CreaTech - Safe & Sound

You are invited to join a two-hour walkshop on UTS campus to audit the streets you move through every day - how safe they feel, how hot, how loud, whether there is anywhere worth stopping, and to help shape a public installation being designed for them.

We are a team of researchers and designers working on Safe & Sound, and we have reached the point where we need to hear from the people who use this place. That's you.

What is Safe & Sound?

Safe & Sound is a pilot test to explore creating an interactive public installation that lets people listen to the inner life of trees.

The idea of the project is to have discreet sensors pick up a tree's subtle internal signals, such as water moving through it, vibrations in the bark, electromagnetic activity, and translate them into a live soundscape that shifts with light, temperature, species and the tree's health. You'd experience it from inside a sculptural pod made from bio-based materials: part listening space, part shelter from the heat and the traffic noise.

The pod is also intended to be quietly protective. Most public-place security looks like security - bollards, cameras, hard edges, and research consistently shows that overt hardware makes people use a place less. We're testing whether protection can be built in so well that you never see it.

About this Walkshop

This is a place experience walkshop, whch is essentially a workshop you do on your feet, in the actual place you're talking about - not in a seminar room looking at photos of it.

Over two hours we'll walk a short route together and stop at a handful of points along the way. At each stop we'll ask you to audit what's around you and record how it rates: shade and heat, noise, light and sightlines, greenery, how safe it feels by day and how safe you'd expect it to feel after dark, and whether it's somewhere you'd choose to stop and stay. Afternoon tea will be provided after the walkshop.

No preparation needed. No design or research background needed. You'll be given everything you need on the day, and the discussion is facilitated.

We'll be outdoors and walking for much of the session, so please dress for the weather and wear comfortable shoes.

Who we are looking for

Students, faculty and the wider community. You don't need to know anything about architecture, planning, sound or technology. If you walk these streets, you're qualified. Places are limited, so please only register if you can commit to the full session.

Why your input matters

Public space gets designed for people constantly, but people who use these spaces are rarely in the room when it happens.

You know things about this precinct that no dataset holds - which area you avoid at night, where there's no shade in summer, and where the noise makes a conversation impossible, That lived experience is the evidence base this project is missing, and it is the thing we cannot generate ourselves.

This isn't a consultation where feedback is collected and filed. This walkshop is deliberately structured so that what comes out of it is traceable through the design package that follows it. Walkshop participants are invited back to the November showcase to see what their input produced.

RSVP

The walkshop is scheduled for Thursday, 15 October 2026, from 10:30am to 12:00pm at UTS Campus - exact meeting point will be confirmed closer to the date. If interested, we kindly ask you to register by 10 October, so we can confiim your attendance, along with any accesibility and dietary requirements.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Pernille Christensen at Pernille.Christensen@uts.edu.au.

We're looking forward to walking with you.