Paris Excursion: Various Activities

This blog is the second of a two-part retrospective on the excursion that we, the first-year sound design students, took to Paris. The topic at hand is a few activities outside the scope of IRCAM that I would like to highlight for being memorable. If you are interested in some of the happenings at IRCAM, you can check out the previous blog.

Audio Guide Tour Through the Hôtel de la Marine

Firstly, I would like to mention the location-based audio guide at the Hôtel de la Marine, an eighteenth-century historic monument and museum overlooking Place de la Concorde in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It uses binaural sound technology with over-ear headphones that trigger different parts of the story depending on your location within the building. The over-ear design of the headphones worked surprisingly well, with audio quality that was noticeably higher than the usual museum experience.

The audio guide covers a significant portion of the building’s history, spanning more than two centuries. Covering all of this in just two hours occasionally made the story confusing due to the amount of information and the narration jumping between various historical moments. That said, the voice acting and audio dramas were immersive and well-produced.

One moment that particularly stood out to me was when the audio guide prompted me to look through a small opening in the wooden shutters, explaining how it had been used during the German occupation of Paris. As the story unfolded, it shifted its focus to the building across the square, mentioning a Nazi flag that once flew there before moving to the moment when the French Tricolour triumphantly took its place again. Seeing the flag flying in the same position on the building across the street was an example of how the immersion and interaction of the experience can be enriched to an even greater degree.

Philharmonie de Paris Musée de la musique

Another visit I enjoyed was to the Musée de la musique at the Philharmonie de Paris, located in the 19th arrondissement. The museum houses a large collection of instruments covering several centuries and cultures. Before entering the exhibition space, we were each given an audio guide. The highlight for me was the wide range of instruments, especially those that I could hear as audio samples through the guide. We also had the opportunity to hear a live performance featuring the erhu, sometimes referred to in the Western world as the Chinese violin.

The museum’s extensive collection felt somewhat overwhelming. We spent what felt like three to four hours there, and I still was not able to properly get through all the instruments I was interested in. I was surprised by the number of instruments catalogued in the audio guide app. I especially enjoyed learning about instruments that featured both a video demonstration and a detailed description. It is a shame that not all instruments are covered to this degree, with the level of documentation varying from highly detailed to almost nonexistent.

It was also nice to see the collection of electronic instruments, although it was somewhat sparse compared to the other periods represented in the museum. The Hammond Model A organ, Minimoog Model D, and UPIC, an interesting visual music computer invented by the avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis, stood out the most. I would also like to mention the collection of instruments featuring fantastical animals as decorative elements, such as a nineteenth-century French saxhorn with a decorative head whose tongue flails around when it is played.

We were also fortunate enough to view the reconstructed studio of the musique concrète composer Pierre Henry, which was actually closed to the public that day due to renovation. It featured several interactive modules aimed at understanding Pierre Henry’s work in a more hands-on way. My favourite was the tape machine module, which produced solid results from a simple setup.

Sound Installation at the Pleyel Footbridge

Lastly, located in Saint-Denis, a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, we visited the Pleyel Bridge, a crossing tied to the new Saint-Denis Pleyel transit hub. Here, we viewed Promenade Sonore: Vent, Soleil, Pluie by the Swiss sound artist and landscape architect Nadine Schütz. Installed on the bridge as a collaboration with the architect and engineer Marc Mimram, as well as in part with IRCAM, the work transforms the supporting structure into sculptural sound-generating instruments, each corresponding to a meteorological element. We were able to experience two of the sonic sculptures, Soleil (sun) and Vent (wind).

Soleil uses luminosity, temperature, and the time of year to evolve its soundtracks and their effects. It consists of a steel sheet supporting structure housing 24 transducers used to resonate the surface. The sculpture invites pedestrians to press their bodies against it in order to feel and hear the vibrations of the composition. This is an element I particularly enjoyed, as it adds an interactive aspect with varying and localized sonic results.

Vent, located further along the bridge, turns wind vibrations into a musical layer. Sixteen tensioned strings are stretched across the bridge arches and connected to piezoelectric microphones, which capture the vibrations caused by the wind. This installation stood out to me due to its interaction with the trains passing below, resulting in a mixture of environmental and generated sonic content.

From my perspective, the soundscapes of the bridge do not forcefully impose themselves on the passerby but rather aim to enhance the atmosphere of the space. Viewed through this lens, the installation reflects a degree of human-centred design. Human-oriented choices also appear in the architecture of the adjacent Saint-Denis Pleyel Station. Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the station incorporates fireproofed wooden beams throughout its structure, adding visual warmth while also functioning as acoustic treatment. Rather than allowing the harsh noise and reverberation commonly associated with concrete transit hubs to dominate the environment, the wooden elements help soften and regulate the interior soundscape.

While the station seeks to reduce and control some unwanted acoustic effects, the installation by Nadine Schütz takes the opposite approach by introducing new sonic elements into the environment. Together, they demonstrate how human-oriented acoustic design can be achieved either via reduction or via extension.

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