The water as a sound element, white noise

Human beings have developed a perception ability that possibly has distinguished us from the rest of the species existing on this planet. And it is through the senses, that we can create situations and experiences based on a level of sensitivity that brings us closer to the relationship with our environment. The water is essential for life in the earth, but as an element in space, it develops a different role.

In landscaping history, we understand water as a conceptual language, which is full of poetry and symbolism. Despite this, there are few episodes in which water is mentioned as a catalyst for sound. Our calm or excitement is sometimes tightly linked to the stimuli we receive from the outside. So, the way in which we listen to water makes us sense a place in a certain way. If water is continuous and peaceful, it causes peace. If the rhythm is strong and agitated, it changes the environment sense into an alert situation.

WHITE NOISE refers to a wall of sonic energy without patterns, in which a sound of aleatory character is shown, and that consists of the same intensity in all its frequencies, like the sound of the rain. If we were talking about its equivalent in the color theory, it would be summed up as what happens when all the colors in light come together, they become white.

Representation of white noise through water
Photography: Alejandro Loria

Waterfalls Fotografía
Photography: Saponier – Pixabay

In this case, using WHITE NOISE as a tool to stabilize the sound in a space, explains how sensory activity is essential to establish a dialogue with the environment, become affected according to our level of sensitivity and, given that at the moment of interpreting and modifying a space, it is essential to succeed blending in the physical goal of a project with the sensorial one.

In gardens and big cities, using the force and rhythm of the water sound to create acoustic barriers would be an important criterion to consider when designing. Nowadays, pollution is not only on what we see, it is also on what we hear.

The reason for using White Noise to establish tranquility in a space, is closely related to the sensitive qualities we have as human beings. As mammals, we come from our mother’s womb, in which we grow during months in an environment where we were already capable of perceiving sounds weeks before being born.

We need to turn back to the very beginning and realize that life started on the water. This might be the reason why we relate the water sound with the inner peace. Could be that moment when we were an embryo inside our mother’s womb, kept in our unconscious memory. Maybe it is a memory that automatically takes us back to the habitat where the sound of life became everything.

“Accepting ourselves as sensitive persons (human beings) can change our way of wanting to conceive our space, and it is in our hands how and with what we want to transform it.”

Fountains
Photography: sevenstorm-juhaszimrus – Pexel