Madeleine Granland

Seeing sounds – Echolocation

The braille wall at the National Museum of Australia is a symbolic gesture towards considering visual impairment, without setting any real foundations for finding meaning. Building on this symbolism I have intended to compliment and then complexify these ideas by building on research into human echolocation and how this may get lost within ‘everyday’ (ambient) noises.

I have designed an evolving building – constructed of seven different materials – that will reflect and absorb sounds in different ways. An abstracted sound representation of clicking noises used for echolocation will be repeated within the space. The aim is to confuse the audience through varying sounds. It is also an aim to draw awareness to the significance and difficulty of echolocation. While the sounds that are produced in this installation don’t convey any real echolocation meanings, it is hoped that the audience will struggle to distinguish the difference between muffled voices and ambient noise to that of the clicking. Hopefully, drawing their attention not only to reverberation of certain materials, but also the impact of everyday noise and how hard it can be to distinguish intentional sounds from unintentional.