Mobile Sound
Sound, Mobile Media, Art & CultureArchive for interactive
Sonic Interaction Design Book launch
The MIT Press Sonic Interaction Design Book that comes out of the EU SID COST action I was involved with and curated an exhibition for, has its launch event and symposium in May at ETH in Zurich. The Book is edited by edited by Karmen Franinović and Stefania Serafin.
Here’s the blurb from the MIT website:
Sound is an integral part of every user experience but a neglected medium in design disciplines. Design of an artifact’s sonic qualities is often limited to the shaping of functional, representational, and signaling roles of sound. The interdisciplinary field of sonic interaction design (SID) challenges these prevalent approaches by considering sound as an active medium that can enable novel sensory and social experiences through interactive technologies. This book offers an overview of the emerging SID research, discussing theories, methods, and practices, with a focus on the multisensory aspects of sonic experience.
Sonic Interaction Design gathers contributions from scholars, artists, and designers working at the intersections of fields ranging from electronic music to cognitive science. They offer both theoretical considerations of key themes and case studies of products and systems created for such contexts as mobile music, sensorimotor learning, rehabilitation, and gaming. The goal is not only to extend the existing research and pedagogical approaches to SID but also to foster domains of practice for sound designers, architects, interaction designers, media artists, product designers, and urban planners. Taken together, the chapters provide a foundation for a still-emerging field, affording a new generation of designers a fresh perspective on interactive sound as a situated and multisensory experience.
Contributors:
Federico Avanzini, Gerold Baier, Stephen Barrass, Olivier Bau, Karin Bijsterveld, Roberto Bresin, Stephen Brewster, Jeremy Coopersotck, Amalia De Gotzen, Stefano Delle Monache, Cumhur Erkut, George Essl, Karmen Franinović, Bruno L. Giordano, Antti Jylhä, Thomas Hermann, Daniel Hug, Johan Kildal, Stefan Krebs, Anatole Lecuyer, Wendy Mackay, David Merrill, Roderick Murray-Smith, Sile O’Modhrain, Pietro Polotti, Hayes Raffle, Michal Rinott, Davide Rocchesso, Antonio Rodà, Christopher Salter, Zack Settel, Stefania Serafin, Simone Spagnol, Jean Sreng, Patrick Susini, Atau Tanaka, Yon Visell, Mike Wezniewski, John Williamson
Apply now: PhD Studentship ‘Notating Digital Sound: Designing or Composing for Mobile Media’. Supervisors: Dr Thor Magnusson, Dr Frauke Behrendt, Prof. Jonathan Woodham (by 11th April 2013)
Applications are invited for a PhD Studentship ‘Notating Digital Sound: Designing or Composing for Mobile Media’ (valued at £58,500) at the University of Brighton, supervised by Dr Thor Magnusson, Dr Frauke Behrendt and Prof. Jonathan Woodham.
The application deadline is 4pm, 11th April 2013.
The context of music production and dissemination has drastically changed with digital media and mobile computing devices. Interactivity and screens have become an essential part of how sound is represented and controlled, and creative algorithms are used to analyse or generate sonic patterns.
We seek proposals for a PhD project that will engage with interface and interaction design in digital sonic interfaces. The ideal research proposal would intersect areas of digital sound, human-computer interaction, graphic design, data representation, and software/media studies. Of particular interest are Read the rest of this entry »
iPhone Musical Instrument by Mouse on Mars
As you know I’ve been writing about Mobile Phone musical instruments for quite some years so it’s nice to see another Mobile Music iPhone app in the pipeline:
“WretchUp is a unique handheld effect and instrument for the iPhone that anyone can play. Developed by Mouse on Mars, it’s easy to learn, but also sophisticated enough that it’s heavily used in their live shows and new albums – on vocals, on drums, with feedback, and more. Now with your help, we want to bring it to everyone as an open source project.”
However, there have been quite a few mobile music apps around – you might want to check out Atau Tanaka’s iphone concert at tedX today or you can read up about many other examples in some of my publications on the topic over the last 8 years:
The chapter ‘Musical Telephones Old and New: A Media Archaeology’ in Mobile Sound. Media Art in Hybrid Spaces. (2010) PhD Thesis. University of Sussex.
Kirisits, Nicolaj., Behrendt, Frauke, Gaye, Lalya., & Tanaka, Atau. (eds.). (2008).Creative Interactions – The Mobile Music Workshops 2004-2008.Vienna: University of Applied Arts. Download pdf. See http://www.mobilemusicworkshop.org/
Mobile Music Technology: Report on Emerging Community. Gaye, Layla, Holmquist, Lars Erik, Behrendt, Frauke, Tanaka, Atau. In Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-06). Paris, France: 22-25
Handymusik. Klangkunst und ‘mobile devices’, Osnabrück: Epos. 2005. Monograph.
