2,353 research outputs found
The sound effect: a study in radical sound design
This research project combines a theoretical intervention into sound ontology, with an empirical investigation into listening experience, in parallel with two technologically focused, research-led creative practice projects. The design follows an iterative cycle of research and creative practice that integrates theory, practice and empirical approaches. The research makes an initial contribution to the field of sound studies by re-appraising the work of pioneers in the fieldâPierre Schaeffer and R. Murray Schaferâin light of the concept of the sonic effect. This concept is developed as an effective tool for both sound studies and sound design. This theoretical work attempts to critically and creatively examine the ontology or mode of existence of sonic phenomena and is informed by the post-structural theory of the effect. The theory of the sonic effect is empirically investigated by examining verbal accounts of listening experience elicited by semi-structured interview. Finally, having deconstructed sonic phenomena in terms of their potential to be actualised in diverse contexts, sonic effects are interrogated as a creative strategy in the field of sound design for performance and installed sonic art. Two projects are documented. One is a hybrid live performance installation utilising a novel software design for sound composition and projection. The other is a sound installation work demonstrating a novel loudspeaker design for the creation of very dense sound fields. In this context, design occurs as an effect at the intersection of new technologies of sound production and the production of audible sense. This approach enacts a radical pragmatism that underlies the radical sound design strategy outlined in the thesis
Instrument und Pseudoinstrument - Akusmatische Konzepte
Dack's research area is contemporary Musicology/History of Ideas. He is concerned with the identification, evaluation and explanation of theoretical concepts evolving from musicians' interaction with a variety of analogue/digital technologies. There are two principal subject areas: 1) The works of the Frenchman Pierre Schaeffer and the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris; 2) The development of serial thought in the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne. Dack's exegeses and translations of French texts are a major contribution to the increasing awareness of Schaeffer's musical theories in the English-speaking world. Moreover, his work is integral to research currently pursued within the Lansdown Centre. The Schaefferian research into interactivity and technology has significant implications for evaluating Sonic Arts/Music performance practices. Furthermore, his historical/aesthetic investigations into the articulation of space in Sound Diffusion and Installation Art clarifies interdisciplinary concerns common to Fine Art and Music.
Dack was invited to write this chapter by the volume's editor: Prof. Elena Ungeheuer of the Technische UniversitĂ€t, Berlin. The 13-volume series: âHandbuchs der Musik' has become a standard reference work in German-speaking countries and reflects the growing interest in the study of sound in contemporary culture. Volume 5 has been re-printed and is entitled: âElektroakustische Musik' (Electroacoustic Music). Other authors are academics working in German, Italian or American universities; Dack is the only English contributor. Dack was asked to summarize and present his continuing research into French electroacoustic theory (an area with which the German scholarly community is frequently unfamiliar). His chapter described and evaluated the principal concepts of Schaefferian theory such as the âacousmatic situation', âvalue and characteristic', âpermanence and variation' and Schaeffer's âProgramme of Musical Research'. He then located these electroacoustic concepts within a generalized music theory. Dack also described the âBritish connection': the assimilation of Schaefferian theories by the British-based composer Denis Smalley
Embodied gestures
This is a book about musical gestures: multiple ways to design instruments, compose musical performances, analyze sound objects and represent sonic ideas through the central notion of âgestureâ.
The writers share knowledge on major research projects, musical compositions and methodological tools developed among different disciplines, such as sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. They visualize how similar and compatible are the notions of embodied music cognition and the artistic discourses proposed by musicians working with âgestureâ as their compositional material.
