Architecture of Subtraction was the thesis of architect Karmen Franinovic at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. Franinovic developed a collection of projects to explore ways that technologically-enhanced interaction between humans and environment can impact our perception of place and social interaction in cities, with the goal of engendering "experiences of subtraction" in the midst of the fast-moving urban flow.

The Recycled Soundscape project (shown at left) was designed as a system through which to explore the auditory aspects of experience in the city, while offering relief through sound and relational design. The project, subtitled 'Sonic Relaxation and Play in the City,' consists of 'a set of kinetic, human-scale interfaces' which seek to facilitate reflective activity in the public sphere. Engaged in diversions and concentrations of attention within the sonic context of a specific location, people are invited to augment, modify and perform acoustic landscapes by playing with surrounding sounds, tuning the composition of a sonic environment, and listening to/recording noises (human, natural, machine, electronic) that are otherwise difficult to take notice of. The result is 'an interactive system for public orchestration of an urban sound ecology' where anyone can transform the existing sonic characteristics of a place over time, recomposing its 'evolving memory in sound'.

more on Recycled Soundscape >

Karmen Franinovic >