Simulation & testing of a multichannel sytem for 3D sound localization

Three-dimensional (3D) audio involves the ability to localize sound anywhere in a three-dimensional space. 3D audio can be used to provide the listener with the perception of moving sounds and can provide a realistic listening experience for applications such as gaming, video conferencing, movies, and concerts. The purpose of this research is to simulate and test 3D audio by incorporating auditory localization techniques in a multi-channel speaker system. The objective is to develop an algorithm that can place an audio event in a desired location by calculating and controlling the gain factors of each speaker. A MATLAB simulation displays the location of the speakers and perceived sound, which is verified through experimentation. The scenario in which the listener is not equidistant from each of the speakers is also investigated and simulated. This research is envisioned to lead to a better understanding of human localization of sound, and will contribute to a more realistic listening experience

Natural sound rendering for headphones: . . .

With the strong growth of assistive and personal listening devices, natural sound rendering over headphones is becoming a necessity for prolonged listening in multimedia and virtual reality applications. The aim of natural sound rendering is to recreate the sound scenes with the spatial and timbral quality as natural as possible, so as to achieve a truly immersive listening experience. However, rendering natural sound over headphones encounters many challenges. This tutorial paper presents signal processing techniques to tackle these challenges to assist human listening

2D and 3D audio sound localization utilizing vector based amplitude panning

Audio systems are used to create two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) audio effects which involve the ability to localize sound within a multi-dimensional space. Multi-dimensional audio systems could be used to imitate moving sounds in applications such as home theaters, video games or headphones. When two or more equidistant speakers produce the same sound, the observer perceives the sound to be localized at a single point. The blending of sound from equidistant speakers is called the virtual sound and is perceived to originate from a virtual source. For two speakers, the virtual source is located on a circular arc between the speakers and for three speakers, the virtual source is located on a spherical cone defined by the speakers. For the observer to perceive one sound from multiple sources, the sounds must arrive at the observer at the same time and the sounds must be the same. By calculating the individual speaker gains using the method of vector-based amplitude panning (VBAP), the audio from all the speakers can be manipulated such that the observer perceives the sound to be originating from a single point. The objective of this project was to develop an algorithm that can place an audio tone in a desired location by calculating and controlling the gain factors of each speaker. In this thesis, the results of simulating in MATLAB and testing in the lab, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) audio systems with multiple speakers placed in testing positions equidistant to the observer are presented. It is envisioned that this research will lead to a better understanding of localization of sound and to a better understanding of how accurately sound is perceived by the human ear

Headphone listening: space, embodiment, materiality

In this thesis, I adopt an empirically driven phenomenological approach to study the perceptual experiences of contemporary headphone users, analysing data collected through interviews with an array of listeners to crystallize novel conceptual models. While existing headphone-listening research has attended more precisely to sociological concerns, the project of the thesis is to engage in greater depth with the perceptual-phenomenological realities of such practices and their philosophical, cultural, and aesthetic consequences, drawing especially from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s embodied phenomenology of perception to do so. I ask a series of research questions that probe various facets of headphone listening, all of which are constructed in the light of three relationally conceived themes: space, embodiment, and materiality. First (Chapter 2), I investigate the perceived spatial location of headphone sound in relation to the body, interrogating certain issues surrounding the phenomenology of in-head sound localization to theorize the notion of sonic floodings. Second (Chapter 3), I account for the intimacy of listening to mediated voices through headphones, examining how the body of the voice is perceived in spatial terms to conceive of the intercorporeal incorporation of virtual bodies during headphone listening. Third (Chapter 4), I move to the edges of the body, investigating how the materiality of headphone technologies can enter into a listener’s awareness over time as a fleshly extension of the listening body. Fourth (Chapter 5), I query the received portrait of headphone listening as an intrinsically anti-social practice by attending to the interpenetrations of the ‘interior’ and ‘exterior’ lifeworlds of the headphone user. The result is an account of headphone listening that aims to challenge, nuance, and extend prevailing scholarly accounts, one structured as an embodied-spatial trajectory that blossoms outwards from the perceived interior of the lived body through the skin towards the wider intersubjective lifeworld

