SSC Workshop with Ela Fasllija and Gabey Tjon a Tham

The SSC workshops are a monthly forum for any and all topics related to sound. In addition to presenting research-in-progress, the SSC community is invited to use this space to share news or solicit feedback about new articles, performances, recordings, exhibitions, compositions, book proposal submissions, conference presentations, funding applications, book reviews, etc. At the SSC workshop in February 2025, Ela Fasllija and Gabey Tjon a Tham will be presenting recent and ongoing work.

Ela Fasllija is a postdoctoral researcher at the Critical Alarms Lab, a collaboration between the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft and Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. After graduating as an architect, Ela pursued her graduate studies in Building Physics, specializing in indoor environmental qualities, particularly room acoustics, acoustics materials, and indoor soundscape characterization. Currently, she is involved in an EU-funded project called SASICU: Smart and Silent ICU, which aims to evaluate the effects of various soundscape interventions (suppressing alarms) on different patient and nurse outcomes.

Her presentation will investigate acoustic comfort as a fundamental aspect in architectural design, directly influencing both spatial functionality and user experience. Fasjllija explores its assessment through a multi-faceted approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative perceptual analysis. It begins by examining objective acoustic parameters and the impact of material choices on those metrics. Beyond objective metrics, the context, the sound sources, the materials, and propagation paths contribute to the perceived affective qualities of the acoustic environment, referred to as soundscape. While the ISO 12913 soundscape series offer a framework for soundscape assessment, its applicability in indoor architectural settings remains limited and will be explored further. The final section of this presentation focuses on critical public spaces, specifically Intensive Care Units, where indoor soundscape has a significant impact on patient recovery, staff performance, and overall healthcare outcomes. Focusing on our recent research in hospital settings, this talk will explore the interplay between sound sources, architectural design, and human response, engaging in discussion on the most effective soundscape interventions for these critical environments.

Gabey Tjon a Tham is an installation artist working and living in the Hague, The Netherlands.

Gabey’s artistic practice revolves around the question: How natural is nature in our current time? In her work she is researching the complex systems that occur both in nature and in our digital world and how they affect each other through ever evolving processes. These principles are explored through audiovisual installations that are balancing between virtual and analog realities.

By acquiring cross-disciplinary knowledge in the natural sciences and computer science she finds connections between the natural and artificial in our anthropocentric environment. In her current practice she is focusing on working from location-specific experiences to reflect directly on environments where agents function with their own time cycles and behaviour, influencing a living system in becoming.

During her presentation, she will explore how this manifests in her projects and provide insight into the process behind it.