Ohio design students bring beauty to sound effects with Foley instruments

Charismatic objects that squeak, rumble and clang were produced by industrial design students at Ohio State University who took a weeklong dive into the cinematic art of Foley.

A hand-cranked cylinder that rattles like a moving train and a pair of minimalist capsules that simulate the clattering of a clunky machine are among the instruments created by the students to produce realistic sound effects.

The objects are the outcome of an annual charrette – a week-long intensive design workshop the course organisers run at the start of the university year, based around a theme that is not commonly considered in industrial design.

This year, the organisers challenged the students to create an object for Foley – the process of making physical sound effects for films.

The university's industrial design coordinator Amanda Huynh said her team arrived at the subject after seeing videos of Disney sound effects artists working with beautiful objects.

They also wanted to recognise the importance of sound design in products, with sound informing the user about an appliance's functioning.

"It's this growing field in design where we're listening for confirmation, we're listening for things going wrong," Huynh told Dezeen. "We really take sound design for granted, but when it doesn't work, it's really horrible."

The students were given an introduction to the field by a guest speaker – product and sound designer Eddie Gandelman – and then put into small groups to work on one of four short animated video clips with the sound stripped out.

They were encouraged to work with found materials and to think about their object's aesthetic appeal as well as its sonic qualities, with prizes to be won for most accurate sound representation, most charismatic object, most deceptive object and the jurors' selection.

The overall winner – a pizza pan on skateboard wheels with a wok lid that circles a cardboard boundary – was intended to soundtrack a music video clip of a character staring out the window of a moving train.

According to Huynh, the designers achieved an incredibly high level of verisimilitude, with the rolling wheels echoing through the metal lid to create the sound of the train. Tapping on the lid gives an added carriage rattle.

"It was so accurate because it was muted," said Huynh. "It didn't sound like you were outside the train; it was muted like you were inside the train."

Also intended to create Foley for a train is a hand-cranked teal drum sweeping over a brush. A fabric flap over the top helps to give the sound of the wind whooshing past, while a tin down below is filled with broken ceramic objects that simulate bumping luggage.

Another team created two smooth-looking painted capsules, capable of making thumping and creaking sounds to accompany the magical castle from Howl's Moving Castle walking up a hill.

The orange capsule contains a weight that thuds when turned, while a light blue capsule holds a cut-up Red Bull can that makes a mechanical scraping sound as its lid is lifted.

A cardboard drum in two halves creates a two-part sound effect for a clip from the movie Ice Age, where a rodent tries to push an acorn through ice, making it crack.

First the two halves are rubbed together to make a squeaking sound, then pulled apart so one person can blow into a crushed-up plastic bottle contained within the contraption. This creates the crack of the ice.

A sculptural xylophone-like object also makes an ice-cracking sound, while a shadowbox containing various objects creats the noises of SpongeBob SquarePants being drawn with squeaky markers and then springing to life.

Huynh said that the annual charrette – with previous themes including cocktails and fashion – helps the students to step outside their comfort zones, learn new skills, think creatively and get warmed up for a new school year.

The students were put into groups that spanned course years so most of them didn't know each other and took on a challenge that was a total surprise to them.

"It's something that stretches their imagination on what design can do and what industrial design can address," she said.

Sound artist and designer Yuri Suzuki has previously also argued for the increasing importance of sound design in an interview in Dezeen, saying that the coronavirus pandemic had made us more aware of uncomfortable noises in the home.

Project credits:

Charrette organisers: Professor Amanda Huynh, Professor William Nickley, Professor Sébastien Proulx
Students:
Skateboard pan: Emily Straughn, Paul Goss, Kelly Chen
Hand-cranked drum: Jude Gill, Chipper Orban, Grace Kim
Walking machine: Erin Shaw, Aliina Lange, Sophia Foster
Squeaking drum: Eason Chen, Cheyann Clingerman, Jack Low
Cracking object: Harrison Dodd, Kora Lilly, Ariela Broussi-Raich
Shadowbox: Peter Maczuzak, Lea Sokol, Cynthia Rivera-Peralta

The photography is by William Nickley.

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