A SCIENCE INFORMED SYNTHESIZER
A music instrument designed for flow, creativity and inspiration
CLIENT:
PARTNERS:
Da House
Kia, UCL Experimental Lab, Wave
RESEARCH TRANSLATION
ITERATIVE TESTING
WORKSHOPS
CHALLENGE
A sonic logo to represent their brand strategy: Movement Inspires
Build an original musical instrument to base a series of sonic campaigns, which uses the proven neuroscience of music and human health to unlock inspiration and creativity in the listener, the first of which was it create a sonic logo.
CREATIVE CONCEPT
A synthesiser created from the sound of nature's own movement, pink noise.
We worked with Da House to embed the science of and record the sounds of pink noise, a frequency in nature found to increase relaxation - running water, rain and rustling of leaves. These healing field recordings were taken from the Amazon Jungle to build a new synthesiser by legendary maker Arthur Joly, with a new sonic logo composed from it.
EXECUTION
A Science-Informed Design process with neuroscience partnerships & testing
Our Science-Informed Design process translated Neuroaesthetics research of harmonic structures into the design process. This informed the composition of the sonic logo, created from a new Kia instrument - a custom synth using nature’s pink noise. We led a collaboration with UCL to measure impact on listeners using EEG, HRV and behavioural data. This both validated and informed creative iteration for maximum impact of final designs.
Our world is filled with pink noise to combat the negative impact of sound pollution. This naturally occuring frequency is found in rain, rusting leaves and wind, increasing alpha waves in the brain to help relaxation, creativity, flow states and restore attention.
By building the science of pink noise into this campaign, we ensured the sonic creations were supporting listener wellbeing, and reversing the effect of negative man made sounds. Creating an instrument that plays pink noise as its base synth note, allowed a range of artists to compose soundscapes that can have a positive impact.
Our partnership with UCL Experimental Psychology measured the brain and body responses of the synth and sonic logos on audiences which validated the designs and supported final creative decision making.
Sounds from the custom synth, created by the legendary Arthur Joly, were used across the campaign in physical, digital, social and product touchpoints. A documentary was produced to help educate on the power of sound to alleviate the damaging effects of city noise and improve wellbeing, and an album was made with the first AI DJ wave.
Informing the creative through neuroscience, then testing it’s impact provided the most effective campaign output used across multiple touchpoints.