May 19, 2016 Graphic Design

[Data Viz]LISTENING MAP

I chose the STARBUCKS located on 327 Lincoln Way. I visited there on the same day but at different times. My first visiting time for the listening map was 12:30 pm on JAN 31st 2015, Saturday for an hour. The second visiting was from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm on JAN 31st 2015, Saturday.

While I was staying there, there were many people inside and also lots of peoples came to buy their drinks. After I sat on beside of main entrance, then I tried to focus on the sounds with questions: Where does the sound come from? What kind of sound could I hear? How many times do I hear the sound? Can I figure out the source of the sound? When I heard some kinds of sounds, I sketched the sound source and marked on timeline. Sometimes I could not concentrate on hearing, because people who were beside me, chatted with loud voices, but it was also a good source for my listening map. There are many kinds of sounds: flushing sound, door locking sound, door closing sound, grinding sound, water sound, digital beep sound, steaming sound, step sound, music, chatting, ordering sound, the sound of ice and shaking sound.

At 8:00 pm, I had been to STARBUCKS again for project 1: Listening map. Then, the sounds that I could hear were little different than first visiting, because there are a few people inside the store. So I could focus on hearing sounds more comfortable than the afternoon. I could listen to a plastic sliding sound, one more door sound, alarm sound and sounds from the refrigerator. It was an interesting experience for me because I didn’t know that there were different sounds I could hear yet. While I was staying there, I also sketched a listening map and marked sound resources on the timeline. There are many kinds of sounds: flushing sound, door locking sound, door closing sound, grinding sound, water sound, digital beep sound, steaming sound, step sound, music, chatting, ordering sound, sound of ice, shaking sound, alarm sound, plastic sliding sound, door sliding sound, coins, paper cup sound, and refrigerator sound.

After these two observations, I started to redesign a listening map with Black and white colors by Adobe Illustrator from hand sketches. I made some icons for describing sound resources and designed a listening map, in order for people could understand and compare results between first observation and second observation easily.

2015 Spring
Iowa State University Graduate Study
Instructor: Braidwood, Alex