AudioStreamer--leveraging the cocktail party effect for efficient listening

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-94).by Atty Thomas Mullins.M.S

The Effectiveness of Listening Instruction for First Grade Listening Comprehension

Thin study investigated the effects of listening instruction as a method of improving listening comprehension skills of first grade students. It also examined the relationship between student\u27s listening comprehension and reading comprehension, viewing the differences between these areas when students were grouped by sex. The subjects consisted of 16 first grade students, 7 fema1es and 9 males. To determine the listening comprehension level of each student, the Analytical Reading Inventory Form A was administered. The students then received listening instruction in both general and critical listening skills for a period of eight months. Following the instructional period, Form C of the Analytical Reading Inventory was given to determine growth in listening comprehension. Reading comprehension scores were obtained from the Stanford Achievement Test. A correlated t-test was used to determine the significant differences in the listening comprehension scores. Scores from the postlistening comprehension test and the reading comprehension test were analyzed to determine correlation coefficients. Data indicated that listening instruction did significantly improve listening comprehension scores. No significant relationship was found between the postlistening comprehension scores and the reading comprehension scores. There were no significant differences reported between the sexes in listening or reading comprehension. The findings suggest that listening instruction does significantly help to increase listening comprehension

Contextual awareness, messaging and communication in nomadic audio environments

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-122).Nitin Sawhney.M.S

Understanding sorting algorithms using music and spatial distribution

This thesis is concerned with the communication of information using auditory techniques. In particular, a music-based interface has been used to communicate the operation of a number of sorting algorithms to users. This auditory interface has been further enhanced by the creation of an auditory scene including a sound wall, which enables the auditory interface to utilise music parameters in conjunction with 2D/3D spatial distribution to communicate the essential processes in the algorithms. The sound wall has been constructed from a grid of measurements using a human head to create a spatial distribution. The algorithm designer can therefore communicate events using pitch, rhythm and timbre and associate these with particular positions in space. A number of experiments have been carried out to investigate the usefulness of music and the sound wall in communicating information relevant to the algorithms. Further, user understanding of the six algorithms has been tested. In all experiments the effects of previous musical experience has been allowed for. The results show that users can utilise musical parameters in understanding algorithms and that in all cases improvements have been observed using the sound wall. Different user performance was observed with different algorithms and it is concluded that certain types of information lend themselves more readily to communication through auditory interfaces than others. As a result of the experimental analysis, recommendations are given on how to improve the sound wall and user understanding by improved choice of the musical mappings

The role of engagement and visual imagery in music listening

This thesis investigates music' responses to a selection of complete nineteenth and twentieth century piano works, with respect to their levels of musical engagement (heightened attention and interest towards the music; Olsen, Dean & Stevens, 2014) and their experience of music-induced visual imagery. Although engagement and visual imagery have been increasingly explored over the past two decades, little work has investigated the relationship between the two. Potential links, however, exist: for instance, the way visual imagery is described as one of the key mechanisms underlying listeners' emotional responses to music (Juslin et al., 2013). This thesis draws upon three different methodological approaches: two exploratory studies empirically investigate listeners' responses quantitatively, as well as qualitatively; the third study, a self-reflective account, draws upon the researcher's personal visual imagery experience as a performer.In the two empirical studies, listeners provided continuous self-report measures of their engagement with the music, as well as the occurrence of any visual imagery during listening. Time series analyses revealed that engagement with the music was significantly associated with the experience of visual imagery; this was the case in both Studies 1 and 2. Granger causality tests were carried out to investigate the details of this relationship: overall, engagement mostly predicted visual imagery in Study 1; whilst a bidirectional relation of the series emerged more frequently in Study 2. In both studies, however, differences according to the piece and to the musical experience of the listener were apparent. A selection of listeners' individual differences (such as musical experience) are also reported, with respect to engagement and visual imagery responses. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data, collected through free written annotations and face-to-face interviews, led to the emergence of nine broad ‘visual imagery types’: (1) Arbitrary, (2) Shared Musical Topics, (3) Idiosyncratic Sound Associations, (4) Emotions, (5) Material Abstraction, (6) Narratives, (7) Performance, (8) Personal Recollections, and (9) Pictorial Associations. Examples of each category, alongside insights into the diverse range of imagery experiences, are provided. Finally, the self- reflective account explores visual imagery from a different perspective: the performer as listener. A pianist's visual imagery experiences are investigated across two contexts: the practice of a piano- duet work, comparing imagery data with that of a second pianist; and practising from memory, exploring the way imagery experiences may change with the absence of the score. Links to the qualitative ‘visual imagery types’ model are drawn throughout this exploration

