MAX Bass was designed to help the hard of hearing listen to music. We realized that they are often left out and not accommodated for because of the misconception that they don’t listen to music. That's why we believed it was so important to have their needs in mind first when designing our venue.

Thesis

Our first design choice was to create lots of vibrations that pass through the floor because that is the main way people with hearing disabilities can experience music.

This is a acoustic mapping of our venue. The white circle represents the subwoofers that will be vibrating the raised sections of the floor. The more red a circle is the higher intensity the vibrations are.

We also made tables with speech-to-touch sensory substitution devices which are little pads you can put your fingers or elbows on from which you can feel vibration. We would put the words of the song through these tables so they could be easily distinguished from the rest of the song. 

We believe it is important to design for these people because they are often just an afterthought tacked on so that they can say they're inclusive. Also there isn’t really a downside to having them in mind because you're going to get a better designed thing that works well for everyone. Which is why MAX Bass plans to enhance the listening experience of not only the hard of hearing but everyone

Research

The video "How Do Deaf People Experience Music" is a deaf person talking about how they and their friends listen to music through vibration. The venue, inspired by this research, play musics through vibrations in the ground and on tactile tables.

The second video is about Amber Galloway Gallego, a sign language interpreter who has signed for many music shows. She said a problem that a lot of deaf people face is hearing the actual lyrics. Taking this into account, the tactile tables spread throughout the venue separating the vocals out and play them.

The article "Hearing Through Your Fingers: Device That Converts Speech" is about speech-to-touch sensory substitution devices and their effectiveness at improving hearing comprehension in not only hearing but in not hearing too.

Precedents

Prototypes

What's Next?

If we were to continue this project, I think the next step would be trying to make the tactile tables, or creating the venue in AR or VR.