"Soleful" Impacts

In the field of athletics, there are many elements that go toward shaping a sports experience, for both the athlete and the spectator.  A large part of this experience is sensory: visual, tactile, and even olfactory in some cases.  But sports would be nothing without their auditory component: sounds, and specifically, their impact sounds.

An impact sound is that which arises from the collision of one object with another; for the purposes of this project, it is specifically a sound that arises from the collision of an athlete’s body with a sports surface, in any form it may present itself.  The majority of these impact sounds result from contact between an athlete’s foot and the sports surface, and in these situations, shoes act as a meditator between the two. 

The goal of "Soleful" Impacts is to showcase the numerous and assorted array of sounds that sports shoes can make when they come in contact with a specific surface that cannot always be captured through writing, as well as articulate the sonic differences between the different impacts that sports shoes make on their respective surfaces.