The Visualization and Representation of Electroacoustic Music

In Chapters 1 and 2 there are definitions and a review of electroacoustic music, and then visualization generally and as applied to music. Chapter 3 is a review of specific and relevant literature as regards to the visualization of electroacoustic music. Chapter 4 introduces the concepts of imagining as opposed to discovering new sound, and what is important to this research about these terms; in addition what is meant and indicated by them. Chapter 5 deals with the responses that composers currently working have made to the enquiry concerning visualization. In this chapter these responses are dealt with as case studies. In a similar way, Chapter 6 looks at some examples of historical work in electroacoustic music, again as case studies. In Chapter 7 a taxonomical structure for the use of visualization in electroacoustic composition is established and derived from the case study results. Chapter 8 looks at relevant examples of software and how they offer visualization case studies. Chapter 9 looks at the place of the archive in various stages of the compositional process. Chapter 10 investigates the problems of visualizing musical timbre as possible evidence for future strategies. Chapter 11 offers some conclusions and implications as to the main research questions, as well as more specific outlines of potential strategies for the visualization of electroacoustic music

A quantitative, parametric model of musical tension

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves [125]-132).This thesis presents a quantitative, parametric model for describing musical tension. While the phenomenon of tension is evident to listeners, it is difficult to formalize due to its subjective and multi-dimensional nature. The model is therefore derived from empirical data. Two experiments with contrasting approaches are described. The first experiment is an online test with short musical excerpts and multiple choice answers. The format of the test makes it possible to gather large amounts of data. The second study requires fewer subjects and collects real-time responses to musical stimuli. Both studies present test subjects with examples that take into account a number of musical parameters including harmony, pitch height, melodic expectation, dynamics, onset frequency, tempo, and rhythmic regularity. The goal of the first experiment is to confirm that the individual musical parameters contribute directly to the listener's overall perception of tension. The goal of the second experiment is to explore linear and nonlinear models for predicting tension given descriptions of the musical parameters for each excerpt. The resulting model is considered for potential incorporation into computer-based applications. Specifically, it could be used as part of a computer-assisted composition environment. One such application, Hyperscore, is described and presented as a possible platform for integration.by Morwaread M. Farbood.Ph.D

Towards a digitally conceived physical performance object

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-126).In the performing arts, the relationship that is established between what is seen and what is heard must be experienced to fully appreciate and understand the aesthetics of performance. Actual physical objects such as musical instruments, lights, elements of the set, props, and people provide the visual associations and a tangible reality which can enhance the musical elements in a performance. This thesis proposes that new and artistic physical objects can, in themselves, be designed to perform. It introduces the Chandelier, a kinetic sculpture, a central set piece for a new opera, a new kind of musical instrument, and an object that performs. The piece moves and changes shape through mechanical action and the designed interplay between surfaces and light. It is intended to be interacted with by musicians and players of the opera. This thesis also explores the design process and evolution of the Chandelier with a primary objective of realizing a constructible, physical performance object through an authentic and abstruse digital conception. It is a conception not of a static nature, but incorporates a dynamic sense of changeable form through coordinated elements of light, mechanics, and sculpture.Steven L. Pliam.S.M

The Emergence of an Acoustical Art Form: An Analysis of the German Experimental Horspiel of the 1960s

The Era of the Traditional Horspiel has passed. Although they have an important and welcome place in the repertory of every German broadcaster, the radio plays of Gunter Eich, the lyrical fantasies of Ingeborg Bachmann, the suspenseful stories of Friedrich Durrenmatt, the interior monologues of Heinrich Boll, Dieter Wellershoff, and Peter Hirche no longer influence the creative energies at work in the genre as they did throughout the 1950s. They are in a sense museum pieces to which the term classic has already been widely applied. What has followed the mature classic period possesses the vigor of youth and the freshness of innovation. Called simply das Neue Horspiel, the successor to the traditional German radio play has pulled the genre out of near stagnation by offering through the radio an aesthetic experience different from that available to readers of literature, viewers of film and television, or friends of the concert hall and theater. After more than a decade of active experimentation, there are now signs that a point of transition has been reached in the development of these new forms, and that consequently it may be possible to speak collectively of the first generation of experimental Horspiele without doing excessive violence to the variety of forces at work. Before still newer forces complicate the task, the opportunity should be taken for a critical look at some of the experimental works themselves, including an examination of their generic characteristics and their principal features of form and content. It is my belief that in this process a fresh perspective will be won for a reevaluation of the classic Horspiel and its important theoretical corpus. The starting point for any attempt to understand the respective natures of the traditional and experimental Horspiel must be the postulate on which the theory of the entire genre has been based. This postulate, as formulated in the wave of generally sound theoretical and practical criticism that emerged in the years 1961 to1964, expressed the belief that there was a necessary relationship between the acoustical medium of radio and the poetic expression of the Horspiel. It became a cliche, echoed uncritically by all the major theorists, that the Horspiel was an exclusively acoustical art form. Armin P. Frank observed Rundfunksendungen im weitesten Sinn, also auch Horspiele, sind ausschliesslich akustische Gestalten. E. Kurt Fischer spoke of the Horspiel as eine rein akustische Darbietungsform, and Heinz Schwitzke of the akustische Wirklichkeit des Horspiels. 1 Not surprisingly, the handbooks of literature seized upon this basic feature as the starting point for their discussion of the genre. Gero von Wilpert\u27s Sachworterbuch der Literatur (4th ed., 1964 and 5th ed., 1969) begins its characterization of the H orspiel accordingly: HORSPIEL als neue dramatische Lit.gattung seit der Erfindung des Rundfunks (erstes H. 6.10.1923 Glasgow) ist gekennzeichnet durch Wegfall alles Optischen (Szene. Mimik. Milieu. Schauplatz. Kulisse. oft durch sog. Gerauschkulisse ersetzt) zugunsten des rein Akustischen.... The present study will argue that this premise, so reasonable on its face, was in fact premature; that it better characterizes the new variety of Horspiel which, ironically, emerged only after the definition of the classic Horspiel as a rein akustische art form. The consequence of this premature characterization has been a corresponding neglect of the role of the visual dimension in the classic Horspiel and an almost total disregard of the phenomenon of the printed text. The perspective gained by an evaluation of the newer and increasingly acoustical form of the Horspiel will demonstrate that the typical work of the classic era operates aesthetically in visual, not acoustical, terms, and that much of the excellent theory published on the exclusively acoustical Horspiel applies with equal validity to the Horspiel as printed text