Immaterial Attachments: Performing iPhone and the Rhetorics of Dematerialization

Engaging with rhetorical studies, performance studies, and surveillance studies, this thesis attempts to outline the ideological construction of the experience of iPhone, underlining how this experience—and its performance—is imbricated with conceptions of social control. To do this, I begin with the cultural oscillation between extreme psychological attachment to Apple’s iPhone and its complementary disposability. How can an object generate such attachment, yet remain disposable? To get at this question, I examine how attachment and disposability are layered together in an experience of iPhone structured by rhetorics of dematerialization. These are visual and discursive fragments that, together, construct an ideological impulse that tends toward the disappearance of the objects to which they refer, overall, working to supplement and promote iPhone’s culture of disposability. In relation to iPhone, this thesis examines rhetorics of dematerialization through three intersecting vectors: the device, the human user, and the proximal space that stages their interaction. With rhetorics of dematerialization as the larger frame, my main analyses focus on specific instances of the tension between attachment and disposability, considered as performances of attachment. Generally, these are everyday performances on and with iPhone—gestural interface, picking it up, throwing it out—that 1) collapse attachment and disposability into each other under the rhetorical rubric of a phenomenal dematerialization, 2) require users to enact, embody, and assume the rhetorics of dematerialization, and 3) have both cultural and individual effects. iPhone’s culture of disposability relies on the dematerialization of waste and wasteful consumer practices. Individually, performances of attachment with iPhone allow new models of surveillance (through data-gathering and self-tracking practices) to permeate users’ everyday experience

Tingles, tea boxes and sticky sounds – ASMR read diffractively with agential realism

