Projects

Unconsciously Biased by claire sokell thompson

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Are you unconsciously biased? Last week Campaign Underground challenged delegates to explore and confront their own Unconscious Bias. We designed three sensory experiences to explore unconscious bias through voice, music and smell. Click here for more information on workshops and Unconscious Bias and The Senses.

Wizard of Oz style, we asked everyone to listen to the voice behind a curtain and answer a live survey about their perceptions and assumptions about age, class, intelligence, job, sexuality, status, wealth, education, ethnicity and behaviours. How do you feel about the person: would you hire, work for, date, become a friend of the person based on their voice?

We're fascinated with the results and want to extend the conversation outside the conference. Vetyver Voices #vetyvervoices is a campaign to collect, share and listen to voices and provide a platform to explore and discuss the assumptions and value judgements we make without realising. Visit www.vetyver.co.uk/vetyvervoices to record share your voice and join the conversation. 

 

 

IKEA: Sensory Eating by claire sokell thompson

Vetyver are delighted to be running a series of workshops for IKEA as part of the The Dining Club, a pop-up event taking place in London in September.

We will join the likes of Great British Bake off winner Edd Kimber, food blogger Pixie Turner and Instagram hits symmetry breakfast in presenting a series of masterclasses.

Our sensory eating workshop is an introduction multi-sensory thinking and design with a focus on practical demonstrations and advice for getting maximum enjoyment from food and eating at home.

We will guide you though a number of multi-sensory scenes and demonstrate how light, scent, colour, sounds, culture and storytelling all affect how we taste and experience our food. It’s a hands-on affair with lots of opportunity to get stuck in. Learn how to create the best environment in your home and get maximum enjoyment from your mealtimes. 

Three workshops are open to the public and ticket availability can be found here.

Availability is limited, so we will be following up our sessions with a series of blog posts addressing some of the ideas we cover in the workshops.

The Dining Club by IKEA

From Saturday the 10th to Sunday the 25th of September, IKEA is inviting kitchen novices, wannabe-cooks and fine-diners alike, The Dining Club by IKEA is a DIY pop-up restaurant where you're the chef. Featuring an IKEA cafe serving Swedish delicacies, inspiring workshops, a virtual reality kitchen and a unique shop so you can take home a piece of the experience. budding foodies who score a spot at the Shoreditch-based club will be able to prepare, cook and serve a meal for up to 20 of their friends, with all food, drink and even waiting staff provided by the retailer.

ACTIVE MINDS: Scentscapes by claire sokell thompson

 

Active Minds develop activity products to assist people with dementia. The newest product is Scentscapes, a series of kits with sounds and smells designed to spark conversation, encourage relaxation and evoke pleasant memories. Vetyver were commissioned by Active Minds to create the soundscapes for the product.

Hearing and smell are the last senses able to engage people living with dementia. As dementia progresses it becomes more and more difficult to relate to the world around in a meaningful way. The power of soundscapes to conjure memories of the past is incredible, particularly when paired with scent. The combination can instantly transport people, stimulating memories and conversation that would otherwise have been difficult to reach.

The trick to creating genuinely transportative, evocative soundscapes is authenticity. The challenge here was that the world we we are recreating is one lost to history and largely undocumented. The world of domestic everyday situations from the 1950s and 1960s was an acoustic world devoid of mobile phones, computers and air traffic congestion. The materials used to make everyday products have in many cases changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Put simply, life sounded different. We strived at every opportunity to use equipment which was to authentic to the era. We achieved this through careful and close listening of our recording environments and by using authentic props and equipment. In order to achieve control and authenticity, all of the soundscape elements were recorded separately.

We paid careful attention during editing to ensure each soundscape was authentic and specific to a given situation, yet open enough to coax memories from the huge variety of the listeners' lived experiences. We think of the soundscapes as a blank canvas onto which the listener can project their own memories.

The other thing we had to consider is the way in which people with dementia listen to, and understand the world around them. The pace of the soundscapes is gentle and moves slowly to allow listeners to adapt and find their place within the accessible and resonant storylines. Active Minds worked in very in close collaboration with care homes in the development of the product and we benefited from extensive feedback during the editing process from the people who would eventually be using the product. This was very important to us and it is a privilege to work with a team so dedicated to creating a product which works and will truly make a difference to people’s lives.

A sample of some of our work can be heard on the player above.

Both the ‘At Home’ and ‘In the Garden’ Scentscapes can be purchased here. ‘The Tool Shed’, ‘In The Garden’, ‘At The Seaside' and 'Trains' coming soon.

Active Minds have put together a fantastic video with some more information on the project. Watch it here and take a look at the their other work an products here

Vetyver also composed and produced bespoke branded music for Active Minds which was used in the final mix.

