Sen Sound

To the new beginning… go where you are celebrated, not tolerated.

This recognition belongs to every nurse, doctor, and hospital team member who has shared their story with us. You hear alarms echoing in your dreams. You never felt permission to say you are fatigued by those sounds. This is a testament that your voice is heard, and your voice matters.

This recognition belongs to every scholar, researcher, designer, and engineer in the field who has worked tirelessly over years to make hospitals sound better. Our work stands on your shoulders, and I hope this initiative will be a humble contribution not just the improvement of the particular medical device but to the collective learning toward the common goal.

This recognition belongs to every person at Philips who taught me that there are actually humans behind those machines – humans who care, who laugh, who cry, humans just like me as a patient who was cared for by those machines. You have become a dear part of my extended family.

This recognition belongs every member of team Sen Sound. This has not been an easy journey. Thank you for your blood sweat and tears together over the last five years.

(Thank you for staying married, Avery Sen).

It is a beginning, a process, not the end. I look forward to sharing more in the coming days, and working together with the community.

In gratitude,

Yoko

At International Design Conference

Preview of Christmas market @ Stuttgart, Germany

And now… on the road again

Being able to give a talk with dear friends at the first in-person conference since the beginning of the pandemic was… very emotional. We have lots of healing to do.

We are very excited to present the workshop "Mindful Listening: Hearing the World Like a Musician, Imagining Tomorrow like a Futurist" at Philips Design Lab in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on October 20th. We are a part of the 10th DesForM (Design and Semantics of Form and Movement) conference — the theme this year is "Sense and Sensitivity"!

"Yoko K. Sen, one of the keynote speakers at this year’s DeSForM, is an award-winning ambient electronic musician who had suffered in hospitals as a patient. She wants to share how listening to the world with the sensitivity of a musician can transform the way you experience the world. Avery Sen, PhD, is a futurist who examines processes of transformative innovation. He will guide you to hear the sound of future, then craft speculative narratives about a hospital soundscape in 2027. The workshop will be full of adventures that invite you to awaken your “sense and sensitivity,” and you will come out of this invigorating 3-hour journey listening to the world like a musician and imagining tomorrow like a futurist."

Click the link below for more information on Desform 2017:
http://desformx.org/program/

Program | DeSForM 2017 Toward the Development of an Internet-based Monitoring and Feedback System for Prolonged Grief Disorder Wan Jou She, Laurie Burke, Robert Neimeyer, Kailey Roberts, Wendy Lichtenthal, Jun Hu and Matthias Rauterberg

We had a wonderful time at Johns Hopkins today. Learnt about alarm management policies from the pros, alongside fellow Sibley Hub members!

A wonderful article from Romania! Yoko was interviewed on her vision for the future of hospital sound

(Don't worry - we don't know Romanian either. If you use Chrome, it'll translate for you!)

http://observator.tv/social/in-loc-de-alarme-si-strigate-melodii-si-relaxare-o-japoneza-vrea-sa-transforme-clinicile-din-romania-in-adevarate-temple-ale-muzicii-213393.html

O japoneză vrea să transforme clinicile din România în adevărate temple ale muzicii Viitorul sună ca o melodie pentru spitalele din toată lumea. Este ideea unei japoneze care după ce a fost internată de mai multe ori, şi-a dat seama că sunetele monitoarelor, uşile, dar şi strigătele medicilor provoacă un stres suplimentar.

Yoko is one of the Halcyon Incubator innovators featured in the latest issue of Forbes Japan. Talk about a voice heard ‘round the world!