In this thesis, I contemplate a phenomenon called ‘ASMR’ through and with a few of the most prominent concepts of a new material feminist scholar and theoretical physicist Karen Barad. The chosen theory, agential realism, merges physics and metaphysics and proposes a fresh and comprehensive contribution on how matter matters, and how agency is produced in material discursive practices involving ”human” and ”nonhuman” participants. Agential realism is formed in critical conversations with contemporary physics, science studies, (intersectional) feminist, posthumanist, and post-structuralist theories. Intra-action, matter, and agency are core concepts of agential realism, which is not realism toward entities (things), but realism toward phenomena. ASMR (’Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response’) is still a somewhat inscrutable topic, although it has become more and more recognized in public conversations. A bodily characteristic of ASMR is reported to be a pleasurable (non-sexual) tingly sensation, experienced in relaxed situations and triggered by certain multisensory stimuli. Private vloggers, playfully calling themselves as ASMRtists, are uploading millions of ASMR videos to spark tingles in the spectator. A YouTube community has formed around the phenomenon. Themes of ASMR videos vary from imaginary medical appointments to seemingly absurd play with household items. Peculiar to the videos is that they feature extraordinarily intent and durational engagements with ”human,” ”nonhuman,” ”animate” and ”inanimate” objects and materials (for example with human hair, light bulbs, foreign words, and velvet). At its simplest, ASMR can be defined as an example of visual subculture: ASMR videos are user-created content on YouTube, which is a site of participatory culture online. ASMR is a topical example of the emergence of phenomena in this era. Advertisements, opinions, politics, consumerism, resistance, trends, idolization and ideals are all entangled on YouTube channels. Making a living as a professional YouTuber has become an increasingly common wish for one’s occupation, alongside the more traditional aspirations to become an actor or a teacher. Research in art education, then, is a critical prospect towards and within (visual) culture; it is and should be attentive to the practices and relations that constitute matter and meaning. Posthumanist discourses, emerging with new formulations of feminisms, as well as theories that account for materiality again, are influencing today’s art education. My challenge is to expand the instantaneous perception of the ASMR phenomenon as a mere example of human culture’s production, a bunch of YouTube videos, and a human-centric physical-emotional sensorial experience. In this thesis, I contemplate how intra-active entanglements and the production of agency materializes and manifests in the ASMR phenomenon. I’m not only interested in what is produced as part of ASMR, but how it is produced. My method is diffractive reading, which can also be phrased as ”thinking the theory” (agential realism) ”while reading the data” (ASMR phenomenon, with two exemplary videos serving as concrete examples of the genre). As I get entangled with ASMR, I strive to think with and within the box, as much as from outside it.Opinnäytteessäni tarkastelen teoreettisen fyysikon ja uusmaterialistisen feministitutkijan Karen Baradin käsitteiden kautta ilmiötä nimeltä ASMR. Baradin teoria, agential realism (suom. agentiaalinen realismi), on kokonaisvaltainen ontologia, joka on muotoiltu kriittisessä vuoropuhelussa nykyfysiikan, tieteentutkimuksen, (intersektionaalisen) feminismin, sekä posthumanististen ja jälkistrukturalististen teorioiden kanssa. Agentiaalinen realismi sulauttaa kvanttifysiikan tulkinnat ja metafysiikan peruskysymykset yhteen, ja ottaa kantaa todellisuuden materiaalisuuteen ja materian merkitykseen. Teoria pyrkii selittämään toimijuuden (agency) materiaalis-diskursiivista toteutumista ilmiöissä, joihin kuuluu sekä ”inhimillisiä” (human) että ”muita kuin inhimillisiä” (nonhuman / other-than-human) osallistumisia. Agentiaalinen realismi ei ole entiteettien realismia, vaan sen sijaan se käsittää ilmiöiden olevan todellisuuden perusyksiköitä. ASMR (sanoista ’Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response’) on melko tutkimaton, suhteellisen hiljattain tunnistettu ja tunnustettu ilmiö, joka on viime vuosina alkanut herättää kiinnostusta julkisessa keskustelussa. ASMR-ilmiön ytimessä on spesifi, kihelmöivä hyvänolontunne (tyypillisesti ei seksuaalinen), joka koetaan rentouttavissa tilanteissa tiettyjen moniaististen ärsykkeiden yhteydessä.Yksityiset videoblokkaajat, jotka ovat leikkisästi nimenneet itsensä ASMRtisteiksi, lataavat miljoonia videoita YouTubeen, tarkoituksenaan synnyttää ASMR-kokemus katsojassa. Ilmiön ympärille onkin syntynyt nettiyhteisö, jonka keskiössä ovat ASMR-videot. Videoiden teemat vaihtelevat kuvitteellisista lääkärikäynneistä näennäisen absurdeihin leikkeihin tyypillisesti taloustavaroiden, tai vaikkapa ruoan kanssa. Erityistä videoiden sisällöissä onkin intensiivinen ja tarkoituksellisen pitkäkestoinen antautuminen kanssaoloon ”inhimillisten”, ”ei-inhimillisten”, ”elävien” ja ”elottomien” objektien ja materian kanssa (video saattaa esimerkiksi kulua hiusten, hehkulamppujen, vieraskielisten sanojen tai sametin parissa). Ykskantaan ASMR-ilmiön voisi lukea visuaalisen alakulttuurin muodoksi: ASMR-videot ovat itsetuotettua sisältöä YouTubessa, joka on eräs osallistavan online-kulttuurin areenoista. ASMR on kiinnostava esimerkki ilmiöiden toteutumisesta ja leviämisestä tässä ajassa. Mainonta, mielipiteet, politiikka, kuluttaminen, vastustaminen, trendit, ihanteet ja idolisointi ovat kietoutuneet YouTube-kanavilla. Itsensä elättäminen ”tubettajana” on yhä tyypillisempi toiveammatti perinteisen näyttelijän tai opettajantyön ohella. Taidekasvatuksella tehdyn tutkimuksen pitäisi ottaa kriittinen tarkastelukulma (visuaaliseen) kulttuuriin, jonka erottamattomana osana niin taide, kuin taidekasvatus toteutuvat. Tämä kriittinen suhtautuminen tarkoittaa virittäytymistä (visuaalisen) kulttuurin käytäntöihin ja suhteellisuuksiin, joissa materia ja merkitys toteutuvat ja tapahtuvat. Posthumanistiset ja feministiset diskurssit, sekä uusmaterialistiset teoriat ovat osa myös tämän päivän taidekasvatusfilosofiaa. Tässä tutkielmassa laajennan ihmiskeskeistä käsitystä ASMR-ilmiöstä silkkana kulttuurin tuotteena, fyysis-emotionaalisena aistikokemuksena, tai joukkona erikoisia YouTube-videoita.Tutkin Baradin käsitteillä miten, ja millaisissa intra-aktioissa (ei vuoro-, vaan kanssavaikutuksissa) toimijuus materialisoituu ja manifestoituu ASMR-ilmiön kontekstissa. Metodini on diffraktiivinen: olennaista on, että oivallukset eivät synny pelkästä aineistosta, ja sitten selity teorialla, eikä teoria määritä huomionarvoisia havaintoja, vaan teoria, aineisto (keskeisimpänä kaksi ASMR-ilmiöön kuuluvaa videota), ja minä toimimme kanssavaikutuksessa

