Inside the Loop: The Audio Functionality of Inside

The manner in which soundscapes evolve and change during gameplay can have many implications regarding player experience. INSIDE (Playdead in INSIDE. Released on Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and iOS, 2016) features a gameplay section in which rhythmic audio cues loop continuously both during gameplay and after player death. This paper uses this aspect of the soundtrack as a case study, examining the effects of looping sound effects and abstract musical cues on player immersion, ludic functionality, and episodic engagement. The concept of spectromorphology proposed by Smalley (Organised Sound 2(2):107–126, 1997) is used to analyse the way in which musical cues can retain ludic functionality and promote immersion in the absence of diegetic sound design. The “musical suture” (Kamp, in: Ludomusicology: approaches to video game music, Equinox, Sheffield, 2016) created by continuously looping audio during death and respawn is also examined with regards to immersing the player within an evolving soundscape

Sound archaeology: terminology, Palaeolithic cave art and the soundscape

This article is focused on the ways that terminology describing the study of music and sound within archaeology has changed over time, and how this reflects developing methodologies, exploring the expectations and issues raised by the use of differing kinds of language to define and describe such work. It begins with a discussion of music archaeology, addressing the problems of using the term ‘music’ in an archaeological context. It continues with an examination of archaeoacoustics and acoustics, and an emphasis on sound rather than music. This leads on to a study of sound archaeology and soundscapes, pointing out that it is important to consider the complete acoustic ecology of an archaeological site, in order to identify its affordances, those possibilities offered by invariant acoustic properties. Using a case study from northern Spain, the paper suggests that all of these methodological approaches have merit, and that a project benefits from their integration

Further characterization of ADAMTS-13 inactivation by thrombin

Background: The multimeric size and platelet-tethering function of von Willebrand factor (VWF) are modulated by the plasma metalloprotease, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with a thrombospondin type 1 motif, member 13 (ADAMTS-13). In vitro ADAMTS-13 is susceptible to proteolytic inactivation by thrombin. Objectives: In this study, we aimed to characterize the inactivation of ADAMTS-13 by thrombin and to assess its physiological significance. Methods and results: By N-terminal sequencing of cleavage products, and by mutagenesis, we identified the principal thrombin cleavage sites in ADAMTS-13 as R257 and R1176. Using a library of 76 thrombin mutants, we highlighted the functional importance of exosite I on thrombin in the proteolysis of ADAMTS-13. Proteolysis of ADAMTS-13 by thrombin caused an 8-fold reduction in its affinity for VWF that contributed to its loss of VWF-cleaving function. Intriguingly, thrombin-cleaved ADAMTS-13 both bound and proteolyzed a short recombinant VWF A2 domain substrate (VWF115) normally. Following activation of coagulation in normal plasma, endogenous ADAMTS-13, but not added ADAMTS-13, appeared resistant to coagulation-induced fragmentation. An estimation of the Km for ADAMTS-13 proteolysis by thrombin was appreciably higher than the physiological concentration of ADAMTS-13. This was corroborated by the comparatively low affinity of ADAMTS-13 for thrombin (KD 95 nm). Conclusions: Together, our data suggest that ADAMTS-13 is protected from rapid proteolytic inactivation by thrombin in normal plasma. Whether this remains the case under pathological situations involving elevated/sustained generation of thrombin remains unclear

Sonorous memory in Jonathan Perel’s El predio (2010) and Los murales (2011)

Throughout his filmic production, Argentine director Jonathan Perel has demonstrated strict adherence to a unique aesthetic programme in which human agents appear to have only a minimal role. Each film contains only diegetic sounds and consists of fixed shots of architectural spaces and objects closely associated with the most recent Argentine military dictatorship (1976–1983) and recent attempts to memorialise the atrocities they committed. Through the close analysis of Perel’s first two films – El predio (2010) and Los murales (2011) – this article focusses on Perel’s highly distinctive use of environmental sound and argues that they are, in fact, uniquely musical works. Drawing on the work of John Cage, Michel Chion, Deleuze and Guattari, and Doreen Massey, the article proposes that Perel manipulates sound in order to situate debates over the memorialisation of recent atrocities in a perpetual present and thus critique contemporary abuses of power in Argentina

Interactive visual music

How can Visual Music be composed and presented in such an engaging way that it will turn spectators into participants? How to connect a youthful, twenty-first century audience who are keen to update their Instagram story with Visual Music? Visual Music is an art form, which is “an equal and meaningful synthesis of the visible and audible” (Lund & Lund 2009 149) and “is typically non-narrative and non-representational” (Evans 2005 11). Visual Music is often presented as cinema. Cinema audiences are generally considered to be passive spectators, whose “reactions are pre-programmed by the director, crew, cast and writer” (Mackintosh 2003 2). This paper highlights the nexus between, to use McCall’s (2004) terms ‘the cinematic, the sculptural and the pictorial’, with a focus on creating interactive Visual Music installations

Listening geographies: Landscape, affect and geotechnologies

This paper argues for expanded listening in geography. Expanded listening addresses how bodies of all kinds, human and more-than-human, respond to sound. We show how listening can contribute to research on a wide range of topics, beyond enquiry where sound itself is the primary substantive interest. This is demonstrated through close discussion of what an amplified sonic sensibility can bring to three areas of contemporary geographical interest: geographies of landscape, of affect, and of geotechnologies