The authors and editors hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion around creative technologies and music, expressive musical interface design, the debate around the use of AI technology in music practice, as well as presenting a new way of thinking about musical instruments, composing and performing with them
Multi-form Visualisation: An approach to acousmatic composition
This practice-based doctoral research addresses a critical issue in
acousmatic composition: the journey from the immaterial world of sonic
imagination to the realisation of musical sound. This was an exploratory journey,
where my personal sensibility for visual arts practice met my curiosity and
profound interest in acousmatic music. Methodologically, the project approached
acousmatic composition as an organic process, intertwining visual sensibilities
and musical domains by offering a critical approach to the listening experience
and to my compositional practice. A key metaphor used is that of the blank page
as a space for multi-form visualisation, where gestures derived from sketching
and other visual stimuli are used as guides and catalysts for the realisation of
sound. In this approach, a process of deliberately blurring boundaries between
real and imaginary realms affords a space to daydream to be moved by sounds,
the flow of mental images, virtual sensations, and memory-images that one can
associate with traces, dots, shapes or textures. This parallel allows me to find my
way within the sonic realm, shaping sound materials and sequences that
progressively define a musical structure. This space, which has no proper
physical existence, invites sonic and visual perception and imagination to
confront, destroy and renew each another, directing the musicâs emergence
through a feedback loop between the visual and the aural. A key conceptual tool
in this practice is the notion of sensory qualia and a blend of phenomenological
and ecological views of sound and bodily centered, internally registered
responses. By focusing on qualitative sensations derived from drawing, painting
and sensations of motion in the natural world, parallels with the sonic imagination
are stimulated. The graphical expression of gestures deployed in space and time
becomes a space of boundless, imaginative reflection of the composerâs sonic
conceptions and expectations
COMPOSITIONAL EXPLORATIONS OF PLASTIC SOUND
Each piece of music in this research is meant to explore a different aspect
of music as a plastic art. Conclusions reached in the review of each new work
were used to guide the development of the next.
The notions of plasticity in sound, and sound as a plastic material were
used to give the overall research a focal point. In exploring different types of
composition, reciprocal plasticity between the materials and the developing
ideas of the music are discussed in the context of ecological and biological
psychology.
By restricting all these works within the genre of 'plastic arts' it became
necessary to introduce a new technique for instrumental composition. An
aural model is used to replace the traditional written score. These instrumental
works were developed entirely within an auditory situation.Funded by De Montfort Universit
Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish
Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellÀ (in front of) and jÀljessÀ (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003).
When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellÀ (in front of) and jÀljessÀ (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected.
We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakersâ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers.
All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion.
We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion.
Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneuxâs question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo
Embodied gestures
This is a book about musical gestures: multiple ways to design instruments, compose musical performances, analyze sound objects and represent sonic ideas through the central notion of âgestureâ.
The writers share knowledge on major research projects, musical compositions and methodological tools developed among different disciplines, such as sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. They visualize how similar and compatible are the notions of embodied music cognition and the artistic discourses proposed by musicians working with âgestureâ as their compositional material.
The authors and editors hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion around creative technologies and music, expressive musical interface design, the debate around the use of AI technology in music practice, as well as presenting a new way of thinking about musical instruments, composing and performing with them
Multimodal-first or pantomime-first?
A persistent controversy in language evolution research has been whether language
emerged in the gestural-visual or in the vocal-auditory modality. A âdialecticâ solution
to this age-old debate has now been gaining ground: language was fully multimodal
from the start, and remains so to this day. In this paper, we show this solution to be too
simplistic and outline a more specific theoretical proposal, which we designate as
pantomime-first. To decide between the multimodal-first and pantomime-first
alternatives, we review several lines of interdisciplinary evidence and complement it
with a cognitive-semiotic experiment. In the study, the participants saw â and then
matched to hand-drawn images â recordings of short transitive events enacted by 4
actors in two conditions: visual (only body movement), and multimodal (body
movement accompanied by nonlinguistic vocalization). Significantly, the matching
accuracy was greater in the visual than the multimodal condition, though a follow-up
experiment revealed that the emotional profiles of the events enacted in the multimodal
condition could be reliably detected from the sound alone. We see these results as
supporting the proposed pantomime-first scenari
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