🎧 Soundscapes for Human Health: A Nature x AI collab
Noisy City, by Nicolai Berntsen
Summary:
Swell provides users with AI-generated sound journeys set in a place of natural beauty determined by the user.
Using field recordings and the most recent scientific research on Sound and human health, it provides a potential remedy to the busy and noisy work life of many today.
The Problem
On the cultural horizon, by 2050, the UN expects 68% of the world to be living in urban communities and all Western countries to be over the 85% threshold. In this urbanising world, we...
1. Experience diminishing connection to nature
The value of nature connection is widespread, directly impacting reported life satisfaction and well-being, alongside improved cognitive and physical health. It is also held as a key factor in the future of conservation. Studies suggest that during periods of feelings of nature connection, we are more likely to act responsibly.
2. Spend more of our lives surrounded by noise pollution
Quite the opposite, noise pollution has been shown to have a negative influence on our physical and mental health.
Bringing the technological horizon into view, we see the additional complication of exponential technologies driving…
3. The commodification of our attention
Using increasingly sophisticated technologies, based upon increasingly in-depth research into the emotional, psychological and neurological functioning of humanity, emerging technologies are vying for our attention.
4. Increasing conflict between ‘creatives and AI’
Generative AI, which often has been trained on artistic output from humans, is replicating the creative act of artists. This has left many of them – be they filmmakers, writers, musicians or artists – fearing their future value.
The Scape
Imagine in the not-so-distant future, public discourse around re-establishing nature connection, mitigating noise pollution and re-claiming attention faculties are far more commonplace. So much so that your workspace has invested in a Swell Works corner.
Sat at the intersection of Sound and Wellbeing, Swell has been one of the first to innovate on how modern technologies could be used to help re-harmonise the ancient relationship between human health and sound.
Set up in a room, booth or quiet corner (along with seating, audio and lighting settings modified by your company), Swell Works offers rest bite within your daily schedule. The experience begins with you determining how long you want to spend in this soundscape, its general energy and which natural environment you would like to be transported to.
You decide to choose the barren hills of the Brecon Beacon, Wales.
Your soundscape begins there, with birdsong and winds recorded only last year at 48khz WAV. What follows is a unique, AI-generated sound journey designed to relax and focus the mind. Losing track of time, the journey brings you back to the Brecon Beacons – now lightly raining – before coming to a close. Maybe tomorrow you'll visit the beaches of Cape Verde instead.
Located at the end of the office hall, the Swell space offers a unique opportunity in an otherwise crammed work life. An invitation to seamlessly re-attune to the sounds of nature.
As studies have documented, natural sounds play an important role in establishing healthy mood, emotion and stress levels. Similarly, they impact physiology, lowering your heart rate and boosting Alpha Brainwaves. Boosting creativity and reducing anxiety, Alpha Brainwaves are strongly linked to both Stress Recovery Theory and Attention Restoration Theory.
And this is the second invitation: to practice patient listening. Similar to Deep Listening, patient listening provides you with both the object of attention – the soundscape – and the meditative setting – the lack of distraction. Unlike the rest of your listening activities – either to music or people – constantly interspersed by notifications from your phone or nudges from a friend, this time is cornered off as a moment to return to a state of mental flow.
As Swell's pioneering Founder and musician, Brian D'Souza (also known as Auntie Flo) ponders...
"We are all time-poor, but how we experience time within each moment can be markedly different across experiences. Can we better control time perception by developing patience?"
To deliver unique, part customisable sound journeys, Swell partners with MIMIC. An innovative AI project founded by a team at the South London University of Arts, and funded by a UK Government innovation grant of £1m, MIMIC develops open-sourced music machine-learning technologies specifically aimed at democratising and disseminating the powers of AI to enhance creativity.
Reacting to the increasingly controversial debate surrounding AI vs creatives, MIMIC identified one key problem being the inaccessibility of these technologies. The highly technical skills required to use most generative technologies creatively proved a barrier to entry for most people. MIMIC has removed this barrier.
Creating usable tools, it now offers the opportunity for artists to harmonise with AI's capabilities, producing ever-more creative output. Swell has been the earliest demonstration of the power of this model.
Downstream Value Creation
Improving the work and the well-being of those of us who go to work in urban environments, Swell Works has quietly shifted the daily routine:
Accessible opportunities for nature connection
In our busy work schedules, Swell has offered a brief mental escape into nature.
A space cornered off for patient listening
In our attention-sapped minds, Swell has brought a moment to recapture and restore our attention capabilities.
Improved well-being and health
Directly improving physical and mental health, Swell’s provides an easy and restorative practice for working individuals.
A new model for creatives and AI to harmonise
Working with MIMIC, the Swell technologies and their pioneer showcase a novel route for artists in the age of AI.
For Digging Deeper…
A study conducted by Swell in partnership with Goldsmith University and Kinda Studios. It found the Swell Sound Technology to have considerable impact on brain activity and heart rate.
An article written by Swell founder on the meaning and value of patient listening.
A study detailing the loss of nature connection in urban contexts.
An innovative AI project looking democratise the capabilities of machine learning in music creation.
