you know what let’s try that one more
time sorry but you know what I don’t
think it’s right let me just do that
[Music]
feels pretty cool hi and thanks for
having me here today but I have to admit
something before we get started it’s
gonna define our relationship moving
forward I have superpowers
that was shape-shifting but we’ll get
back to that in a minute I also dabble
in time travel predicting the future
immortality and invisibility and you’re
probably thinking and you’re probably
wondering well prove it right well what
if I could do one better what if I could
share them with you listen closely
I’ll only reveal this once and you’ll be
able to take these secrets and
immediately transform your life and the
way you work so that entrance was weird
right how I got into your mind a little
bit made you perceive me and my talk
differently just by changing the music
we might not even speak the same
language yet I was able to tell you
something about me better yet make you
feel something and that’s the power of
sound sound provides emotional context
and it guides you on how to feel and I
believe shape-shifting is a superpower
of sound that ability to change
perception and experience just by
changing the emotional context let’s try
something how many of you today have
used a form of augmented reality raise
your hand okay a few how many of you
today woke up to an alarm or listened to
music on their way here raise your hand
okay
quite a few more of you now do you go do
you understand where I’m headed if
you’ve woke up to a
onde on your alarm or listen to your
favorite playlist when you’re on the go
you’ve actually used AR and in fact we
augment our realities every day we shift
them most notably with music and sound
and this tension between something old
that we’ve been doing for hundreds if
not thousands of years and the new these
discussions around augmented reality or
new technologies is fascinating to me I
study culture in trends and try to
understand how that fits in with music
and sound and how people consume music
and sound so it was a personal aha
moment for me when I realized wait we
already have all the know-how we need to
create and augment great experiences
because our life experience with sound
is a transferable skill even for a non
musician like me now I can’t transform
myself into a music virtuoso but I can
transform my mood and my environment
simply by changing the sound so time
travel was the first power I discovered
and it’s probably my favorite and it’s
more common than you may think the fuel
is a powerful emotional connection one
that’s implanted in your initial memory
and then recalled later in life my
favorite example of this happened a few
years ago and actually it was caught on
video the background story that I
understand a boy and his mother were
living in the Congo at the time and they
were shopping in a Chinese grocery store
and the mom heard a song playing
overhead that she really liked and she
tried to talk to the shop owner about it
and he gave her the tape of the song so
she brought it home and would listen to
it all the time singing along even
though it was a different language they
didn’t know anything about it but the
boy came to associate that song with his
mother a few years later they moved to
South Africa and unfortunately the tape
was lost and sadly his mother passed
away a few years later so he was
heartbroken that he had lost the song
that connected him to his mother when he
got older he became a cab driver and
remembering he first heard
in that Chinese grocery store would
often hum it whenever an Asian person
got in his cab hoping that they would
know this song and he did that for
nearly 20 years but no one ever knew it
until one day a Taiwanese couple got
into the cab and they knew it
immediately and here’s a little video of
what happened
it’s really emotional that’s okay don’t
worry it’s on YouTube just google it but
it’s a powerful moment of a man who
doesn’t even understand the language but
crying and reconnecting with this song
that was the memory trigger that brought
him back to his mother he time traveled
and music again was that memory trigger
and that memory brought with it emotion
and I believe that time travel is a
super power of sound that ability to
bring people back to the past part of an
emotional personal connection and I
think brands have gotten wise to this to
this idea of a memory trigger a lot of
brands use what we call a sonic logo or
an audio logo a sound associated with
their brand hopefully triggering you to
remember the positive experiences you
had with them so coca-cola McDonald’s
and in the United States AT&T all used
these sounds in hopes that you remember
that positive experience you had with
them invoking time travel and this
memory trigger so sound can get us into
the past but can it take us to the
future can it help us predict the future
I actually think it can if we take a cue
from cinema director George Lucas says
half of the experience of watching a
film is the sound and if you ever watch
your favorite movie with the sound off
you’ll hear why that musical score
guides us on how to feel and when to
feel it both by its musical composition
and even the volume and Tufts University
studied this actually they took film
clips replaced the musical score and
studied people’s reactions and what they
found was that viewers perceptions
changed not only did their emotion
change when the music changed but so did
their understanding of the characters
relationships as well as their
predictions of what would happen next so
that they learned from the study were
through three important things that
sound can create expectations
sound can build associations that aren’t
implicitly implied and sound can also
let you know whether a story is resolved
or not and sometimes the score can be
too impactful if you’re ever scared of a
film or watching a horror film and
feeling frightened don’t cover your eyes
actually cover your ears if you turn