Klingeltöne laden war gestern/Mobile Musik
in: de-bug. Zeitschrift für elektronische Lebensaspekte. November 2004
You can also click on “mobile phone“, “music” or “instrument” in the tag cloud on the right to find some more blog posts on this topic.
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!
Call: Sounds like Mobility: A Mobile Media, Sound and Music Event’ on 17th May 2011 at CoDE, Cambridge
I’m organising ‘Sounds like Mobility: A Mobile Media, Sound and Music Event’ on Tuesday 17th May 2011 at CoDE: The Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. It would be great if YOU as one of my blog readers might be interested to submit your work and/or attend the event!
Please find more information below and on the website www.anglia.ac.uk/soundslikemobility
I look forward to hearing back from you! It would also be great if you could circulate this email widely. Thank you!
Sounds like Mobility: A Mobile Media, Sound and Music Event
Tuesday 17th May 2011, CoDE: The Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
Sitting down motionless, staring at screens, and focusing on the task at hand are becoming much less common than using media on the go, touching and listening to a device, while also being involved in other activities. In mobile media contexts, alternative sensory modalities increasingly replace the largely visual paradigms of the (both physical and virtual) desktop era. This one-day event examines the role of sound in media interactions as an especially pertinent example of our post-desktop world. It features invited speakers, performances, demos, pecha-kuscha-style short presentations and poster presentations. It takes place in Cambridge (UK) and is organised by CoDE: The Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University.
There is much more to this than iPods and alert sounds. Interactions between various physical contexts, social networks, mobile bodies and networked devices can be mediated in an almost infinite number of ways by sound – and also Read the rest of this entry »
Symposium – Net Cultures: Mobility and Location in Social Networks
Adriana de Souza e Silva and her colleagues at the Centre for Network Culture are organising an interesting event on ‘Net-Cultures: Mobility and Location in Social Networks’ on the 29th of April 2011.
The program can be found here and includes a keynote by Mimi Sheller on Mobile Art – Locating Mobile Network Cultures. Let me know if anyone is going, I might be tempted…
This is more information from their website:
The symposium will address topics, such as:
- Mobile communication and location awareness in everyday life practices;
- New urban spatialities developed with mobile gaming and locative social media;
- Privacy and surveillance issues as they relate to location-based social networks;
- Identity and spatial construction through locative media art / performance design;
- Civic engagement and political participation through mobile social media, new mapping practices and location-aware technologies;
- Learning and education Read the rest of this entry »
Call: ‘Online & Mobile Media, Everyday Creativity and DIY Culture’ – Transforming Audiences Conference in London in 09/11
This is the call from the website, the deadline is 21 April 2011:
After decades preoccupied with what people do when sitting down, media studies is suddenly on its feet. The rise of computers in our pockets – still called ‘phones’, but used more for accessing a world of online communication, information and entertainment than for making telephone calls – coincides with the growth of DIY culture and people making their own media. Video games are now about actually running and Read the rest of this entry »
Sustainable Travel – Mobile Media Examples?
Can anyone recommend mobile media projects that encourage sustainable travel behaviour? I’m looking for examples where artists, designers or activists have used mobile phones (or any other mobile devices) to encourage people to walk/cycle/use public transport/share cars/etc.
(The photo is from a trip to Helsinki in the summer – liked the sound-mobile-media-cycling graffiti very much.)
Any creative or inspiring ideas welcome! I’m attending an interdisciplinary event on “how to change transport behaviours” this week, and would like to show some examples of how mobile media might be able to do this.
If any of these projects would use sound (in addition to images, maps and text maybe) that would be a bonus, obviously!
Thank you in advance for any suggestions (as comment or email to f dot behrendt at sussex dot ac dot uk)!
1 week to deadline – please submit now for Sonic Interaction Design Exhibition!
I’m calling all practitioners who read my blog to submit their relevant work to the new exhibition on Sonic Interaction Design that I’m involved with. The deadline is next Friday – 5th November 2010! The event will take place at the Norwegian Museum of Science, Technology & Medicine in Oslo in Summer 2011, in collaboration with NIME 2011 (New Interfaces for Musical Expression). All relevant information is at http://www.cost-sid.org/wiki/SIDExhibitionSummer2011 and in an older post.
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