Sound Research

"Listening for Instruction surveys how sounds are used as signifiers in public spaces. ​  Collecting beeps, hisses, tones and automated voices, this work looks at how human workers are replaced by recorded sound, how sound is used to direct our behaviour, and how the voice is positioned within that. Probing current debates around the potential changes automation brings to working lives this study advocates for an automated future, supporting the anti-work movement's call for 'the right to the idle' - the artists commit their own voices into a hybrid synthetic persona in support of this."

"Arup and BLOXAS Architects collaborated on a soundscape installation to demonstrate what our everyday environment might sound like to a dementia sufferer."

"Jana Winderen is an artist, widely known for her recordings that reveal sounds from hidden sources - oceans, ice crevasses, glaciers - using a variety of technology, from high quality hydrophones to ultrasound detectors. Her work is published on Touch Music (same as Chris Watson) and her biography boasts of a long and impressive list of art installations."

webinar on psychoacoustics - video with sound samples

"Let's be blunt: The tongue is really dumb. Unlike the rest of our sensory organs, which are exquisitely sensitive, that lump of exposed muscle sitting in the mouth is a crude perceptual device, able to only detect five different taste sensations. (Your cochlea, in contrast, contains thousands of different hair cells, each of which is tuned to particular wavelengths of sound.)"

""Sound design is the main contributing factor to the mood and atmosphere of any film," Charlie Battin wrote in a 2015 piece for the BFI Film Academy. "The visuals are what the viewer tends to mostly focus on and the sound subconsciously alters how the visuals are perceived.""

"Sound is capable of producing powerful reactions in the listener - whether it's a sudden cold sweat caused by a snake's warning hiss, or the uncontrollable grin as a favourite song from our youth comes on the radio. Scholars have been fascinated by the relationship between sound and emotional states since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks (whose wild Dionysian parties could be seen as the equivalent of a modern-day rave!), and modern neuroscience has led to some fascinating advances in our understanding of why our ears and emotions have such a strong bond."

"The upcoming Lincoln Aviator's warning tones were actually recorded by a full symphony orchestra. When a car wants to communicate a warning, most of them will emit a beep or a boop. Some will make a high-pitched tone, others a frantic ding, and still others will warn with a computerized voice telling you exactly what's wrong."

"Sound plays an influential part in how we view the world. It gives us social cues and evokes certain emotions, such as a dog barking might instill fear or a baby laughing can cause happiness. "

"Award-winning musician Christopher Cerf has composed music for the famous children's television show Sesame Street for 40 years. During this time, he has written more than 200 songs intended to help children learn how to read and write. But these innocent children's songs were abused for inhumane purposes."

"Echoic memory is a part of sensory memory and refers to auditory memories. The sensory memory that takes into account sounds that you've just encountered is a form of this memory type. Memories and sound are important aspects of your hearing and your ears, so we wanted to take an in-depth look at echoic memory, what it is and how it can affect us."

"clip from "New Music: Sounds and Voices from the Avant Garden, New York, 1971" by Michael Blackwood"

"Van Dam and de Boer have developed the following idea from these different interests. In several recordings of Dam filmed (and sound is recorded) when he performs Sequenza VIII . Emphasizing first half total, the body and the intimacy with the instrument. Then abstract details filmed, like his hands, his ear, details of the violin, strings and the like. In the editing is from the portrait / body of the violinist a more fragmented, abstract image created a physical, gives spatial experience in the tension between the music and the image rhythm. If the body and the violin in abstract details and solve dancing away in the (sound) space."

"While the vitality and stimulation of the urban environment can be pleasant, those living in or visiting densely populated areas such as New York can have wildly different experiences. The ever-present cacophony of traffic, construction, and commerce; the struggle for mental and physical space; and the anxious need for constant communication in person or via technology are relentless assaults on the senses. One wonders how locals and visitors can escape, find respite, and make peace with their space in this "city that never sleeps.""

"This article presents a unifying theory of soundscape ecology, which brings the idea of the soundscape-the collection of sounds that emanate from landscapes-into a research and application focus. Our conceptual framework of soundscape ecology is based on the causes and consequences of biological (biophony), geophysical (geophony), and human-produced (anthrophony) sounds. We argue that soundscape ecology shares many parallels with landscape ecology, and it should therefore be considered a branch of this maturing field. We propose a research agenda for soundscape ecology that includes six areas: (1) measurement and analytical challenges, (2) spatial-temporal dynamics, (3) soundscape linkage to environmental covariates, (4) human impacts on the soundscape, (5) soundscape impacts on humans, and (6) soundscape impacts on ecosystems. We present case studies that illustrate different approaches to understanding soundscape dynamics. Because soundscapes are our auditory link to nature, we also argue for their protection, using the knowledge of how sounds are produced by the environment and humans."

"Winds blowing across snow dunes on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf cause the massive ice slab's surface to vibrate, producing a near-constant drumroll of seismic tones. Video: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego."

"The melodious call of many birds comes from a mysterious organ buried deep within their chests: a one-of-a-kind voice box called a syrinx. Now, scientists have concluded that this voice box evolved only once, and that it represents a rare example of a true evolutionary novelty."