Joe Frank

from NPR Two pieces by legendary producer Joe Frank: Rent-a-Family and Fragments for Mixed Voices. These originally aired on his show Work In Progress, which aired on KCRW from 1986 to 1992. You can learn more about Joe Frank on his website, joefrank.com Two pieces by legendary producer Joe Frank: Rent-a-Family and Fragments for Mixed…Continue Reading Joe Frank

Visualizations of Reverberation – Toward the Circle

“Toward the Circle” is silent short film created by Zackery Belangerduring a research residency at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY. It presents a sequence of enclosures, each with a simulated burst of sound energy, that hints at an important relationship between sound and architecture….Continue Reading Visualizations of Reverberation – Toward the Circle

Circumstance – distributed sounds and subtlemobs

Circumstance was established in 2010 as a framework for the collaborations of Duncan Speakman, Sarah Anderson and Emilie Grenier. From 2010 – 2016 we made intimate in-ear stories, subtlemobs, pedestrian symphonies, science fiction theatre , music, and books that go beyond the page.” A Folded Path The performance consists of 30 individual GPS controlled speakers. Each…Continue Reading Circumstance – distributed sounds and subtlemobs

Sound All Around: The Continuing Evolution of 3D Audio

Close your eyes and think about the last time you were at a gig. How did it sound? The band is rocking out on stage, your friends are talking in a group over to your left, a busboy says “excuse me” as he slides past your right shoulder, and the din of the crowd is…Continue Reading Sound All Around: The Continuing Evolution of 3D Audio

Notes on Blindness VR

Notes on Blindness is an innovative film that describes John Hull’s descent into blindness. “Alongside the premiere of the feature film, Sundance 2016 saw the unveiling of Notes On Blindness : Into Darkness, an immersive virtual reality (VR) project based on John’s sensory and psychological experience of blindness. Here’s the page for the VR which can…Continue Reading Notes on Blindness VR

Tony Oursler: Imponderable

Tony Oursler’s Imponderable (2015–16) offers an alternative depiction of modernism that reveals the intersection of technological advancements and occult phenomena over the last two centuries. Presented in a “5-D” cinematic environment utilizing a contemporary form of Pepper’s ghost—a 19th-century phantasmagoric device—and a range of sensory effects (scents, vibrations, etc.), Imponderable is an immersive feature-length film…Continue Reading Tony Oursler: Imponderable

99% Invisible – 236- Reverb

Through a combination of passive and active acoustics, architects and acousticians can control the sounds of spaces to fit any kind of need. With sound-proofing and selective-amplification, we can add reverb or take it away. We can make churches sound like clubs and clubs sound like opera houses. This degree of acoustic control, however, is…Continue Reading 99% Invisible – 236- Reverb

Sound and Psychology – Binaural Beats

“Slow modulations called binaural beats are perceived when tones of different frequency are presented separately to each ear. The sensation may show how certain sounds are processed by the brain. -– Scientific American 1973 In 1839, German experimenter Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered that illusory “beats” are perceived when pure tones of slightly different frequency are separately…Continue Reading Sound and Psychology – Binaural Beats

Education – Minute of Listening

Minute of Listening at Hull Primary Schools Sound and Music in partnership with PRS for Music Foundation, have developed a special version of their Minute of Listening project for Hull (UK) Primary schools, following their core idea of interactively explore listening and music in educational processes. “We are delighted to announce a special Minute of…Continue Reading Education – Minute of Listening

Activist Sound – Christopher DeLaurenti

“Activist Sound is one way to describe the sound pieces, performances, and installations I make from field recordings of protests, testimonies, and other pertinent sonic materials of social change. In my longer works, I’m a reporter who writes novels in sound. I listen to find out whether what we hear harbors the power to suspend…Continue Reading Activist Sound – Christopher DeLaurenti

Stop Sharing Those Feel-Good Cochlear Implant Videos

The video opens with a cute baby lying in his mother’s arms. They are sitting in a doctor’s office, about to activate a cochlear implant, a device that will help the child hear. The doctor turns on the implant, the baby’s mother says his name… and he smiles so wide his pacifier falls out of…Continue Reading Stop Sharing Those Feel-Good Cochlear Implant Videos

Dial Tone-Inspired Sound Art – Aura Satz

The dial tone, that curious electronic sound of latent communication, is the subject of two ongoing telephonic sound art pieces by Aura Satz. The first piece is currently showing at the Hayward Gallery’s Mirrorcity exihibition, which features work by London-based artists who are influenced by sci-fi, new speculative philosophies, and the internet age.  …Continue Reading Dial Tone-Inspired Sound Art – Aura Satz

Behaves So Strangely

For those of us who have trouble staying in tune when we sing, Deutsch has some exciting news. The problem might not be your ears, but your language. She tells us about tone languages, such as Mandarin and Vietnamese, which rely on pitch to convey the meaning of a word. Turns out speakers of tone languages are exponentially more inclined to have absolute (AKA ‘perfect’) pitch. And, nope, English isn’t one of them. …Continue Reading Behaves So Strangely

Musical Illusions

Ready to hear some trippy stuff? Check out these audio illusions from Diana Deutsch (of Sometimes Behaves So Strangely fame). Explanations for each illusion are at the bottom the post. All the audio and explanations come from Diana Deutsch’s Audio Illusions site, where you can check out her CDs for more brain-bending tracks. And let…Continue Reading Musical Illusions

