Sound Art -World’s quietest place

ANECHOIC CHAMBER

An anechoic chamber (“an-echoic” meaning non-reflective, non-echoing or echo-free) is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also insulated from exterior sources of noise. The combination of both aspects means they simulate a quiet open-space of infinite dimension, which is useful when exterior influences would otherwise give false results.

The picture above is earth’s quietest place: The ‘anechoic chamber’ at Orfield Laboratories, which is 99.99 per cent sound absorbent and capable of giving the visitor hallucinations. It was constructed with fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and concrete.

Visitors are challenged to sit in the chamber in darkness and the longest record now is 45 minutes by a reporter. We would thought that silence is quite nice and yet when it is so quiet, you can hear your own heartbeat, your stomach and many many usually unnoticeable noises. As they said”In the room, you are the sound.”

The experience is said to be very disorientating and visitors will have to sit down to feel less disconnected. Only when you can’t rely on reflection of sounds, echoes to define the space and orientate yourself that you realize how much you usually move around. It is absolutely fascinating to experience that.