Presume you can just tile these in a 2D grid or plane to make a wall you can see and let air flow through but sound is severely canceled. You'd have to cover the ceilings as well to avoid reflectance into other open spaces I'm assuming.

As neat as this is, there are a lot of cases where sound is advantageous for us humans regardless of when it being annoying, it often can pass useful information buried in all the rest of the unuseful noise. This is already a problem in some cars where you can't tell if emergency vehicles are nearby/incoming or hear other drivers horn signals. Sometimes you want to ignore this but sometimes it's quite useful.

This article neglects to mention that scientists and architects in Silicon Valley have recently discovered an amazing new technology to improve productivity for workers in open office plans. It involves creating four directly connected acoustically designed walls made out of acoustic foam and eco friendly recycled wood with a fifth addition of a wall above the cubicle, with a removable door. Interior designers have coined a new term for this luxury: "private offices"

Don't forget that Silicon Valley and aspiring Silicon Valley companies in order to "be hip" and look like they rented the cheapest warehouse-esque startup space they could find, require all ceiling tiles be removed to ensure maximum possible sound reflection in their open plan offices.

Acoustic foam? As I understand it, plain old fiberglass or rock wool batts are considerably more effective as acoustic material in a stud bay.