Phdthesis Hollerweger Screen PDF

School of Music and Sonic Arts
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Queens University Belfast
The Revolution is Hear!

Sound Art, the Everyday and
Aural Awareness
Submitted in partial requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Florian Hollerweger
Dipl.-Ing.
28 March 2011
Photograph by courtesy of Charlotte Sternberg, Vienna, 2006
Abstract
This thesis presents a body of practical and theoretical work, which interprets
sound art as a means of encouraging aural awareness in an everyday context.
Through a methodological feedback loop of artistic practice and theoretical re-
ection, strategies for the aestheticisation of everyday aural experience have
been developed and situated within a wider context of contemporary aural cul-
ture. The current state of this culture is critically examined. The widespread
claim that we live in a deeply visualised culture is questioned. It is argued
that contemporary Western society can also be characterised in terms of an
increasing interest in auditory perception, which the development of sound art
as an artistic discipline is one symptom of. The technological mediation of
listening is discussed and characterised in terms of a mobilisation and individ-
uation of aural experience. An overview of dierent listening modes informs a
discussion of six dierent perspectives on sound as a physical and perceptual
phenomenon. Various listening practices, which have been proposed in the eld
of sound art, are presented. It is argued that the development of sound art as
an artistic discipline can be characterised in terms of an interest in the everyday
as a source of sound material on one, and as an environment for aestheticised
listening on the other hand. Sound art is proposed as a means of auralising
the rhythms inherent to everyday life, and subtlety is identied as an aesthetic
category for doing so. It is investigated how technological mediation can be
applied to the aestheticisation of mobile and social listening experiences. The
above issues have been addressed by means of artistic practice. The results
of this process are presented as a portfolio of eight artworks, including sound
installations, public interventions, site-specic electroacoustic pieces, graphical
scores and mobile hardware projects.
Keywords: Aural culture, technologically mediated listening, modes of listen-

ing, mobile listening, social listening, acoustic ecology, aestheticised listening,
aural awareness, the everyday, sound art.
3
Fr Florentina Anjali, Dipali Alina, Jivan Simon, Miriam Shanti und Laura Dayita.
Acknowledgements
PhD candidates tend to have every reason to be thankful, and I am certainly

no exception in this respect. Foremost, I would like to thank my parents Ilsebill
and Armin for having allowed me to enjoy an excellent education. I am deeply
grateful to Manuela Meier, whose support and patience were absolutely essen-
tial over the last yearsand days. My gratitude extends to Pedro Rebelo, who
provided the continuous support that was required to nish this thesis. A big
thank yous also goes to Joanna and Marcus Patton for their openness, their
music and their conversationsand for innumerable Sunday lunches. Peter
Plessas not only read drafts, chased references and provided repeated encour-
agement, inspiration and advice, he also kept me in touch with life beyond the
PhD. David Drury, Nick Ward, Grant Ford, Patricia Alessandrini, Justin Yang,
Nick Gillian, Andrea Santini, John Malone and Nathan Bee also did their bit
to make life more fun. Tom Davis was an excellent atmate and landlord
and continues to be a wonderful friend. I enjoyed inspiring conversations with
Robert Damphousse, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Isobel Clouter, Helmut Lemke,
Matt Green and Sam Auinger. Sir Henry Tonk has given me the honour of
becoming a banqueteer. And I am grateful to Laura Silverfor being Laura
Silver.
Charlotte Sternberg has kindly permitted me to use her photograph which has
given this thesis its title. Hans-Christoph Steiner and Spencer Russell helped
me with my work on 9/2/5. For the same project, Una Hickey designed an ex-
cellent bag, and Robyn Farah, Dionysis Athinaios and Hugo Patton volunteered
to become guinea pigs in the name of art. Niamh Heery, Kim Laugs and Pablo
Sanz generously provided some video footage and photographs for documen-
tation purposes. Tom Bickley, Rachel ODwyer, Mags Adams, Gnther Rabl,
John Dack and Christine North shared their own writings with me, and Peter
Ablinger, Phil Morton, Duncan Speakman and Florian Mueller provided very
specic information or documentation regarding their artistic practice. Bran-
don LaBelle and Martin Rumori (and numerous other people who know who
5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6
they are) pointed me towards reading material or other sources of inspiration.