The Emergence of an Acoustical Art Form: An Analysis of the German Experimental Horspiel of the 1960s

The Era of the Traditional Horspiel has passed. Although they have an important and welcome place in the repertory of every German broadcaster, the radio plays of Gunter Eich, the lyrical fantasies of Ingeborg Bachmann, the suspenseful stories of Friedrich Durrenmatt, the interior monologues of Heinrich Boll, Dieter Wellershoff, and Peter Hirche no longer influence the creative energies at work in the genre as they did throughout the 1950s. They are in a sense museum pieces to which the term classic has already been widely applied. What has followed the mature classic period possesses the vigor of youth and the freshness of innovation. Called simply das Neue Horspiel, the successor to the traditional German radio play has pulled the genre out of near stagnation by offering through the radio an aesthetic experience different from that available to readers of literature, viewers of film and television, or friends of the concert hall and theater. After more than a decade of active experimentation, there are now signs that a point of transition has been reached in the development of these new forms, and that consequently it may be possible to speak collectively of the first generation of experimental Horspiele without doing excessive violence to the variety of forces at work. Before still newer forces complicate the task, the opportunity should be taken for a critical look at some of the experimental works themselves, including an examination of their generic characteristics and their principal features of form and content. It is my belief that in this process a fresh perspective will be won for a reevaluation of the classic Horspiel and its important theoretical corpus. The starting point for any attempt to understand the respective natures of the traditional and experimental Horspiel must be the postulate on which the theory of the entire genre has been based. This postulate, as formulated in the wave of generally sound theoretical and practical criticism that emerged in the years 1961 to1964, expressed the belief that there was a necessary relationship between the acoustical medium of radio and the poetic expression of the Horspiel. It became a cliche, echoed uncritically by all the major theorists, that the Horspiel was an exclusively acoustical art form. Armin P. Frank observed Rundfunksendungen im weitesten Sinn, also auch Horspiele, sind ausschliesslich akustische Gestalten. E. Kurt Fischer spoke of the Horspiel as eine rein akustische Darbietungsform, and Heinz Schwitzke of the akustische Wirklichkeit des Horspiels. 1 Not surprisingly, the handbooks of literature seized upon this basic feature as the starting point for their discussion of the genre. Gero von Wilpert\u27s Sachworterbuch der Literatur (4th ed., 1964 and 5th ed., 1969) begins its characterization of the H orspiel accordingly: HORSPIEL als neue dramatische Lit.gattung seit der Erfindung des Rundfunks (erstes H. 6.10.1923 Glasgow) ist gekennzeichnet durch Wegfall alles Optischen (Szene. Mimik. Milieu. Schauplatz. Kulisse. oft durch sog. Gerauschkulisse ersetzt) zugunsten des rein Akustischen.... The present study will argue that this premise, so reasonable on its face, was in fact premature; that it better characterizes the new variety of Horspiel which, ironically, emerged only after the definition of the classic Horspiel as a rein akustische art form. The consequence of this premature characterization has been a corresponding neglect of the role of the visual dimension in the classic Horspiel and an almost total disregard of the phenomenon of the printed text. The perspective gained by an evaluation of the newer and increasingly acoustical form of the Horspiel will demonstrate that the typical work of the classic era operates aesthetically in visual, not acoustical, terms, and that much of the excellent theory published on the exclusively acoustical Horspiel applies with equal validity to the Horspiel as printed text