down that sound you’ll turn off the
effect that it has on you so I do
believe that sound has a super power of
predicting the future
letting you know what’s about to happen
next I also but why is this like why are
we wired for this I believe its inherent
in us we don’t have to be taught I think
you just have to be human and while
there are some cultural nuances sort of
similar to visual semiotics is how I
like to think about it where for the
most part red means stop green means go
in that same way music is a universal
language we all know how it makes us
feel no matter the language and I think
even though our multi-sensory worlds are
different we share the fact that we most
often hear sound first it’s one of the
first senses that impacts us so you
could say that sound is the organizer of
our assumptions so for example imagine
being in a forest and you hear a twig
break or snap you need to immediately
know whether that was from the weight of
a bear or the weight of a squirrel and
the way that we interpret sound tells us
that story and allows us to take action
so I also believe in immortality or the
ability to live forever and what that
means for me with sound is meaning and
longevity so imagine the DHing of an
elevator as it rises to your floor or
even your Apple iPhone when it lets you
know your email has been sent you know I
get delighted whenever I hear that swish
of the paper airplane flying away but
some of you might feel a ping of regret
if you hear it before you finish typing
your message right and these audio cues
help us navigate the world they let us
know what’s going on quickly
and efficiently and I think as I look at
culture again the communication
landscape is changing you know before we
were in a very communication focused
place a one-way conversation between the
brand or the business and the consumer a
monologue of sorts but we’re definitely
in a more experienced focused world now
it’s a dialogue it’s a two-way
conversation and because brands and
businesses are looking for that
conversation they need to have meaning
they’re actually really looking for
meaning and I think they can find that
meaning through sound especially in the
next five years I really believe the
future is in sound as we break away from
screens and computers and phones things
and tools that we felt were once really
efficient made us faster and smarter
aren’t they starting and getting our way
a little bit we want to use our voice
commands we want to be doing even more
things without holding anything or
looking at a screen and I think sound
can quote unquote live forever because
it goes beyond the screen it can convey
messaging and information without you
having to look at something else so I do
believe that immortality is a super
power of sound that ability to go beyond
the screen and to convey meaning quickly
so close your eyes for a minute take a
deep breath and just listen to this room
it’s seemingly vanished or has it the
person next to you your own breath even
the buzz of electricity it’s still here
which is interesting because what
happens in this audio first future when
all visuals are stripped away actually
you can open your eyes now you know some
people would say well if visuals are
stripped away then do we lose our design
do you lose your character do you lose
your identity I think it’s important to
think about how are you going to build
or your business or your brand or your
product without visuals in the way and I
think sound can play a really important
role there too and
acta can’t enhance character when there
are no visuals to respond to I also
think it’s important to think about
sound in terms of not only where it
shows up when visuals are stripped away
but what happens when the sound itself
is stripped away and I’m getting to this
idea of an invisibility right in our
world we call this sonic white space the
area of removing sound in order to
enhance other experiencial elements and
whether it’s true silence or even
perceived silence it’s important I think
Disney theme parks does this really well
for example they’ll add bird sounds into
their bushes and landscapes so you don’t
hear the airplanes going overhead which
would break you from the magic they also
have what I would call like a palate
cleanser this these areas of calm as you
transition between different lands so
you don’t get sonic fatigue or
overwhelmed and I think as you’re
building experiences or even again
augmenting your own life these moments
of rest are important and are really
loud in noisy world so I do think that
invisibility is a super power of sound
that ability to enhance character and be
a strong design element when no visuals
are present but at the same time be an
area of calm of contrast so that there
is no chaos yeah
that’s a lot of powers actually to work
with right now so I think overall if
you’re in business you’re actually in
the business of design and experience is
now expected from consumers and everyone
so I think looking at those powers is an
interesting place to start and something
that you can even do today on your way
home or at your home the idea that sound
allows you to shape-shift or augment
your reality the idea that sound is a
memory trigger and allows you to time
travel back to some of your favorite
moments or in the case of heartbreak may
be your least favorite moments that
sound can let you predict the future
that using it strategically can let
people know
what’s going to happen next and that
sound has the power of invisibility to
again blend in be perceived silence give
you those areas of calm or potentially
represent a character or an identity in
a place where there is no screen and I
think sound has the power of immortality
to continue to live on as our technology
and communications change sound will
always be there to tell more stories so
I hope I was able to convey that the
power of sound is influential because
it’s inescapable and I hope that after
this we all hear the world a little bit
differently thank you