Valuable feedback on a chapter draft came from Andrea Williams. Rachael
Davis and Ryan Molloy hav corected evry bit of my aknowletchments exept for
this sentance. Miguel Ortiz Perez was kind enough to submit this thesis and
portfolio to Queens University when I was already on my way to Austria.
Queens University Belfast provided not only the Spur studentship which al-
lowed me to do what I love doing for a period of three years, but also two
travel scholarships which enabled me to pursue research in Montral and Ban.
The Sonic Arts Research Centre, with its great mixture of characters, has been
an inspiring place to work at. I would like to thank Michael Alcorn for having
made it happen, and Chris Corrigan, Una Monaghan and Craig Jackson for
their continuous good-spirited support in using its facilities. This is also the
right place to pay homage to Pearl Young, Marian Hanna, Ruth Walmsley and
Kirk Shillidaysome of the good souls of the School of Music and Sonic Arts,
without whom we would all slide into disaster within hours.
My thanks extend to Angus Leech, Edwin Hasler, Steve Woollard, Lana Palmer,
Susan Kennard, Marc Bernier and Kenny Lozowski for their support at the
Ban New Media Institute. Peter Mutschler, Rachel ODwyer, Colm Clarke,
James Hepburn and the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin have oered
me much-appreciated opportunities for presenting my work. Catherine Roberts,
who had the dubious honour of guarding my installation 24/7 for ten days, was
fun to work with. Reni Hofmller generously provided me with a place to work
at a crucial time. And I would like to thank the Floss1 community for having
created most of the excellent tools with which this thesis and portfolio have
been realised.
1
Free Libre Open Source Software
License
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7
Declaration
Some ideas which are discussed in this thesis have already appeared in the
authors following publications:
Hollerweger, Florian (2008): Three Strategies for the Design of Social

Listening Experiences. In: Proceedings of the UK Institute of Acoustics,
volume 30, part 2, pp. 60914.
Hollerweger, Florian (2008): Ohrenli(e)der: Compositions for Listener.

In: Proceedings of the UK Institute of Acoustics, volume 30, part 2, pp.
6317.
Rebelo, Pedro, Matt Green & Florian Hollerweger (2008): A Typology

for Listening in Place. In: Proceedings of the Mobile Music Workshop,
Vienna University of Applied Arts, pp. 1518.
Hollerweger, Florian (2010): Music for Lovers: Shared Binaurality in a

Mobile Sound Installation. Performance Research, 15(3):1114.
8
Contents
Abstract 3
Acknowledgements 5
License 7
Declaration 8
Contents 9
I Everyday 16
0 Introduction 17
0.1 Aestheticised Listening, Aural Awareness and the Everyday . . . 18
0.2 A Guide to this Research Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
0.2.1 Artistic Practise (Portfolio of Artworks) . . . . . . . . . . 21
0.2.2 Theoretical Reection (Thesis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
0.3 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1 Aural Culture 25
1.1 Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.1.1 Mechanisation and Electrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.1.2 Lack of Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.1.3 Commercialisation of Public Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.1.4 The Sounds of Health and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.1.5 Private Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.2 Addressing the Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
9
CONTENTS 10
1.2.1 The Noise Pollution Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1.2.2 Acoustic Design of Public Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.2.3 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.3 A Visual Culture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1.3.1 Language and Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.3.2 The Audiovisual Litany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.3.3 The Audiovisual Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1.3.4 Perceptual Coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1.4 The Revolution is Hear! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2 Technology 42
2.1 Theories of Technological Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1.1 Deterministic Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1.2 Constructivist Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.1.3 The Importance of Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.2 Technologically Mediated Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.2.1 The Tympanic Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.2.2 The Electroacoustic Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.2.3 The Digital Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.3 The Mobilisation and Individuation of Aural Experience . . . . . 52
II Sound 53
3 Aural Awareness 54
3.1 Listening as Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.2 Listening as Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.3 Listening as Such . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.4 The Listener-Sound Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.5 The Multimodality of Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4 Six Perspectives on Sound 64

4.1 Sound as Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2 Sound as Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3 Sound as Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3.1 Object vs. Source and Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3.2 Describing the Sound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3.3 Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4 Sound as Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.5 Sound as Eect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CONTENTS 11
4.6 Sound as Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

4.6.1 Beyond Localisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.6.2 Auditory Spatial Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.6.3 Spatial Eects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.6.4 Spatiomorphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.7 Sound: a Multifaceted Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5 Listening Practices 83
5.1 Before Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.2 Directed Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.2.1 Referring to the External Sound Environment . . . . . . . 85
5.2.2 Referring to Listening Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.2.3 Changing the Conditions of Listening . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.2.4 Sound Creation by the Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.2.5 Sound Creation by the Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.3 Soundwalking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3.1 Mobile Listening Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3.2 Soundwalking Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.3 Historic Context of Soundwalking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.3.4 Soundwalk Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3.5 Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.4 Field Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.5 Annotated Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.5.1 Oral Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.5.2 Written Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.6 Spatial Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.7 The Relation between Modes, Perspectives and Practices of Aural
Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
III Art 108
6 Sound Art and the Everyday 109

6.1 What is Sound Art? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.2 The Everyday as Sound Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.2.1 A Critique of Soundscape Composition . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.2.2 Alexanderplatz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.3 The Everyday as a Context for Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.3.1 Abandoning the Concert Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3.2 Sound and Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
CONTENTS 12
6.3.3 The City as a Canvas for Sound Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

