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Frequency

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Frequency

Episode 06 · · 54 min

The Room That Listens Back

Architect Lena Cho built a room to do almost nothing. Then she sat in it, and the silence lied.

With Lena Cho, Architect of quiet roomsSilence / Rooms

Cold open

The cold opens are spoken by your browser from the script on the page.

  1. Mara Voss

    There is a room in Rotterdam that was designed to do almost nothing. No echo from the street. No hum from the lights. Lena Cho built it, then sat in it, and told me the silence was lying.

  2. Lena Cho

    Silence is never empty. It is a frequency you have not named yet. If you stay in that room long enough you hear your own blood. That is not a metaphor. It is a design problem. I had to decide whether the building should hide that, or admit it.

  3. Mara Voss

    So the room listens back.

  4. Lena Cho

    Every good room does. The bad ones just pretend they are not there.

  1. 05

    Bass, Blood, Blueprint

    Producer Idris Hale on the threshold where hearing stops and the body takes the note.

    Idris HaleProducer

    Bass / Body

    61 min

  2. 04

    A Map Made of Static

    Noor El-Sayed charts cities by the grain of their air, and leaves her own footprint off the page.

    Noor El-SayedSound cartographer

    Maps / Field

    47 min

  3. 03

    The Last Analog Desk

    Tomasz Berg has kept the night on the air with faders, a humming lamp, and a screwdriver.

    Tomasz BergBroadcast engineer

    Analog / Craft

    58 min