Mobile Sound
Sound, Mobile Media, Art & CultureArchive for headphones
The sound of locative media: out now
My journal article The sound of locative media has now been published by Convergence. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this article! The full reference is: Frauke Behrendt (2012) The sound of locative media, Convergence 18 (3): 283-295.
Screenshot from the video of The National Mall app
One of the case studies I discuss in the article is ‘The National Mall’, an iPhone app (released in 2011 by musicians Bluebrain) where users listen to specific music depending on their location.
Here’s the abstract:
This article develops an alternative perspective to the visual bias in locative media discourses by focusing on the role of sound in locative media and related discussions. This sonic perspective allows us to understand the temporal, situated and embodied aspects of locative media. Informed by debates from sound studies and mobile media studies, a locative smart phone application where users experience specific sounds depending on their locations, is discussed. The concept of ‘Placed Sounds’ is introduced for a more detailed analysis of locative sound experiences. A framework for analysis is developed to discuss how locative sound engages with the auditory aspects of our spatial perception, how immersion operates for locative media and sound, and also to consider the role of situated experience, the role of walking as remixing, and how agency and exclusion operate in locative sound. This framework explains how walking operates in terms of interacting with locative media, and how we experience being immersed in physical and media contexts at once via sound.
You can get the full article here.
Photos of Sounds Like Mobility: A Mobile Media, Sound and Music Event
Photos from Sounds Like Mobility: A Mobile Media, Sound and Music Event that took place at The Cultures of the Digital Economy (CoDE) Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge) on 17th May 2011, organised by Frauke Behrendt, are now online (photos by Ann Evelin Lawford) and some by myself are here and there are more by Julio D’Escrivan. Please let us know if you also have pictures form the event to share!
A big thank you to all speakers, performers and chairs – Georgina Born, Atau Tanaka, John Williamson, Steve Symons, Julio D’Escrivan, Rachel O’ Dwyer, Lalya Gaye, Enrique Tomas, Adam Parkinson, Richard Hoadley, Ashley Elsdon, Nick Bryan-Kinns – for making this a great event!
Histories of Mobile Sound Media
Another example for the history of mobile sound media (that needs writing) was featured on Modern Mechanix today and has been reblogged on bongboing as “Paleo-walkman of 1957“:
The 1957 newspaper clipping from here reads:
Headwork in the Garden
The chic hat Paul Johnson of Jacksonville, Fla., wears while gardening may not keep off the iun, but it will bring in all local radio stations. The one-tube radio headset operates on two dry cells to enable him to keep up with his favorite programs while doing outdoor chores.
Erkki Huhtmao gave a great keynote “History of Mobile Technology” at ISEA 2004 (the website iis sadly not online anymore), with a general overview of the history of mobile media. Some of this has been published in in receiver. I keep collecting examples for a music and sound history of mobile media. Hopefully I’ll have time to put it together in a coherent form one day. If anyone has more examples I’d love to hear about them!
“Designing an Auditory Experience Using a Location-based Computer Game” by Kristiansen
Erik Kristiansen presented “Designing an Auditory Experience Using a Location-based Computer Game” at the “Sound, Art, Auditory Cultures” conference in Copenhagen (28.-30.11.07). These are personal notes I took of his paper – not a summary or review.
Didn’t manage to get Kristiansen’s card, but at least a picture of one – at the wine reception of the conference.
Erik Kristiansen’s interest is to go beyond audio as part of the game or supporting the game to audio-mostly games – and how they intersect with pervasive gaming or location-based games. Erik Kristiansen is designing a new audio-mostly pervasive game. It is “serious” game where the participants are supposed to learn something. It is called Klintespillet (I’m not 100% sure about the spelling here…it translates as “Cliff Game”). The exiting thing is that it works without maps or screens. The participants are depended on listening to find the 29 hotspots in the outdoor area. The outdoor players are guided by online players that have access to maps and the outdoor player’s location.
Picture of the cliffs on Mons by dacoba on flickr.
Kristiansen explains the game in his abstract:
‘In cooperation with a new geological museum (“Geocenter Møns Klint”) and the Danish Forest and Nature Agency (“Skov og Naturstyrelsen”), we wanted to Read the rest of this entry »
Magic Moments, Butterflies and a GPS Sound Walk
Yesterday, I went out to Spectacle Island in Boston harbour to experience Teri Rueb’s “Core Sample”, an interactive GPS sound walk.
I spent so much longer than planned exploring the island and the sounds, a good indication of how much I loved the piece. I’m taking away a sunburned face as well as some magic moments and daydreams.
Soundwalks always seem to bring Read the rest of this entry »
These headphones make you sway
The close connection between hearing and the sense of balance, both located in our ears, is the focus of “Save Yourself!!!” by Hideyuki Ando, Junji Watanabe and Tomofumi Yoshida. Mobile technology and headphones are used in an unusual combination to make the participant move, not by dancing or tapping your feet to music, but by disturbing the sense of balance.
There is an English video on the
artist’s Japanese Website
The piece will be shown at the Ars Electronica Centre during the Ars Electronica Festival, 5-11September 2007.
From the Ars Website:
‘Slight stimuli generated by electrodes mounted on a set of headphones cause a disturbance to the part of the inner ear that’s responsible for maintaining balance.The visitor to this installation carries a container of water with an acceleration-sensor-equipped PDA floating on the water’s surface. The level of irritation to the sense of equilibrium is directly dependent on the motion of the water in the container. Slight stimuli can really get the user swinging and swaying!’
This is the artist’s website (with the above picture, site in Japanese).
“Save Yourself!!!” also won an award at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006 .
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