Binaural Audio Signal Processing Using Interaural Coherence Matching

Binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) characterize the transfer of sound from a source in a room to the left and right ear entrances of a listener. Applying BRIRs to sound source signals enables headphone listening with the perception of a three dimensional auditory image. BRIRs are usually linear filters of several hundred milliseconds to several seconds length. The waveforms of the BRIRs contain therefore a vast amount of information. This thesis studies the modeling of BRIRs with a reduced set of parameters. It is shown that late BRIR tails can be modeled perceptually accurately by considering only the time-frequency energy decay relief and frequency dependent interaural coherence (IC). This insight on BRIR modeling enables a number of algorithms with advantages over the previous state of the art. Three such algorithms are proposed: The first algorithm makes it possible to obtain BRIRs by measuring room properties and listener properties separately, vastly reducing the number of measurements necessary to measure listener-specific BRIRs for a number of listeners and rooms. The listener properties are measured as a head related transfer function (HRTF) set and the room properties are measured as a B-format1 room impulse response (RIR). It is shown how to combine the HRTF set of the listener with a B-format RIR to obtain BRIRs for that room individualized for the listener. This technique uses the insight on BRIR perception by computing the BRIR tail as a frequency dependent, linear combination of B-format channels, designed to obtain the desired energy decay relief and interaural coherence. A serious problem related to convolving sound source signals with BRIRs is the computational complexity of implementing long BRIRs as finite impulse response (FIR) filters. Inspired by the perceptual experiments on BRIR tails, a modified Jot reverberator is proposed, simulating BRIR tails with the desired frequency dependent interaural coherence, requiring significantly less computational power than direct application of BRIRs. Also inspired by the perception of BRIRs, an extension of this reverberator is proposed, modeling efficiently the reverberation tail with the correct coherence and also distinct early reflections using two parallel feedback delay networks. If stereo signals are played back using headphones, unnatural binaural cues are given to the listener, e.g. interaural level difference (ILD) changes not accompanied by corresponding interaural time difference (ITD) changes or diffuse sound with unnatural IC. In order to simulate stereo listening in a room and to avoid these unnatural cues, BRIRs can be applied to the left and right stereo channels. Besides the computational complexity associated with applying the BRIR filters, this technique has a number of disadvantages. The room associated with the used BRIRs is imposed on the stereo signal, which usually already contains reverberation and applying BRIRs leads to a change in reverberation time and to coloration. A technique is proposed in which the direct sound is rendered using data extracted from HRTFs and the ambient sound contained in the stereo signal is modified such that its coherence is matched to the coherence of a binaural recording of diffuse sound, without modifying its spectrum. Implementations of reverberators based on general feedback-delay networks (e.g. Jot reverberators) can require a high number of operations for implementing the so-called feedback matrix. For certain applications where the number of channels needs to be high, such as decorrelators, this can pose a real problem. Special types of matrices are known which can be implemented efficiently due to matrix elements having the same magnitude. However, the complexity can also be reduced by introducing many zero elements. Different types of such sparse feedback matrices are proposed and tested for their suitability in Jot reverberators. A highly efficient feedback matrix is obtained by combining both approaches, choosing the nonzero elements of a sparse matrix from efficiently implementable Hadamard matrices. ______________________________ 1 B-format refers to a 4-channel signal recorded with four coincident microphones: one omni and three dipole microphones pointing in orthogonal directions

