Spatial Sound

The history and phenomenology of human senses leave much to investigate in terms of aesthetic discernment and conceivable social change by the rearrangement of the senses— considering the supremacy of vision in the Western society as a hindrance for a more acute awareness laying on multisensory engagement. I believe that we humans are overexposed to visuals in our contemporary environment to the extent when the significance of visual images may start to fade but most definitely changes. Yet vision is widely recognized as the reliable source of knowledge and discovery, therefore assigned to authoritative power and the masculine. Secondary senses such as smell, touch, or hearing are environed in subjectivity and abstruseness. Their objective position is rather difficult to grasp in an established scientific manner hence they are often considered inexplicable or even mysterious, therefore associated with the feminine. After discussing the relevant literature and historical context in the first part of the paper, the present research is a case study supported by interviews and the examination and analytical comparison of immersive multisensory artworks that challenge their audiences’ vision. In the following chapters, the relevant artistic examples are presented and analyzed such as Haptic Fields by Chris Salter & TeZ; Osmodrama via Smeller 2.0 by Wolfgang Georgsdorf; Imagining the Hyperspace by IOANN & Paul Oomen; and Sta/g-mos by Kate De Lorme, completed by other artistic examples from Anicka Yi, Eduardo Kac and others. In each studied case, a different combination of the senses has been brought to the foreground. The final chapter of the thesis incorporates a discussion reviewing the analytical coding of the interview materials. In a nutshell, this section addresses social, cultural, and aesthetic motives, the audience engagement within a challenging narrative path, and the spatial and sensory design strategies that aforementioned artists implement to take control over the visitors’ sensory perception. Considering our overexposure to visual inputs and images in the modern world, creating and curating immersive artistic content that engages a variety of senses and challenges the inadequate presentation of sensory encompassment creates novel environments for insightful experiencing and learning. Therefore, this study takes on an opportunity to look closely at the implications of the above-mentioned examples in terms of the audience experience, and to start an investigation of the human condition concerning these experiences.
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In my thinking, encouraging artistic exploration in terms of taking control over sensory perception to rearrange the established sensory operational system facilitates audience experiences with growing consciousness and introspection. This attitude may result in increasing social responsibility that is in line with a prospect for questioning preset orders and existing power structures in society that are intimately bound to an antiseptic visual culture.

Keywords: multisensory discernment; phenomenology of the senses; sensory hierarchy; hyperaesthetic culture; ocularcentrism; sensory knowledge production.

In this research MA Art Studies thesis, I assess the potentials of today’s sound-spatialising technology for an embodied engagement with techno music. Central to this research is the moving subject, the physically engaged human, rather than the listening subject. Techno music is highly persuasive in inducing rhythmic synchronisation in the dancer, which forms the basis for its mode of musicking. This mode of musicking — I propose the verb technoing, as a generic specification of Christopher Small’s musicking — induces a trance-like corporeal entrainment. Hence, the notion of immersion comes to the fore as being the telos of techno. In this thesis determine whether contemporary spatialising technologies are able to induce immersion in the technoer through expressive alignment to its sonic materiality. 


OMPrisma is a library for the control of sound source spatialization and spatial sound synthesis in the computer-aided composition environment OpenMusic. In this article we describe the basic concepts underlying this library and its integration into compositional workflows ranging from high-level symbolic control structures to spatial sound synthesis and reproduction. A generic framework is presented, consisting of authoring environment, rendering engines and real-time decoding application. We particularly focus on periphonic spatialization processes and the usability of ambisonics from a compositional perspective.

OMPrisma is a library for the control of sound source spatialization and spatial sound synthesis in the computer-aided composition environment OpenMusic. In this article we describe the basic concepts underlying this library and its integration into compositional workflows ranging from high-level symbolic control structures to spatial sound synthesis and reproduction. A generic framework is presented, consisting of authoring environment, rendering engines and real-time decoding application. We particularly focus on periphonic spatialization processes and the usability of ambisonics from a compositional perspective.

Abstract—Audio windows are, in analogy to graphical win-dowing systems, an idiom for managing multiple streams of information, as in teleconferences, chatspaces, or virtual concerts. Audio windowing systems are especially appropriate on small screen devices for practical applications in ubiquitous computing. We have developed a multiplatform implementation of audio windowing systems to control source¥ sink transmissions in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), for workstations and mobile devices. Clipboard ...

Abstract—Audio windows are, in analogy to graphical win-dowing systems, an idiom for managing multiple streams of information, as in teleconferences, chatspaces, or virtual concerts. Audio windowing systems are especially appropriate on small screen devices for practical applications in ubiquitous computing. We have developed a multiplatform implementation of audio windowing systems to control source¥ sink transmissions in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), for workstations and mobile devices. Clipboard ...

