PANAJI: Inside Penha De Franca church in North Goa, a binaural microphone is capturing the sound. Two youths from Mumbai are at work, mapping the sounds, trying to recreate Goa's history through acoustics.
"The amount of noise is increasing now in Goa near heritage spaces and also due to changes within such spaces. Therefore, the sooner we record the authentic sound, the lesser will be the loss of information," says Senhal Thomas, who along with sound engineer Akash Sharma is trying to document authentic sounds from Goa.
Thomas and Sharma have collaborated with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to acoustically map and archive sounds of 45 heritage sites in Goa.
"These designers and architects tuned religious spaces in such a manner that there was high reverberation to generate awe-inspiring sounds. This shows they had the knowledge of acoustics in that day and age," says Sharma.
With rapid urbanisation and hasty restoration, there is a fear that it may drastically change the authenticity of good intelligible quality of sound in churches, forts or even private residences.
"One needs speech in the church, along with silence, singing and music. A church which has these is said to have good acoustics. Most churches in Goa have all four," says Fr Menino Allan Tavares, a doctorate in physics with specialisation in worship acoustics.
In churches, the spaces inside, especially the bays and reticulated spaces are created in relation to acoustical engineering, says Tavares.
In the oblong structure of churches, placement and clarity of sound were the key elements—not so much in Goan temples.
"The church being a participatory place for prayer and worship for the community as a whole, the acoustic properties were developed over a period of time," says Ketak Nachinolkar, a conservation architect.
Sharma and Thomas have noticed that the acoustics dynamics also work wonderfully in the caves at Rivona, Tambdi Surla, Arvalem and Chicalim among others. "The caves are excited with human voice, resonance of which gives a positive feedback for meditation," they say.
The forts in Goa were also acoustic-oriented to propagate sound from one end to another. "This was utility-based tuning to alert others about a possible attack," says Thomas.
Their work has taken Sharma and Thomas to private houses in the state, too.
"Indo-Portuguese homes have a particular style of architecture. A lot of attention was paid while building Goa's homes as they were personal living spaces. The 'sala' (hall) has large windows, so the acoustics in the bedrooms is often different from those in the hall," says Sharma.
Having captured the sounds of Penha De Franca church, Thomas reckons the renovation of the church "not only brought changes in its aesthetics, but also its acoustics".
Tavares disagrees. "This is not correct. The church had very unique acoustical characters, which had been retained and improved upon." But he agrees that restoration and circular designs of churches can affect acoustics.
"Soft surfaces absorb sound and replacement material with hard ones and changing the geometry from oblong to circular shapes of churches, reflects sound instead of absorbing it," says Tavares.
An installation featuring the acoustics that Sharma and Thomas are documenting from Goa will be featured at The Story of Space that starts on Friday.
"The amount of noise is increasing now in Goa near heritage spaces and also due to changes within such spaces. Therefore, the sooner we record the authentic sound, the lesser will be the loss of information," says Senhal Thomas, who along with sound engineer Akash Sharma is trying to document authentic sounds from Goa.
Thomas and Sharma have collaborated with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to acoustically map and archive sounds of 45 heritage sites in Goa.
"These designers and architects tuned religious spaces in such a manner that there was high reverberation to generate awe-inspiring sounds. This shows they had the knowledge of acoustics in that day and age," says Sharma.
With rapid urbanisation and hasty restoration, there is a fear that it may drastically change the authenticity of good intelligible quality of sound in churches, forts or even private residences.
"One needs speech in the church, along with silence, singing and music. A church which has these is said to have good acoustics. Most churches in Goa have all four," says Fr Menino Allan Tavares, a doctorate in physics with specialisation in worship acoustics.
In churches, the spaces inside, especially the bays and reticulated spaces are created in relation to acoustical engineering, says Tavares.
In the oblong structure of churches, placement and clarity of sound were the key elements—not so much in Goan temples.
"The church being a participatory place for prayer and worship for the community as a whole, the acoustic properties were developed over a period of time," says Ketak Nachinolkar, a conservation architect.
Sharma and Thomas have noticed that the acoustics dynamics also work wonderfully in the caves at Rivona, Tambdi Surla, Arvalem and Chicalim among others. "The caves are excited with human voice, resonance of which gives a positive feedback for meditation," they say.
The forts in Goa were also acoustic-oriented to propagate sound from one end to another. "This was utility-based tuning to alert others about a possible attack," says Thomas.
Their work has taken Sharma and Thomas to private houses in the state, too.
"Indo-Portuguese homes have a particular style of architecture. A lot of attention was paid while building Goa's homes as they were personal living spaces. The 'sala' (hall) has large windows, so the acoustics in the bedrooms is often different from those in the hall," says Sharma.
Having captured the sounds of Penha De Franca church, Thomas reckons the renovation of the church "not only brought changes in its aesthetics, but also its acoustics".
Tavares disagrees. "This is not correct. The church had very unique acoustical characters, which had been retained and improved upon." But he agrees that restoration and circular designs of churches can affect acoustics.
"Soft surfaces absorb sound and replacement material with hard ones and changing the geometry from oblong to circular shapes of churches, reflects sound instead of absorbing it," says Tavares.
An installation featuring the acoustics that Sharma and Thomas are documenting from Goa will be featured at The Story of Space that starts on Friday.
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