Auralized Architectures: Re-Sounding the Ancient Past
Enlivened with sound, ancient sites, structures, and musical instruments are given voice by archaeoacoustics research techniques. How can digital technologies enable us to engage these long-silent traces of past life? How might sonic re-constructions or "auralizations" be situated to communicate multiple interpretations of the distant past? How do sonic architectures relate to other archaeological evidence? We examine such questions through cross-disciplinary readings and discussion of theories and methods commonly and uncommonly employed in archaeology and sound studies. Via computer laboratory and field exercises, we explore how audio digital signal processing (DSP) techniques can be applied to questions of ancient humanity and musical archaeology. Comparative examples of local, present-day sonic dynamics of the built environment additionally inform our inquiry.
Sound, Space, and Sense of Place
How does the human perception of sound influence our relationships with our environments? How does sound contribute to "sense of place"? What concepts and practices do we engage to structure sonic environments–real, or imagined–or to deconstruct them? This cross-disciplinary exploration combines ethnography, experimental measurement, and subjective testing with textual/media research. Course participants draw on their personal specializations, and blend scholarly investigation, scientific methodology, and creative production. Through a process of individual and group activities, reflection, and production, we explore understandings of space, place, and human sonic experience, seeking specificity in expression.