Yuval Sharon’s Twilight: Gods (2020-21)

Yuval Sharon’s Twilight: Gods is a drive-through opera that presents a contemporary vernacular reimagination of Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung. Motivated by pandemic-related concerns, it was staged in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center in October 2020 and subsequently in Chicago’s Millennium Lakeside Parking Garage in April 2021. Rejecting immersion, my article puts forth re-enchantment as a phenomenological model, which captures the sense of play underlying site-specific opera. I build on Carolyn Abbate’s notion of “ludic distance” in positing that re-enchantment is derived not despite, but because of our hyperawareness of the creative tensions present in the hybrid media and technologies fleshed out before us. Moving on then to more specifically ideological—and ethical—considerations, I interrogate the racialized scripting underpinning the opera’s display culture. Employing Matthew Morrison’s Blacksound, I examine Scene 4 (“Siegfried’s Funeral March”) in demonstrating how it reveals an attempt to muster Detroit/Blacksound in the commodified packaging of Black signifiers for the edification of an elite, mostly white audience. A musical collaboration premised on “fitting” Black music into the dominant Western paradigm perpetuates musical essentialism. Similarly problematic questions ensue from examining the ethics and politics of collaboration with the two Black poets who contribute to the productions in uneven ways. It is an open question whether, in the end, the creative team has succeeded in fulfilling the redemptive terms it has set for itself. I conclude by stimulating further questions and reflections on how a socially progressive and anti-Racist opera would look and sound like in 21st-century America

Objects in flux: the consumer modification of mass-produced goods

This research investigates practices of object modification with specific focus on the consumer modification of mass-produced goods. Such practices present a diverse array of activity, ranging from car customisation to the remaking of domestic appliances. As an amateur leisure-time pursuit, these practices typically operate outside the commercial processes of design and manufacture. As such, they are often positioned as deviant interventions or interruptions to the object’s ‘normal’ operation and may be actively suppressed by manufacturers. Despite this marginalised status practices of object modification represent a large body of productive activity operating within contemporary society. Taking a participatory approach, this research develops a number of ‘hacking’ and ‘modding’ projects that connect with online communities and mirror existing traditions within practices of object modification. What emerges from this engagement is a complex story, or rather a number of overlapping stories that speak of the relationships we form with objects and the affordances given within contemporary society for reshaping these relationships. The stories told here trace the forces that bind consumer practices and the lines of flight by which consumers and objects escape their socially normalised position to become something other. Through this research the homogenous, mass-produced object is revealed as a site of diverse activity, a space for shared experience, and a platform for communal experimentation

A sound takes place : noise, difference and sonorous individuation after Deleuze

This thesis traces an idea of auditory influence or sonorous individuation through three distinct areas of sound-art practice. These three areas are discussed according to a kind of spatial contraction, passing from the idea of auditory influence in acoustic ecology and field recording practices, to its expression in work happening at the intersection of soundart and architecture, and finally towards headphonic space and the interior of the body. Through these diverse fields and divergent practices a common idea pertaining to the influence of the auditory upon listening subjects is revealed, which itself brings up questions concerning the constitution of a specifically auditory subjectivity in relation to the subject ‘as a whole’. Towards the expression of a theory of sonorous individuation appropriate to practices approaching sonorous matters in the mode of a sonic materialism, the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze is called upon as a critical framework. This philosophical framework is adopted as it clearly expresses a spatio-temporally contingent theory of individuation. This particular contingency becomes necessary in exploring works wherein the production of acoustic space is understood as being indissociable from a subjective ‘modulation’ or process of sonorous individuation, in which auditory individuals or listening subjects are bound within and influenced by acoustic spaces in which a sound takes place and a self takes shape.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo