459 research outputs found
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Expériences sonores: Music in Postwar Paris and the Changing Sense of Sound
This dissertation examines the impact of electronic sound technology on theories and practices of listening in Paris since 1945. It focusses on experimental work, carried out by musicians and medical professionals and designed with the express purpose of transforming the minds, bodies, and experiences of listening subjects in order to produce “experimental listeners.” Why did the senses become a target of manipulation at this particular moment, and how was technology used and abused for these ends? What kinds of changes to human beings, permanent or otherwise, was sound technology imagined to produce? And on what grounds were such experimental activities legitimized? To answer these questions in high definition, the story follows two main protagonists: otolaryngologist Alfred Tomatis and composer Pierre Schaeffer.
Chapter 1 provides a launch pad into the world of Tomatis’s unconventional listening therapy by focusing on the invention in 1953 of the Electronic Ear, a device that could be described as an experiment in sensory prosthetics. Chapter 2 looks at Schaeffer’s experimental research into listening—through his “sound objects”—where his ultimate goal was to establish an entirely new musical culture based upon a new sensibility of sound awoken by the novel sound technologies of his day. The third chapter dissects Tomatis’s unlikely “postmortem” analysis of Enrico Caruso’s ears. Under the microscope in Chapter 4 is Schaeffer’s practical relationship with his public and his theoretical understanding of the mass media.
Combining musicology with the history of the senses, science studies, and sound studies, and drawing on archival research, I excavate the material and epistemological resources mobilized by these experimenters to make malleable the sense of sound: not only resources broadly understood as “scientific” (mainstream medicine, cybernetics, information theory, acoustics) but also those often considered less so (psychoanalysis, alternative medicine, mysticism, and a panoply of spiritual beliefs). The project scrutinizes attempts to transform lived experience using electronic sound production technology; more broadly, it explores the meaning of the technological itself and its capacity to contain strange hybrid machines caught between fact and fiction, science and magic, human and non-human, matter and spirit, and certainty and wonder
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Editor’s Note
The Acknowledgment—in which this note is, at least in part, an exercise—is a tricky genre: there are always too many people to thank but too few words fit for the task. A game presents itself: to avoid where possible repetitions of the golden word—the T–word—and its few synonyms; in other words, no thanks, no gratitude. Keith Richards (2010, 549), in his autobiography Life, has a tidy solution: a single “my thanks to . . .” and then two sober columns of alphabetically ordered names. Similarly, in one of the more moving exemplars, Roger Parker (2006, xi–xii) follows “thanks to . . .” with a sentence almost two pages long, where he honors each addressee with a personalized vignette held between semicolons. With tongue presumably in cheek, Tamara Levitz (2012, xvii) interrupts the steady toll of T–words when, rather than thank her proofreaders, she “thinks” them
The State of Working Families in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts economy, workforce, and families have all undergone substantial changes over the past two
decades. This paper, focusing on the labor market pressures facing families, employers, and their communities,
summarizes these trends and their interconnections. The data presented in this paper lead us to see work, family,
and community issues as tightly joined. They need to be addressed in an integrated fashion for the Massachusetts
economy to prosper and for the state be an affordable and attractive place to live
Creating an international network of democracy builders
Factors driving democratization in post-conflict Liberia are not necessarily the same set of factors related to democratic consolidation and quality in Costa Rica or those associated with the transition to electoral democracy in Palestine. There are considerable complex debates, in both the scholarly and policy literature, about democratic transitions – what works for whom, and in what circumstances. The three case studies on democratic transitions in Liberia, Costa Rica, and Palestine, together with seven other case studies, will form the basis for a teaching tool, grounded in comparative research. This report is part of phase one for the research proposal
Exploring the waveform characteristics of tidal breathing carbon dioxide, measured using the N-Tidal C device in different breathing conditions (The General Breathing Record Study): protocol for an observational, longitudinal study
Background: In an increasingly comorbid population, there are significant challenges to diagnosing the cause of breathlessness, and once diagnosed, considerable difficulty in detecting deterioration early enough to provide effective intervention. The burden of the breathless patient on the health care economy is substantial, with asthma, chronic heart failure, and pneumonia affecting over 6 million people in the United Kingdom alone. Furthermore, these patients often have more than one contributory factor to their breathlessness symptoms, with conditions such as dysfunctional breathing pattern disorders—an under-recognized component. Current methods of diagnosing and monitoring breathless conditions can be extensive and difficult to perform. As a consequence, home monitoring is poorly complied with. In contrast, capnography (the measurement of tidal breath carbon dioxide) is performed during normal breathing. There is a need for a simple, easy-to-use, personal device that can aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory and cardiac causes of breathlessness.Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the use of a new, handheld capnometer (called the N-Tidal C) in different conditions that cause breathlessness. We will study whether the tidal breath carbon dioxide (TBCO2) waveform, as measured by the N-Tidal C, has different characteristics in a range of respiratory and cardiac conditions.Methods: We will perform a longitudinal, observational study of the TBCO2 waveform (capnogram) as measured by the N-Tidal C capnometer. Participants with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma, breathing pattern disorders, chronic heart failure, motor neurone disease, pneumonia, as well as volunteers with no history of lung disease will be asked to provide twice daily, 75-second TBCO2 collection via the N-Tidal C device for 6 months duration. The collated capnograms will be correlated with the underlying diagnosis and disease state (stable or exacerbation) to determine if there are different TBCO2 characteristics that can distinguish different respiratory and cardiac causes of breathlessness.Results: This study’s recruitment is ongoing. It is anticipated that the results will be available in late 2018.Conclusions: The General Breathing Record Study will provide an evaluation of the use of capnography as a diagnostic and home-monitoring tool for various diseases
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