HARD | SOFT

aka. I have a zoom call during your at-home workout

2021 | MIT SA+P | critic: Zain Karsan

PROLOGUE.

2021 found me living in a space shared by multiple bodies.

I wake to the sound of the microwave beeping in the morning. To the burble of coffee on the stove. To the sounds of hard soles on creaky floorboards down the hall. It is a beautiful distraction, an unmistakable exaggeration as our simultaneous zoom meetings echo in a strangely satisfying chorus.

Tuesday morning 8:45am, tiny-z, designed by Zain Karsan

INTRODUCTION.

It all started with a drag knife and a vacuum.

The white noise of the compact shop-vac drowning out the laughter of the park next-door as it suctioned down a soft surface, flat and ready to be cut.

BACKSTORY.

The sharp coordination and cutting of the machine in service of softness - both physically and acoustically.

The felt that was cut on the small bed was then layered and soaked in glue to test acoustic, tactile, and structural potentials.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

A parametric model sketched out varying undulations in response to the myriad of decibel conditions.

A dance-off on the basketball court one day, a room-mate dinner party in our kitchen the next.

Sifting through the strange auditory realities, averages were selected, curated, and combined to control the slump and sharpness of the wall.

study models, testing cut and glue methods and techniques

PLOT.

Very much site specific, during a time when home was both office and bar and gym and library and club, HARD-SOFT was guided by quiet and clean in-house fabrication. It sought to build a playful noise-dampening hanging to reduce audio overlap during the zoom-boom of the pandemic. 

Using an at-home CNC, a drag knife, a vacuum table, and glue, HARD-SOFT was born. An acoustic wall designed to respond to the coffee-grinder, sink disposal, and park barbecue decibels of the space.

Its hardened glue ridges supporting areas of density for acoustic dampening, while loose layered areas flutter in the breeze.

A gentle hand passes over it on the way to the door. Raised voices from a heated meeting down the hall sink into it while slippered feet do the same.

building the installation - at home fabrication methods: (left) glue saturation (right) cutting of felt on tiny-z

decibel iterations: (left) amaretto sours in the living room, (middle) morning coffee grinding, (right) barbecue in the park