FAH academics presents “Soundscape: A Creative Approach to Environmental Sound and Al” workshop in Thailand
FAH academics presents "Soundscape: A Creative Approach to Environmental Sound and Al” workshop in Thailand
13
Apr
13/04/2023
Professor Gerald Estadieu, Researcher Yin Yan Cheung, and Prof. Sandra Ng from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities presented their research work and conducted a creative workshop at the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok, Thailand.
On 30 March 2023, Professor Gerald Estadieu, Researcher Yin Yan Cheung, and Prof. Sandra Ng Ka Man from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), University of Saint Joseph Macao (USJ), presented their current research work and conducted a creative workshop at the Media Arts programme, School of Architecture and Design at the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok, Thailand. KMUTT is one of Thailand’s leading science and technology universities and one of nine national research universities.
The “AI-based Multimodal Qualitative Mapping of Macau Soundscape” research project is funded by the Macau Government’s Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT, Project Code 0026/2020/A1). It aims to create an embedded Artificial Intelligence system to analyse environmental sound and offer an understanding of the city soundscape evolution. Hundreds of hours of recording were done and analysed in Macao. Many more recordings were done in Europe: this time, the research team has done recordings in Bangkok and Hua Hin. Interesting sound elements include public transportation, traffic lights, local stores, nature sound elements, etc. The project presentation also included several previous projects related to artificial intelligence, generated arts, and virtual environments.
This workshop is part of an ongoing academic exchange hosted by Professor Jung-Chul Hur at KMUTT and a visiting academic at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, USJ.
Professor Estadieu and Researcher Cheung’s creative workshop is also a collaboration as part of Prof. Hur’s “Creative Thinking” course at KMUTT. Professor Chakrapipat Assawaboonyalert at KMUTT also participated and contributed to this meaningful academic event.
During the “Soundscape: A Creative Approach to Environmental Sound and Al” workshop, fragments of audio tracks from Macao were played to about 80 students from the Animation major and Graphics Design major of the Media Arts programme. They were instructed to listen for 5 minutes for each piece, imagine an environment, and sketch accordingly. Results are inspirational because non-local people can lead to entirely different scenarios without being in the actual environment. Students were excited to listen to different sounds and curious about the project.
This soundscape workshop has encouraged students to create visual art pieces based only on sound, without a directive from images. The finalised art creations from the Media Arts, KMUTT students will be selected and exhibited later at USJ. The workshop team is considering more future collaborations and experimental workshops to explore soundscape-based creativity.
