Tag Archives: dining facilities

The Pitzer Grove House Lunch Bustle March 31, 2014 1:45pm

 

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Acoustic Space: 

If you are looking for the freshest food on the 5 Claremont Colleges, look no further than the grove house, right across from the clock tower on Pitzer’s campus. It is well worth waiting in the line which often starts forming as early as 12:30, one hour before the Grove House starts serving lunch, for the sandwiches, prepared with love by students, are truly life changing.

Soundscape-PitzerGrovehouse

 

Source: http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/grovehouse/history.html

The Grove House was built in 1902 in the Craftsman style of architecture, and eventually moved from its original location onto Pitzer’s campus in 1977. Its beautiful hardwood floors, comfortable Craftsmen style furniture, and umpteen windows, small and large, give the space a relaxed and open, yet  contained and cozy feeling. Pitzer residents and visitors alike use the Grove house for a multitude of purposes. By day students study about the house, work in the kitchen preparing food for the community, and wait patiently in line for their chance to order a truly magnificent and fabulously fresh culinary creation. By night various clubs use the space for meetings and events are held on a weekly basis such as Story Slam, FemCo and Groove at the Grove. It is a hub of social activity on Pitzer’s campus and home to fond memories for many members of the Pitzer community.

For this recording I used the TASCAM DR-40 Sound Recorder

After waiting in line since 1pm and ordering a delicious Grove House sandwich I sat down to eat  at the small table next to the ordering window to eat and record the soundscape. I used the small tripod to steady the TASCAM DR-40 during the duration of the recording and situated myself about half way between the half door in the front where orders are taken and the half door in the

back where customers names are shouted and delicious sandwiches are happily received. I started recording at 1:45pm and captured the soundscape of an average busy day at the Grove House. It is not surprising that a wandering Grove House customer might meander outside, thus causing the cooks to repeatedly shout their names, but it’s not awkward since the environment is so friendly. A keynote of the space is the dull hum of cooks in the kitchen, and various signals are present in the repeated calling of customer’s names and responses of “I’m coming!” There are no specific soundmarks in this recording, nothing unique to the space that necessitates preserving, however the calling of names could be seen as an archatype as it it a fairly common form of customer service in the food services industry.

 

Frank Dining Hall Patio, Sunday, March 9 2014 11:45 am

Location: This recording was taken at the Frank Dining Hall patio at the bottom of Pomona College Campus. The patio is located outside the main dining hall area and contains about 10 tables. Approximately 30 people were seated outside. All the tables are quite small, seating at maximum 6 people. All of the furniture is wooden. One side of the patio is blocked off by a wall with windows where the main dining hall is located. There is a metal door on this wall as well which leads to the patio. On the other side the patio is closed off by concrete walls but decorated with plants and other foliage. Frank is one of the most popular Brunch locations on the 5Cs. At this time, there was a good amount of flow of people.

Recording Set Up: I placed the microphone on one of the wooden table facing away from the door. It was parallel to the ground. I sat behind the microphone with the friends that had come with me to brunch. All of the tables facing and next to the microphone had people seated at them.

The soundscape: I took this soundscape in the heart of brunch time so there were a lot of people around. The keynote throughout the recording is the chatter of people as they talk over their meals. The conversations that are easiest to hear come from the table surrounding my table. I sat in a central part of the patio. In front of me was a group of cross country boys who spoke rather loudly and to my right was a group of cross country girls that were chatting and gossiping. Also throughout the recording you can hear the clinking of cutlery, which clearly indicates the type of location the recording takes place in and therefore can be considered an archetype. Another archetype is the chairs moving at 0:19, 2:30 and 2:38. These evidence the fact that there are tables and chairs in this space and people moving in and out of them. There are no real soundmarks apparent in the recording. The laughter heard at different points could be considered a soundmark. The problem is that there is no sound that indicates that this isn’t just any old dining area.

Pitzer McConnell Dining Hall at 12:30pm on Thursday March 13th


Location and Setup:

This recording takes place on a central eating table between the doors and the buffet area of McConnell Dining Hall on Pitzer’s Campus at 11:15 pm on a beautiful Southern Californian Thursday afternoon. Situated between the two kiosks where drinks, where condiments and silverware can be found but in the center of the eating area, the majority of sounds are characteristic of socializing or of eating.

 

Keynotes: In this soundscape keynotes include the muffled yet lively conversation of nearby tables and the occasional squeak of footsteps and crash of closing doors. Later in the recording, a period of electrostatic interference results in clusters of “zaps” that seem to be focused around the 40 second mark. This could be a result of interference with a device passing by, or simply an anomaly.

 

Soundmarks: The characteristic sounds include students grabbing and using cutlery, the sound of ice crashing into the hard plastic dining hall cups, and the sound of students flipping pages, perhaps engaging in the classic procrastinator’s study binge before a noon class. Although these sounds may be heard at other dining halls, students from Pitzer–or any college–would be likely to associate these sounds with a particular dining hall. However relevant, it is unlikely that students feel any particular attachment to these sounds except perhaps subliminally as the background to their organized feeding frenzy.

 

Signals: There are no signals in this recording since none of the sounds are intended to convey a particular message.

 

Archetypes: In this average day in a modern dining hall such as McConnell, few sounds in this recording might be classified as possessing “felicitous symbolism” (the definition of an archetype); except as that of colligate dining halls across the country.

 

 

Reverberant Spaces: Frary Dining Hall

 

 

Location: Frary Dining Hall. Frary Dining hall is located on north campus of Pomona College (Claremont, CA). Because this recording was taken at approximately midnight on a Sunday (after Snack), the space was completely empty of people except for a worker and a friend who sat silently nearby.

Description of the space: Frary dining hall is an enclosed eating space with cathedral-like high ceilings. The floor is tiled and the seating arrangements follow no specific order. The majority of the furniture is composed of wood. There is a separate space where students are able to get food as well as dispose of their dishes. There are also two separate private dining locations within this space. For this recording, the main doors to the dining hall were closed including the doors that lead to the food area.

Recording setup. For this recording, the microphone was placed on top of a round table while the 18” diameter balloon was popped about three feet away. The recording device was TASCAM DR-40 Linear PCM Recorder. 

Reverberation Times:

  • Maximum Intensity: 92.25 dB
  • Minimum Intensity: 41.24 dB
  • 30dB drop after 0.743 s
  • 50dB drop after 2.77 s
  • Reached minimum intensity after 3.32 s
  • Reached maximum intensity after 0.05 s
  • Returned to pre-pop intensity level after  3.56 s

Frary Intensity

Frary Dining Hall Balloon Pop Spectrograph