Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sonic Conversations and films

It was designed to repel teenagers gathering outside shop fronts.

The mosquito emitted a high frequency noise only audible to teenagers.

However shop owners had not anticipated the black lash and the civil rights implications some youth groups would raise.

But then some youngster got wise and transformed the noise into a ring tone.

And the ring tone is not only a device to thwart teachers but also keep one step ahead of parents and the police.

Just one of the things discussed in a session today on sound crafting at the Smart Lab which included a fascinating talk around sound war fare and sonic water cannons.

The latter sees how you can send a stream of narrow audible sound, even subliminal messages so unless you're standing in an exact particular spot, you'll hear nowt.

Tomorrow we'll be down at the Dana centre, part of the science museum, looking at citizen film makers.

They'll be speakers on avatar-characters, collaborative film making and mobile phone features.

The questions have been asked before, but we've moved on a bit, so could this new discourse in film ever challenge the status quo.

How much is this new quantum in film making innovation over substance and is it only the preserve of niche audiences?

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