time sorry but you know what I don’t
think it’s right let me just do that
[Music]
feels pretty cool hi and thanks for
having me here today but I have to admit
something before we get started it’s
gonna define our relationship moving
forward I have superpowers
that was shape-shifting but we’ll get
back to that in a minute I also dabble
in time travel predicting the future
immortality and invisibility and you’re
probably thinking and you’re probably
wondering well prove it right well what
if I could do one better what if I could
share them with you listen closely
I’ll only reveal this once and you’ll be
able to take these secrets and
immediately transform your life and the
way you work so that entrance was weird
right how I got into your mind a little
bit made you perceive me and my talk
differently just by changing the music
we might not even speak the same
language yet I was able to tell you
something about me better yet make you
feel something and that’s the power of
sound sound provides emotional context
and it guides you on how to feel and I
believe shape-shifting is a superpower
of sound that ability to change
perception and experience just by
changing the emotional context let’s try
something how many of you today have
used a form of augmented reality raise
your hand okay a few how many of you
today woke up to an alarm or listened to
music on their way here raise your hand
okay
quite a few more of you now do you go do
you understand where I’m headed if
you’ve woke up to a
onde on your alarm or listen to your
favorite playlist when you’re on the go
you’ve actually used AR and in fact we
augment our realities every day we shift
them most notably with music and sound
and this tension between something old
that we’ve been doing for hundreds if
not thousands of years and the new these
discussions around augmented reality or
new technologies is fascinating to me I
study culture in trends and try to
understand how that fits in with music
and sound and how people consume music
and sound so it was a personal aha
moment for me when I realized wait we
already have all the know-how we need to
create and augment great experiences
because our life experience with sound
is a transferable skill even for a non
musician like me now I can’t transform
myself into a music virtuoso but I can
transform my mood and my environment
simply by changing the sound so time
travel was the first power I discovered
and it’s probably my favorite and it’s
more common than you may think the fuel
is a powerful emotional connection one
that’s implanted in your initial memory
and then recalled later in life my
favorite example of this happened a few
years ago and actually it was caught on
video the background story that I
understand a boy and his mother were
living in the Congo at the time and they
were shopping in a Chinese grocery store
and the mom heard a song playing
overhead that she really liked and she
tried to talk to the shop owner about it
and he gave her the tape of the song so
she brought it home and would listen to
it all the time singing along even
though it was a different language they
didn’t know anything about it but the
boy came to associate that song with his
mother a few years later they moved to
South Africa and unfortunately the tape
was lost and sadly his mother passed
away a few years later so he was
heartbroken that he had lost the song
that connected him to his mother when he
got older he became a cab driver and
remembering he first heard
in that Chinese grocery store would
often hum it whenever an Asian person
got in his cab hoping that they would
know this song and he did that for
nearly 20 years but no one ever knew it
until one day a Taiwanese couple got
into the cab and they knew it
immediately and here’s a little video of
what happened
it’s really emotional that’s okay don’t
worry it’s on YouTube just google it but
it’s a powerful moment of a man who
doesn’t even understand the language but
crying and reconnecting with this song
that was the memory trigger that brought
him back to his mother he time traveled
and music again was that memory trigger
and that memory brought with it emotion
and I believe that time travel is a
super power of sound that ability to
bring people back to the past part of an
emotional personal connection and I
think brands have gotten wise to this to
this idea of a memory trigger a lot of
brands use what we call a sonic logo or
an audio logo a sound associated with
their brand hopefully triggering you to
remember the positive experiences you
had with them so coca-cola McDonald’s
and in the United States AT&T all used
these sounds in hopes that you remember
that positive experience you had with
them invoking time travel and this
memory trigger so sound can get us into
the past but can it take us to the
future can it help us predict the future
I actually think it can if we take a cue
from cinema director George Lucas says
half of the experience of watching a
film is the sound and if you ever watch
your favorite movie with the sound off
you’ll hear why that musical score
guides us on how to feel and when to
feel it both by its musical composition
and even the volume and Tufts University
studied this actually they took film
clips replaced the musical score and
studied people’s reactions and what they
found was that viewers perceptions
changed not only did their emotion
change when the music changed but so did
their understanding of the characters
relationships as well as their
predictions of what would happen next so
that they learned from the study were
through three important things that
sound can create expectations
sound can build associations that aren’t
implicitly implied and sound can also
let you know whether a story is resolved
or not and sometimes the score can be
too impactful if you’re ever scared of a
film or watching a horror film and
feeling frightened don’t cover your eyes
actually cover your ears if you turn
down that sound you’ll turn off the
effect that it has on you so I do
