Inside a Room Built for Total Silence
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/inside-a-room-built-for-total-silence
"The room is totally covered in foam wedges, pointing inwards, the floor a metal grate suspended over them. It’s both archaic and otherworldly, a retro-futurist scene in dull brown. As Dance pulls the door shut behind us, the atmosphere deadens. Any sound waves are deflected by the multifaceted foam and are effectively sucked into the walls. It’s an oppressive sensation; much of our spatial awareness is defined by echo-location, and even with my eyes open the disorientation is irrefutable. We agree that I’ll stay in the chamber for an hour with the lights out, to divulge myself of extra sensory distractions. I lie down on slabs of foam laid out as a makeshift bed; the academics pile out, and the technician pulls the door shut and flicks out the light."
"The room is totally covered in foam wedges, pointing inwards, the floor a metal grate suspended over them. It’s both archaic and otherworldly, a retro-futurist scene in dull brown. As Dance pulls the door shut behind us, the atmosphere deadens. Any sound waves are deflected by the multifaceted foam and are effectively sucked into the walls. It’s an oppressive sensation; much of our spatial awareness is defined by echo-location, and even with my eyes open the disorientation is irrefutable. We agree that I’ll stay in the chamber for an hour with the lights out, to divulge myself of extra sensory distractions. I lie down on slabs of foam laid out as a makeshift bed; the academics pile out, and the technician pulls the door shut and flicks out the light."