the point that microwaves cause negative impacts onto the food they consume and this affects their health directly and indirectly, thus discouraging them to reduce microwave usage.

HOW:

Actual poster on site: 

Presentation Time!

VIDEO 1- Jason trying out!

VIDEO 2- Nadia trying out!

 

 

Healthy Alternatives:

Now that all the bad news is out of the way, let’s focus on some speedy, easy and convenient ways to heat up food without compromising your health.

Convection toaster ovens

Not quite as fast as a microwave but quicker than a normal toaster oven. Food tastes so much better when heated in a real oven. Plus, they’re more affordable, take up less space and use less energy – a perfect example of when less equals more! Line an oven sheet with foil or pop your food in an oven safe glass container or ceramic dish and heat until warm!

Stovetop

Seems obvious, but not everyone thinks to reheat meals in a pot or pan. You can place food directly on the cookware or wrap it in foil first and add a little water. Steamers also work great and produce a similar, evenly heated result. Even popcorn can be made on the stove, and it’s so much healthier when you can control the amount of salt and oil you put on it.

Double boiling

This tactic works great on liquids like sauces and is also a way to gently and evenly heat food without direct heat. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan, then place a glass container in it with the food inside. It shouldn’t take too long to get to your desired temperature.

Pressure cookers

Well-known for their ability to cook foods like rice 2-3 times faster than the stovetop method, they’re also a great way to heat up soups and vegetables in less than 10 minutes, while retaining their moisture.

If you don’t have any of the appliances above, a planet-friendly way to obtain them is via friends or second-hand shops. So many people purchase these items and hardly use them, so offer to give them a well-deserved new home! Likewise, don’t just toss your microwave. Recycle it at an e-waste facility or call a pick-up service.

 

REFLECTION: 

I find this project very interesting and it gives us room to explore about sounds. This is my first official sound project and I really enjoy doing it. The topic we touched on was food, radiation and unhealthy practices. I find that these topics are relatively relevant in our daily lives, especially when we are in such a busy and fast paced society. However, this does not give us a reason nor excuse to depend heavily on these unhealthy but convenient food such as microwavable food and hence there is a need to bring awareness about this issue that is getting more prevalent. The process of this project was rather enriching as we tried many different kind of ideas and sounds to reach the final stage. Although we got quite a few people coming up to ask us / glaring at us / giving us curious but “hmm what is this or what they are doing” kind of looks when we are testing the clips on site, it only proves that people are aware of what we are doing and that I really enjoyed the entire process. I hope that in the process of doing it and appearing at the microwave so many times, this will really impact the people who frequent the lounge and those who use the microwave every now and then. Also, I do consider microwave under kitchen appliances which then links back to one of my artist reference, Martha Rosler, who also makes use of kitchen appliances for her sound performance.