believe that sound has a super power of
predicting the future
letting you know what’s about to happen
next I also but why is this like why are
we wired for this I believe its inherent
in us we don’t have to be taught I think
you just have to be human and while
there are some cultural nuances sort of
similar to visual semiotics is how I
like to think about it where for the
most part red means stop green means go
in that same way music is a universal
language we all know how it makes us
feel no matter the language and I think
even though our multi-sensory worlds are
different we share the fact that we most
often hear sound first it’s one of the
first senses that impacts us so you
could say that sound is the organizer of
our assumptions so for example imagine
being in a forest and you hear a twig
break or snap you need to immediately
know whether that was from the weight of
a bear or the weight of a squirrel and
the way that we interpret sound tells us
that story and allows us to take action
so I also believe in immortality or the
ability to live forever and what that
means for me with sound is meaning and
longevity so imagine the DHing of an
elevator as it rises to your floor or
even your Apple iPhone when it lets you
know your email has been sent you know I
get delighted whenever I hear that swish
of the paper airplane flying away but
some of you might feel a ping of regret
if you hear it before you finish typing
your message right and these audio cues
help us navigate the world they let us
know what’s going on quickly
and efficiently and I think as I look at
culture again the communication
landscape is changing you know before we
were in a very communication focused
place a one-way conversation between the
brand or the business and the consumer a
monologue of sorts but we’re definitely
in a more experienced focused world now
it’s a dialogue it’s a two-way
conversation and because brands and
businesses are looking for that
conversation they need to have meaning
they’re actually really looking for
meaning and I think they can find that
meaning through sound especially in the
next five years I really believe the
future is in sound as we break away from
screens and computers and phones things
and tools that we felt were once really
efficient made us faster and smarter
aren’t they starting and getting our way
a little bit we want to use our voice
commands we want to be doing even more
things without holding anything or
looking at a screen and I think sound
can quote unquote live forever because
it goes beyond the screen it can convey
messaging and information without you
having to look at something else so I do
believe that immortality is a super
power of sound that ability to go beyond
the screen and to convey meaning quickly
so close your eyes for a minute take a
deep breath and just listen to this room
it’s seemingly vanished or has it the
person next to you your own breath even
the buzz of electricity it’s still here
which is interesting because what
happens in this audio first future when
all visuals are stripped away actually
you can open your eyes now you know some
people would say well if visuals are
stripped away then do we lose our design
do you lose your character do you lose
your identity I think it’s important to
think about how are you going to build
or your business or your brand or your
product without visuals in the way and I
think sound can play a really important
role there too and
acta can’t enhance character when there
are no visuals to respond to I also
think it’s important to think about
sound in terms of not only where it
shows up when visuals are stripped away
but what happens when the sound itself
is stripped away and I’m getting to this
idea of an invisibility right in our
world we call this sonic white space the
area of removing sound in order to
enhance other experiencial elements and
whether it’s true silence or even
perceived silence it’s important I think
Disney theme parks does this really well
for example they’ll add bird sounds into
their bushes and landscapes so you don’t
hear the airplanes going overhead which
would break you from the magic they also
have what I would call like a palate
cleanser this these areas of calm as you
transition between different lands so
you don’t get sonic fatigue or
overwhelmed and I think as you’re
building experiences or even again
augmenting your own life these moments
of rest are important and are really
loud in noisy world so I do think that
invisibility is a super power of sound
that ability to enhance character and be
a strong design element when no visuals
are present but at the same time be an
area of calm of contrast so that there
is no chaos yeah
that’s a lot of powers actually to work
with right now so I think overall if
you’re in business you’re actually in
the business of design and experience is
now expected from consumers and everyone
so I think looking at those powers is an
interesting place to start and something
that you can even do today on your way
home or at your home the idea that sound
allows you to shape-shift or augment
your reality the idea that sound is a
memory trigger and allows you to time
travel back to some of your favorite
moments or in the case of heartbreak may
be your least favorite moments that
sound can let you predict the future
that using it strategically can let
people know
what’s going to happen next and that
sound has the power of invisibility to
again blend in be perceived silence give
you those areas of calm or potentially
represent a character or an identity in
a place where there is no screen and I
think sound has the power of immortality
to continue to live on as our technology
and communications change sound will
always be there to tell more stories so
I hope I was able to convey that the
power of sound is influential because
it’s inescapable and I hope that after
this we all hear the world a little bit
differently thank you
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