To speak to vetyver about your project please get in contact, we’d love to talk. feel@vetyver.co.uk

 

 


 

ORANGE: Audio Branding guidelines by claire sokell thompson

At Orange, we developed Worldwide Audio Branding guidelines. This began with a worldwide multi-channel Sonic Audit, exploring how the brand sounded across retail, IVR menus, digital interfaces and handsets as well as advertising and communications - worldwide.

Once we had established how the brand was actually sounding we addressed key issues such as:

  • Should the brand have a sonic mnemonic?

  • What voice / voices are right for the brand? Should it be a recognisable or famous voice?

  • What music is right for the brand? What is the sonic palette? What is the requirement for functional sounds? How should they sound?

  • How should sound work across channels? How different should that be in different countries?

  • How can it be used to support storytelling and the brand narrative?

  • What are the possibilities of sound We developed a worldwide audio strategy for the brand and then progressed to defining how the brand should sound.

We explored how the Orange brand values translate into music, voice and sound, establishing a sonic palette with instruments, soundscapes, music samples and some composed music. We also developed a set of guidelines to accompany the sonic moodboard, enabling worldwide agencies choose and compose appropriate music for the brand. The aim was to provide some guidance on how the values translate into sound whilst allowing for the innate creativity and innovation at the heart of the brand.


The final phase of the project was to compose some audio assets including a full set of functional sounds.

 

To find out more about Sonic Strategy and Audio Branding please get in contact, we’d love to talk. feel@vetyver.co.uk

 

ROUNDHOUSE: Synes by claire sokell thompson

Vetyver collaborated with Nick Ryan, The London Contemprary Orchestra and Quayola & Sinigaglia to create a truly multi-sensory performance for Imogen Heap's Reverb Festival at The Roudhouse.

Nick Ryan, musician and audio specialist, is well known for his work across the fields of film, animation, TV, interactive and is at the forefront of technology and sound design. Nick experiences ‘Sound-to-colour Synesthesia or ‘Chromesthesia’, where sounds involuntarily evoke an experience of colour in his imagination.

This has had a huge influence on his work as a composer and in his piece “Synes", where he worked with us and  visual artists Quayola & Sinigaglia to explore his synesthesia. The music was performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra and transformed into a multi-sensory experience with live visuals and environmental scents.

We were invited to consider how the sense of smell contributes to both the creative composition process and the final performance, working with Nick to explore this sensory stimulus and push the boundaries of what constitutes an multi-sensory experience. Through a series of consultations and workshops, scents were developed to inspire Nick and the musicians during the composition process and to be used as part of the live performance.

Scenting performance on a large scale has always been problematic and we designed custom-build technology to achieve something really effective that makes use of The Roundhouse’s unique space. It enabled the possibility of scoring the performance so different smells work at different points in the performance in sync with the music and visual scores.

PERONI: Profumo di Roma by claire sokell thompson

Vetyver worked with Odette Toilette to create soundscapes for a multi-sensory event at the house of Peroni House.

We travelled to Rome to record create bespoke soundscapes edited into a audio walk through 1960s rome which we’re paired with scents for truly immersive experience before Odette spoke about the history of ancient perfume and gave people the opportunity to create their own bespoke solid perfume to take home.

GUYS & ST THOMAS': sensory impact by claire sokell thompson

GSTT Cancer Care under construction

Considering the sensory environment within a hospital is a critical part of experience and engaging the senses has an important role to play in the recovery process. We are working with Guy's and St Thomas' Trust, the Dimbleby Centre, staff, patients and families to research and audit the sensory impact of cancer care and hospital environments. We were commissioned to research the impact of the senses within a hospital and develop creative concepts for a contemplation room and for sensory interventions and installations throughout the unit to improve the environment, care and experience.

To find out more about Sensory in Healthcare email feels@vetyver.co.uk 

FOYLES: Multi-sensory exhibition by claire sokell thompson

We were commissioned by Future City to collaboarate with Jason Marks and Timorous Beasties to create a multi-sensory exhibition for Foyles Gallery.  

We love Jason's work described beautifully by Caroline Roux in How To Spend It http://howtospendit.ft.com/art/334-breaking-the-mould

HENDRICKS: The great phantasmagorical excursion by claire sokell thompson

The world's most spectacular top hat

The world's most spectacular top hat

Experience being the first fish to traverse the celestial cosmos (and other stories). Brilliantly scripted, this crazy concept campaign goes from bar events to digital campaign. We collaborated with Gravity Thinking to create a playful, disorientating sonic brand experience. A great examples of sensory branding including theatre, tone of voice, audio, visual and experiential. Great client, great brand. Now up for Yellow Pencil Design Award. *crosses fingers*

FOYLES: An ode to A Rebours by claire sokell thompson

Vetyver collaborate with leading artists to create a multi-sensory exhibition Shaun LeaneTimorous BeastiesFabien CappelloTom PriceStudio GlitheroStudio Swine, Jason Marks,Leigh CameronEmma Yeo, Peter Saville for Dovecot Studios and Alice Cicolini.

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