Sound Research

"Using bone conduction, a technology developed for hearing devices, the touch echo installation transmits sounds of the cities which were devastated in the 1945 carpet bombing in the Second World War, through the arms of the visitors when they rest their elbows on the balustrade and hold their ears closed."

"The New York Times, editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein leads the reader (or rather, the listener) through an audible tour of several interesting-sounding places around the world.  Scroll through the environments and enjoy the sight and sound of everything from bursting geysers to crackling shrimp."

Iris Garrelfs is an artist working on the cusp of music, art and sociology. Her practice includes fixed media, installation, improvised performance and has been included in major institutions worldwide

"The possibility that sounds might be objects, entities, or things is an open question.  However, many theories of sound close the question down via reductive assertions. Some argue that sounds cannot be things because things are autonomous entities whereas sounds are relative. Others argue that sounds cannot be things because things are durable bodies whereas sounds are temporal phenomena. The following essay begins by reviewing and critiquing these arguments as they appear in musicology, sound studies, and philosophy.  Arguments against sound's autonomy are generally motivated by anthropocentric ideologies, which by presuming humans' ontological privilege reduce sounds to human experiences, practices, and conditions.  "

"Is Jeanne Dielmans' apartment on 23, quai du Commerce in Brussels a haunted house? It might well be. Because the dwelling where most of Chantal Akerman's 1975 masterpiece is set is often eerily deserted, with only the distant sounds of shuffling feet and clanging keys filling its hallways. As the camera waits for the titular protagonist to arrive (or lingers after she has left), the rooms are reduced to echo chambers. Jeanne Dielman is disembodied, a ghost even in her own domestic realm. Her visual absence in these moments represents quite literally the invisibility of her plight: a life lived in the shadows, a fate suffered just around a corner, conveniently out of view for the rest of society."

"Two sonic branding experts explain the thinking behind some of the world's most recognizable sounds. Featuring: Andrew Stafford - Co-Founder & Director at Big Sync Music Steve Milton - Founding Partner at Listen"

THE BOUNCY BEEPS of Pac-Man. The percussive build-up in Legend of Zelda. The effusive gibberish of The Sims. The sounds in videogames tell us to speed up, start over, and of course, to keep playing. But how does one set of beeps so effectively tell you you've gained power, while another indicates your character has died? And how, exactly, does someone create the sound of the Dark Knight punching the Joker in the face? The answer: Genius sound design.

A presentation of artists exploring sound and materiality: "Materiality of Sound: In this chapter, we will present projects that get closer to the sonic phenomenon directly presented on stage in front of our eyes and hears as a form of scientific and artistic experiment. The materiality of sound, intended as a specific focus on using principles of the physical world to initiate a new listening into the matter, reveals the vibrational fundaments constituting our universe and unfolds the state of inter-connectivity in nature performing forces pervading multiple domains at the same time in the same space."

"The musician Dessa took a sensory tour in the city with the synesthete LJ Rich. Here is how it sounded"

"Walled Unwalled  is a single channel 20 minute performance-video installation. The performance comprises of an interlinking series of narratives derived from legal cases that revolved around evidence that was heard or experienced through walls. It consists of a series of performances reenactments and a monologue staged inside a trio of sound effects studios in the Funkhaus, East Berlin."

"How Ragnar Kjartansson turns repetition into art. "

"Behind a curtain in the darkened gallery space at Luhring Augustine nine screens, each equipped with its own speaker have been arranged into two somewhat discreet areas. Eight of the screens feature the image of a single musician - a guitarist, pianist, banjo player, cellist, and so forth - and one  screen offers a view of the porch of a large house where other instrumentalists, singers and assorted folks have gathered. Ragnar Kjartansson's video installation titled "The Visitors" documents in a single take the 64-minute-long performance of one song."

"Conserve the sound« is an online museum for vanishing and endangered sounds. The sound of a dial telephone, a walkman, a analog typewriter, a pay phone, a 56k modem, a nuclear power plant or even a cell phone keypad are partially already gone or are about to disappear from our daily life. Accompanying the archive people are interviewed and give an insight in to the world of disappearing sounds."

Here's an impressible batch of scanned articles about sound art available for download.

"Some of the most challenging, rewarding, and fun sounds to record are those within the vast spectrum of fluids. Wet, sticky, viscous, mushy; the tactful use of fluid sounds can reinforce the realism and impact of a scene, or just be the punchline of a joke. In order to effectively communicate an idea to an audience, there are a few challenges in recording fluids to consider before dipping your toes in. While most of these considerations are technical in application, they all serve to realize an idea and bolster the narrative. For live-action projects, capturing the complexity of fluid sounds on location can often range from impractical to impossible, which is where foley steps in."

Sound by Ernst Karel - "The faces in "Manakamana," a transporting ethnographic film set in a green sliver of Nepal, stare into the camera, out into space and, perhaps, into the great beyond. The faces are sometimes creased and weathered, sometimes smooth as pebbles. A few look etched with worry, as if they were weighed down by a heavy burden, although they may also be seized with fear. That's because for 10 or so minutes at a time, these faces are floating hundreds of feet above a lush Nepali forest in a cable car that takes pilgrims to and from the temple that gives this film its rhythmic title. "

" Ernst Karel is Lecturer on Anthropology, Assistant Director of the Film Study Center, and Lab Manager for the renowned Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University. In his audio projects, he works with analog electronics and location recordings, sometimes separately, sometimes in combination, to create pieces that move between the abstract and the documentary. Karel collaborates with filmmakers as a sound recordist, mixer, and sound designer. Notably, Karel has worked on key films produced at the Sensory Ethnography Lab including Sweetgrass (2009) and Leviathan (2012), both of which were released in UK cinemas via Dogwoof."

Build a Hydrophone - Tutorial"

"Why do birds sing? Could we call what they sing and how they sing music? Of all nonhuman animals, birds teach us to check anthropocentrism in music, or, as David Rothenberg puts it in Why Birds Sing (2005), birds check "the conceit that humanity is needed to find beauty in the natural world." But how do they learn songs? Do they invent and compose them or "parrot" what they hear? Join us for a discussion between animal behavioral psychologist Professor Ofer Tchernichovski (Hunter College) and distinguished professor of philosophy and music, composer and clarinetist, Professor David Rothenberg (NJIT). Visit our site for more event information: "