THIS is on Lost!

Jack Young “Avoiding Noise”

Sound is not noise, but noise is sound; the deciding factor is that noise is unwanted. It is a disruption in the typical, benign everyday vibrations that are part of the human experience, meaning noise can be a powerful tool.

The gradients and colors used in the background of this section are a representation of just that. They stem from a spectrogram reading, a picture showing sound frequencies of Brazil in April of 2016 during the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff was a corrupted leader who manipulated the federal budget and became extremely unpopular.

Due to her criminal activities, protests of the hundreds of thousands call for her impeachment. The large breaks of the graph shows just how intense these protests were. The people made noises both literally and politically.

As for the abstract ball-shaped renders spread throughout this section, they are Perlin noise. This is a type of gradient noise for visual effects to increase the appearance of realism in computer graphics. The renders are 3D representations of this, bringing in another definition and dimension of sound.

The background graphic of this page includes a vintage sketch of the inner ear, alluding to of course the physical part of noise and sound, the ear. The inner ear is often described as a membranous “labyrinth” because of its interconnecting series of canals, just like a maze.

The inner ear is vital to interpreting noise and sound as it is where the fluid moves in response to vibrations. It transforms sound waves into electrical impulses in order for the brain to translate them into sounds we can understand, interpret, and experience.

[CAN YOU SOLVE THE MAZE ON THE LEFT?]