14 May 2007

Dropping the noisebomb

The relentless thump of techno music coming through the ceiling at 3 am. The neighbours’ heated argument relayed at great volume through the wall and into your living room. Nuisance noise is one of the most complained about, frustrating forms of anti-social behaviour for thousands of people.

Now a Dundee University student has come up with a novel way of letting your neighbours know just how annoying, distracting and downright infuriating their noise can be - drop the "NoiseBomb" on them!

22-year-old Jennifer Kelloe’s exhibition at this week’s Degree Show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design - part of the University of Dundee - consists of an Nuisance Noise Awareness campaign which has already proved extremely effective.

Her solution includes the `NoiseBomb’, a small package with which sufferers can record a neighbour’s excessive noise and post it back to them through their letterbox.

There are also standalone `Do Not Disturb’ signs which `shout’ at passers-by and give an indication of just how frustrating exposure to anti-social noise can be. These have proved so effective that fellow students pleaded with Jennifer to turn them off when she set up a demonstration within the university.

"I posted a prototype of the signs in the corridor here in the art college and it wasn’t long before people were complaining that they were really annoying, so I took that as a sign that it works!" said Jennifer, who is from Dalkeith.

"I’ve been at some student parties where the noise has become a problem and that got me thinking about the entire problem of nuisance noise."

"Anti-social behaviour is obviously something that has been in the media a lot and I was aware from speaking to various people that noise is the biggest nuisance to a lot of people, so I thought I would develop a noise awareness package that is very different from traditional approaches to trying to get people to just turn it down."

"The NoiseBomb is a way of telling your neighbours just how disruptive their noise has been without having to get in a direct confrontation with them. The signs I’ve developed are more of a general awareness thing to show just how annoying unwanted noise can be - the only worry I have now is that they’ll put people off coming to see my Degree Show exhibition if I leave them on."

Jennifer is graduating from the Interactive Media Design course, which is aimed at helping to shape the creative thinkers and digital explorers who will develop the information-rich environments of the future.

Within a unique environment drawn from both the School of Computing and the School of Design at the University of Dundee, students explore many kinds of interactive design and cutting-edge technologies, plus the ability to locate and solve design problems and to think critically and commercially about the mushrooming virtual world.

Degree Show 2007 takes place at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and the University of Dundee School of Architecture from May 19th to 26th. Opening times are 9.30 am to 8.30 pm Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 4.30 pm at the weekend (closes 2 pm Saturday May 26th). Entrance is free and all are welcome to attend. www.dundee.ac.uk/pressoffice/degreeshow07/

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk