Colette Aliman

Department: Contextual Design
Website: colettealiman.com

The Mechaphony

What: Devices for a ‘sonic recalibration lab’ that help us re-engage with the sounds around us, so we are better able to deal with them.

Why: The birth of the Industrial Revolution and the resulting machines and devices spawned a whole soundscape of what we currently classify as noise. Colette Aliman calls this the ‘Mechaphony’. We use decibels to measure sound, but the focus is only on one aspect: the noise level. This creates an inherent negative bias in our perception.

How: Two ceramic interfaces access the Mechaphony database, transforming the sounds and our relationship to them to create a more positive response to our daily aural input.

“Now is the time to recalibrate our relation to our sonic environment”