Hildegard Westerkamp – Linking Soundscape Composition and Acoustic Ecology

The microphone alters listening. The mere comparison between how our ears listen and how the microphone picks up sounds in the environment, brings alerted awareness to the soundscape. Not only the recordist’s listening is intensified, often also that of people witnessing the microphone’s presence. It creates an occasion and new significance of a place. Sometimes…Continue Reading Hildegard Westerkamp – Linking Soundscape Composition and Acoustic Ecology

Steven Feld – Voices of the Rainforest (sound anthropology)

Voices of the Rainforest is a recorded soundscape of a day in the life of the Kaluli people of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea. As the day progresses, one hears birds, water, insects and other ambient voices of the rainforest interspersed with Kaluli songs and instrumental sounds of work, leisure and ritual. The album was recorded…Continue Reading Steven Feld – Voices of the Rainforest (sound anthropology)

Luc Ferrari – Presque Rien avec Filles

The conceit behind the 1989 edition of Luc Ferrrari’ “Presque Rien Avec Filles” is that a concealed composer/photographer records some girls having a picnic. If that sounds potentially passive and prurient, it ends up being neither. The opening nature sounds are soon elbowed aside by isolated words and exhalations, which are in turn blasted by bursts of a very late ’80s-sounding drum machine. …Continue Reading Luc Ferrari – Presque Rien avec Filles

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma – El Divisadero

Using archive and field recordings, Chris Watson recreates a passenger ride across the country on a line that no longer exists. It’s been more than a decade since the last service operated by the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM). Watson spent a month on board one of the trains as a sound recordist working with a film crew documenting a BBC TV series on Great Railways Journeys. The atmospheres captured with sensitive microphones in the country reveal the environment at its most open, intimate and natural setting. An additional post-production of looping train samples, turns this mere field recording into a mesmerizing trip. This is more than just a sound portrait lifted off a television show. Watson composes a cinematic narrative bringing the listener (and the observer) into a setting unattainable alone. …Continue Reading Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma – El Divisadero

Helen Keller – From My Later Life

Tremulously I stand in the subways, absorbed into the terrible reverberations of exploding energy. Fearful, I touch the forest of steel girders loud with the thunder of oncoming trains that shoot past me like projectiles. InertI stand, riveted in my place. My limbs, paralyzed, refuse to obey the will insistent on haste to board the train while the lightning steed…Continue Reading Helen Keller – From My Later Life

So you want to talk about squid?

Here’s a good example of the way that language can be manipulated to tweak intelligibility and meaning. All About Squid By Gregory Whitehead William S. Burroughs suggests that language often behaves like a virus as it passes from mouth to mouth, gathering microbes along the way: microbes provoking strange mutations that may express themselves through the most…Continue Reading So you want to talk about squid?

Joan LaBarbara – Voice is the Original Instrument

From Joan LaBarbara: One of my earliest pieces, “Hear What I Feel”, was a self-exploratory, sensory-deprivation experimental work, designed to help me discover new sounds, delve into psychological aspects, as well as communicate with the audience on a pre-verbal level of awareness. After spending an hour in isolation with my eyes taped shut and not…Continue Reading Joan LaBarbara – Voice is the Original Instrument

Torture Methods With Sound: How Pure Noise Can Be Used To Break You Psychologically

Have you ever got a song stuck in your head that you just can’t seem to shake? That catchy piece of music on a recurrent loop in your brain, also known as an earworm, may seem torturous but pales in comparison to actual sound torture employed for military purposes. Sound torture is a type of…Continue Reading Torture Methods With Sound: How Pure Noise Can Be Used To Break You Psychologically

Two Trains – Sonification of Income Inequality on the NYC Subway

“This song emulates a ride on the New York City Subway’s 2 Train through three boroughs: Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. At any given time, the quantity and dynamics of the song’s instruments correspond to the median household income of that area. Read more about the composition and process of creating this song here: datadrivendj.com/tracks/subway…Continue Reading Two Trains – Sonification of Income Inequality on the NYC Subway

Julian Treasure: Why architects need to use their ears

Because of poor acoustics, students in classrooms miss 50 percent of what their teachers say and patients in hospitals have trouble sleeping because they continually feel stressed. Julian Treasure sounds a call to action for designers to pay attention to the “invisible architecture” of sound. This video is a good accompaniment to many other posts…Continue Reading Julian Treasure: Why architects need to use their ears

Fabricmachine – sound and textiles

Another instance of taking the physical or visual properties of a material and converting them to sound. FABRIC MACHINE Installation and performative Instrument: Two fabric loops, driven by a motor, create a division in space. Light sensors measure the opacity of the textile; The way all pieces are sewed together for a fabric sound track…Continue Reading Fabricmachine – sound and textiles

Soundweaving: Artist Converts Folk Embroidery Patterns into Paper Scores for Music Boxes

Soundweaving is a recent project by Hungarian design student Zsanett Szirmay that turns patterns used in traditional folk embroidery into music by translating them into laser-cut punch cards fed through a custom music box. The project was partially inspired by actual paper cards used in some weaving looms to easily reproduce patterns for various textiles….Continue Reading Soundweaving: Artist Converts Folk Embroidery Patterns into Paper Scores for Music Boxes