Overhearing: An Attuning Approach to Noise in Danish Hospitals

Abstract

Nurses working in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Aarhus University Hospital lack the tools to prepare children for the alarming atmosphere they will enter when visiting a hospitalised relative. The complex soundscape dominated by alarms and sounds from equipment is mentioned as the main stressor. As a response to this situation, our design artefact, the interactive furniture Kidkit, invites children to become accustomed to the alarming sounds sampled from the ward while they are waiting in the waiting room. Our design acknowledges how atmospheres emerge as temporal negotiations between the rhythms of the body and the environment in conjunction with our internalised perception of the habituated background. By actively controlling the sounds built into Kidkit, the child can habituate them through a process of synchronising them with her own bodily rhythms. Hereby the child can establish, in advance, a familiar relationship with the alarming sounds in the ward, enabling her to focus later more on the visit with the relative. The article discusses the proposed design strategy behind this solution and the potentiality for its use in hospital environments in general.

To Move, to Touch, to Listen: Multisensory Aspects of the Digital Reading Condition

“…The atmosphere of a space is something that can affect us when we step into a certain physical room, for instance a church, a museum or a bar. The concept of atmosphere relates to the notion of attunement, which has gained great popularity within sound studies (Højlund 2017;Thibeaud 2017), and describes the ways in which we engage with, gain knowledge from or otherwise tune into and pay attention to sounding environments. The affective dimension of attuning to an aesthetic atmosphere is difficult to articulate analytically, but nevertheless remains part of the overall reading situation and its "moods."…”

Kirke, opera og stormoske: Retskulturelle overvejelser over monumentalarkitektur

“…Peter Højlund skriver at de sikkerhedsforanstaltninger, som frygten giver anledning til, 'omstrukturerer det fysiske rum arkitektonisk, teknologisk og juridisk.' 41 Han diskuterer eksempler på konsekvenser af 'frygtens ret', bl.a. de såkaldte visitationszoner, der som hovedregel etableres i større byer, hvor der fx afholdes koncerter og større møder; den såkaldte 'lømmelpakke', der som navnet antyder også retter sig imod unge, og som giver politiet ret til at anholde politiske demonstranter administrativt (som ved COP 15 demonstrationerne i december 2009); og ikke mindst udlaendingelovgivningen og dens hyppige aendringer.…”

“…I afslutningen skriver han, at han ikke argumenterer for mere jura, men at hans indvending går på "at den demokratiske retskultur fortraenges og erstattes af et miskmask af uigennemskuelige styringsformer med økonomisk ressourceregulering som dynamo, og at lovgivningen forstået som en kompliceret tekst til brug for velfungerende samfundsinstitutioner, ikke laengere har politisk interesse som sådan." 42 Peter Højlund skriver efter min vurdering primaert om det som Lawrence Friedman kalder den interne retskultur eller professionskulturen, som dog i denne udviklingsproces spiller taet sammen med en folkelig -og frygtsom -majoritetsretskultur.…”

Sound Zone Interaction in Homes: Studying and Designing for Modification of Personal Soundscapes

“…These strategies can be used in combination with each other to improve a soundscape [27]. In a similar distinction, Højlund [62] proposes that 'insulation strategies' that focus on general noise reduction can be expanded with a human-centred approach by focusing on subjective experiences of particular sounds.…”