https://andreacera.bandcamp.com/album/five-ringtones-android
Five ringtones for peaceful people.
Low intrusiveness, low urgency, low annoyance.
Watch here a smartphone playing a few excerpts :
youtu.be/NURXqMIrrpU
For many of us, today’s common ringtones are acoustically intrusive, create a feeling of unnecessary hurry and become annoying in the long term : just look at a person desperately scrambling to answer a loud phone in a quiet train, while other passengers look and frown.
The ringtones of this collection explore the opposite direction.
They are discreet (low intrusiveness), occupy as little acoustical space as possible, and because of their precision can be diffused at low volume.
They suggest a calm action (low urgency) – they don’t push the user to answer immediately, thanks to their slow temporality.
They are sustainable in the long term (low annoyance), because they limit as much as possible elements (like melodies or grooves) that provoke unnecessary cognitive load.
From psychoacoustics to soundscape studies, intrusiveness, urgency and annoyance are well studied features of audio signals. Today we are aware of their negative effects on mental states and mood. We also know which dimensions of sound can cause these negative effects.
It is impossible to completely remove intrusiveness, urgency and annoyance : part of these effects depends on variables (background noise, cognitive elements, personality types…) which cannot be controlled. But it is possible to minimize the negative impact of sounds signals around us. Sounds like these ringtones are a first step towards a less nervous life.
Use these ringtones when you are planning to stay in quiet soundscapes (ex. in a bookstore, inside your house, at the beach…). Associate these sounds to the contacts for which you don’t need (or don’t want) to rush to the telephone.
Play them at low volume.
andrea cera 