NAÏVE °2 is a wearable and tactile audio installation that explores the impact of the physicality of sound on the body through processes of embodied listening. It is one of the artistic outcomes of an interdisciplinary practice-led research project entitled NAÏVE, which investigates the abstract concepts of dis-placement and integration as general themes in the context of the perpetual social and architectural transformations in urban spaces. In an attempt to challenge the limits of urban structures, NAÏVE creates fictional audio scenarios that immerse the aural urban fabric with the sounds of sea/ocean water. 

NAÏVE °2 consists of a felt hat with integrated DC motors that plays a specially designed audio piece, which is composed of field recordings of the sea and low-frequency sounds. The motors are connected to an amplifier and located in the hat’s pocket, which is positioned to touch the wearer’s neck. Through bone conduction, the listener’s body can become an organic resonator that allows one to perceive sound as coming from within the body. Utilizing the neck as a sensitive area to touch, NAÏVE °2 explores the threshold between the physical states of pleasure and pain. For the audio component, NAÏVE °2 explores the coexistence of collected field recordings from the sea with computer-generated pure low-frequency sine wave sounds. These low-frequency soundwaves partially corresponded with Alpha (7 to 13Hz) and Beta (13 to 30Hz) brainwaves, which can be experienced as vibrations because they are below the lower limit of audibility (approx. 20 Hz). Due to the high vibrational quality of both types of sounds, the listener can be immersed in a powerful embodied listening experience. 

This work was presented as part of the course Audible Topographies (2007) at Concordia University, Montreal (CA), and at Dorkbot Paris #7 at the festival Les Mondes Hors Pistes at Galerie Agnès B., Paris (FR). 

Credits
Photography: Julien Dorra
Image/video license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Special thanks to: Martin Peach, Julien Dorra
Venues: Concordia University, Montreal, Canada & Agnès B., Paris, France