For Challenge 9, our team designed an auditory experience around urban farming in the city setting. Urban farming and resulting information sabbaths are developing into a counterculture in which many city dwellers want to take part; people are often unable to leave the city due to work, school and family obligations but still want a way to experience nature and ‘get away from it all’ without physically leaving. In present day, this can take the form of urban farms like Square Roots, social media sabbaths or simply growing a garden on a condo balcony.
Honey Headphones and associated experiential playlist seek to give the user this escape from the city. The headphones incorporate noise-cancelling and service-blocking technology for designated periods of time that the user can set. The design is inspired by honeycomb, because just as honeycomb isolates and protects the bee larvae, Honey Headphones isolate and protect the user from the stresses of urban life.
As a complement to the headphone, our playlist combines acoustic, folk-style music with rural, countryside and farm ambience noises. Our choices seek to create an auditory experience that makes the user enjoy their urban farming experience and truly feel displaced into a more rural setting.
Below is an example of Electra’s user journey:
User Journey
Electra is not your average farmer. Sure, she loves the smell of fresh soil and relishes in the first sprout of new life. But her passion is environmentalism, and she knows she will be able to make a bigger impact in her community, and maybe even on the planet, if she’s closer to a city.
Electra is an urban farmer at Square Roots Urban Growers, which, you guessed it, is not your average farm. The company is an urban farming accelerator that grows vertical farms literally inside shipping containers. They grow non-GMO, fresh greens and herbs—Electra herself is tasked with cultivating the Allstar crop and Premium Greens Salad Mixes.
She loves how urban farming allows her to reconnect with nature and feel like she’s somewhere else, but somehow can’t escape all the traps of the city—namely, the noise and the connectivity. She needs noise-cancelling headphones, but she also wants something that will stop her phone from buzzing. She can’t just leave it at home because she feels uneasy about traveling on the subway without it, and she likes listening to music while she works. But when it’s on, she can’t help but check her notifications every so often. So, Electra buys Honey Headphones. She loves that they offer the noise-cancelling feature she needs, and that they are able to block out cell service in order to give her the escape she so desires.
Our Playlist
You can view our playlist here.
- Australia Countryside Early Morning Ambience with Birds — Digiffects Sound Effects Library
- Happy as the Sun — Tyrone Wells
- Drive — Oh Wonder
- We Were Able — Nick Urb
- Someone New — Hozier
- Water Dripping off Trees After Rain — Digiffects Sound Effects Library
- Sun Shy (Acoustic) — Dresses
- Who Loves the Sun — Velvet Underground
- Nature Ambience Birds Farm Morning — Bjorn Lynne
- Marbles & Drains — TM Juke
- Recuerdos de la Alhambra — Andrés Segovia
- King and Cross — Ásgeir
- Small and Close Waterfall with Frogs and Birds — Digiffects Sound Effects Library
- Dream Catch Me — Newton Faulkner
- The Longer I Run — Peter Bradley Adams
- Dirty Paws — Of Monsters and Men
- Stay Alive — Jose Gonzalez
- Deep Relaxation with Dawn Chorus — Dominika Jurczuk-Gondek
- The Wolves & The Ravens — Rogue Valley
- Shine — Benjamin Francis Leftwich
- The Cave — Mumford & Sons
- Sophie — Bear’s Den
- Old Pine — Ben Howard
- Wild World — Cat Stevens