This paper presents research undertaken by the Bent Leather Band investigating the application of live Ambisonics to large digital-instrument ensemble improvisation. Their playable approach to live ambisonic projection is inspired by the work of Trevor Wishart and presents a systematic investigation of the potential for live spatial motion improvisation.

We are exploring IDSS (intelligent driver support systems), especially including way-finding presented via spatial audio.(" Way-finding" refers to giving a driver directions, as via car navigation ['car-nabi"] GPS/GIS systems.) We have developed a networked driving simulator as a virtual-reality based interface (control/display system) featuring integration with the Sc haire rotary motion platform for azimuth-display, stereographic display for 3D graphics, and spatial audio (sound spatialization) way-finding cues. A design for a ...

Spatial is related to multi-dimensionality in nature. Spatial sound is perceived in three dimensions in relationship with the source location. Thus, spatial sound perception provides the location of sound source. In other words, this capability of localizing sound in space is often referred to as spatial sound. In music technology, spatial sound, which is introduced to the listener through various techniques such as mono, stereo, quadro, ambio, surround etc., is in the domain of spatial audio studies. Hundreds of years ago, when there was no concept of music technology yet, spatial sound was practiced by a number of classical music composers. Giovanni Gabrieli, in the 16th century, splits the choir in two groups named "cori spezzati" similar to the stereo technique. The Baroque period composer Vivaldi’s “per eco in lontano” can be regarded as the first spatial sound performance with echo technique on a concert hall. In the history of classical music, Classical period composers Haydn and Mozart, Romantic period composers Berlioz and Mahler, and 20th century composers Ives and Stockhausen have composed some pieces which can also be considered as spatial sound performances. In this study, the relationship between classical music composers above and their performances connected with spatial sound will be discussed, examining the original parts of their music and establishing a connection with between their performances and dimensionality. The result of this study points out that some classical music composers can consciously raise awareness in the audience by presenting spatial sounds in their music.

Sound spatialisation is an important component in interactive per- formances as well as in game audio and virtual or mixed reality systems. HCI practices are increasingly focused on creating a natural user experience and embodied interaction through gestu- ral control. Body movements that coincide with sounds consist of both performed ‘sound producing‘ gestures, and ancillary and communicative movements. Thus, different gestural typologies may relate to the same audio source. Furthermore, gestures may depend on the context in which they have been expressed; in other words, they can carry different semantic or semiotic meanings in relationship to the situation and environment or reality in which they have been enacted. In order to explore these research themes, we are developing gSPAT: a software and hardware system able to drive live sound spatialisation for interactive audio performance using gestural control based on human-meaningful gesture-sound relationships. The ultimate aim is to provide a highly natural and musically expressive sound spatialisation experience for the per- former. Here we describe three experiments conducted to explore the possible directions for the future of gSPAT’s development. The tests employ a range of practice-based and ethnographic research methods to establish applicability, naturalness and usability across a range of approaches to the interaction design of the system.

In this paper an integrated system for the creation of a combined audio and tactile display is described. In order to get an illusion of physically being among virtual sounding objects, we used vibration motors attached to a belt to give tactile stimulus, and sensed the user’s position and orientation with a 3D tracker. Collisions with free-to-move virtual objects is provided through semi-realistic vibration on the correct collision point with respect to the position and orientation of the user. The tactile vibration is encoded on 8 vibrotactile motors using a calculation of the gains on the motors similar to a panning law and improved to convey the perceptual illusion of proximity of the object and collision with it. We combine the tactile stimulus with a spatialization system augmented with distance cues. As a case scenario, simpleLife, an immersive audio-tactile installation for one participant, inspired by the concept of performance ecosystems and ecological approaches to musical interaction is shown.

Apresentação centrada no desenvolvmento de ideias que se articulam na intersecção  da filosofia, psicoacústica e composição musical.

A criação de movimentos espaciais sonoros assim como a simulação de algumas percepções auditivas paradoxais, podem ser ferramentas composicionais determinantes na estética de algumas obras musicais, na estruturação e sua integração no espaço físico onde serão escutadas.

Demonstraremos assim a aplicação de algumas concepções teóricas na prática artística, predominantemente sonoras, exemplificando com casos específicos de obras musicais. Demonstraremos de que modos o uso desta práticas pode ser determinante na estruturação de uma obra de arte, seja musical, de arte sonora, ou instalação por exemplo. As demonstrações que faremos podem ser concretizadas por sistemas de síntese digital, —em diferido, e incorporadas nas obras de arte à posteriori—, ou geradas em tempo real no espaço onde a obra de arte é produzida ou apresentada.