Sound Arts Guest Lecture: Tingying Dong

This week we had a guest lecture in Lecture Theatre B by Tingying Dong. She is a sound designer and composer who works in theatre. The lecture was on November 6th, and after listening to her talk, I felt inspired and wanted to try something new.

Tingying is from Beijing and later moved to London to work in theatre. She said that sound is not just something in the background, but something that can push the story forward and make the audience feel part of it. She showed some examples of her work, and I was surprised how small sound details, like the sound of a door or the wind, can completely change how people feel.

She especially likes working on psychological thrillers, where sound shows the character’s inner emotions. She also said that sound, space, and actors’ movement all work together, not separately. This idea really touched me, because I often focus too much on making vocals sound “good,” and forget about the emotion or story behind them.

From this lecture, I learned that sound design needs observation and teamwork, not just technical skills. I want to start adding small sounds into my own projects to express people’s thoughts and emotions, not just to make things sound nice. Overall, this lecture opened up my mind and made me realize that sound can go much further than I used to think.

Website: https://www.tingyingdong.com/