6.3.4 Straenmusik and EaRdverts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.4 The Auralisation of Everyday Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.4.1 Everyday Rhythm and Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.4.2 Everyday Rhythm and Sound Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.4.3 9/2/5 and 24/7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.5 An Argument for Subtlety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7 Mobile Listening 130

7.1 Mobile Music Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.1.1 The Mobile Music Player: a Personalised Device . . . . . 132
7.1.2 Headphone Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.2 Audio Walks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
7.2.1 Location and Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.2.2 Situating Listening through Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.2.3 Situating Listening through Sounds from the Environment 137
7.2.4 Auralising the Inaudible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.2.5 Transforming the Audible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.3 Design Considerations for Audio Walks with Microphone Input . 148
7.3.1 The Microphone-Headphone Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.3.2 Sound Processing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8 Social Listening 154

8.1 The Acoustic Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.2 Social Listening and Technological Mediacy . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.3 Design Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.3.1 Sharing Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.3.2 Sharing Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.3.3 Sharing Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.3.4 Sharing Soundmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
8.4 Music for Lovers and 24/7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.4.1 Music for Lovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.4.2 24/7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9 Conclusion 169
9.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9.2 Implications for Artistic Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.3 Directions for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9.3.1 Extensions to the Work Presented in this Thesis . . . . . 173
9.3.2 Soundmaking: The Other Half of Aural Awareness . . . . 174
CONTENTS 13
Appendix 176
A Ohrenli(e)der 178
A.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A.2 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
A.3 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
A.4 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
A.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
B Straenmusik 181
B.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
B.2 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
B.3 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
C EaRdverts 184
C.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
C.2 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
C.3 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
D Alexanderplatz 186
D.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
D.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
D.2.1 Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
D.2.2 Editing Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
D.2.3 Sound Spatialisation Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D.2.4 Automation and Binaural Mixdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D.3 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D.4 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
E Interroutes 190
E.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
E.2 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
E.3 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
E.4 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
F Music for Lovers 193

F.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
F.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
F.3 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
F.4 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
CONTENTS 14
F.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
G 24/7 196
G.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
G.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
G.3 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
G.4 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
G.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
H 9/2/5 199
H.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
H.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
H.3 Public Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
H.4 Performance Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
H.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Bibliography 203
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Part I
Everyday
16
[E]veryday life features as a philosophical, political, and aes-
thetical imperative throughout the modern period [...].
Brandon LaBelle (2007:42)
0
Introduction
The revolution is hear! What originated as a misspelt political slogan on a

Viennese house wall can also be read as a description of the relation of con-
temporary Western societies to the sounds of everyday life. It expresses the
widespread urge for a new culture of listening which transcends the noisy by-
products of modernity and demonstrates an increased awareness with regards
to the everyday sound environment. It reects the fact that, despite con-
trary claims, this revolution is already taking place, as exemplied through
the ubiquity of sound technology and the emergence of sound art as a distinct
artistic discipline. But like any successful revolution, this one looses much of
its revolutionary tendencies to its own success. The move towards an aural
cultureoften idealised as an uprising against a contrary status quowill in
this thesis instead be portrayed as a gradual process, which has already devel-
oped for some time and which we are still a part of. While others call for a
revolution which is hear!, that revolution is actually already here; it is only
happening in a more quiet and unexcited manner than that which revolutions
are generally associated with.
This thesis is concerned with sound art in the context of aural awareness in
everyday life. The revolution is hear! can also be read as a programmatic
statement in this respect. As an artistic genre, sound art has drawn from
the new interest in aural experience by exceeding the borders of concert halls
17
CHAPTER 0. INTRODUCTION 18
and art galleries. Sound arts very development is closely associated with the
acceptance of everyday sounds as aesthetic material and of everyday life as a
context for aestheticised listening. If there is indeed a revolution in listening
taking place, then sound art is an essential part of it.
0.1 Aestheticised Listening, Aural Awareness

and the Everyday
I have already introduced three termsaestheticised listening, aural aware-
ness and the everydaywhich will be used throughout this thesis and are
essential for an understanding of its core concept. They therefore deserve some
prior elaboration. When I speak of aestheticised listening, I am pointing to-
wards a Cageian experience of sound. John Cages oeuvre is widely associated
with the idea that any sound, whether it is part of a music performance or not,
can be heard musically:
Everything can musically enter an ear open to all sounds! Not only
the music we consider beautiful but also the music that is life itself.
(Cage 1981:61)
Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it,

it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we nd it fascinating. (Cage
1991:54)
Aestheticised listening refers to this appreciation of sounds for their own beauty.
Such an appreciation can occur in a multitude of situations, including concert
hall performances or exhibitions of sound art in a gallery, but also ordinary
listening experiences in the context of everyday activities. Aestheticised listen-
ing describes the pleasure which can be derived from attending to sounds, no
matter whether or not that was the actual intention behind their creation.
[Cage] concluded that not only were any and all sounds music,
but [that] unintentional music is indeed with usavailable to the ear
that wishes to perceive itin all spaces and at all times. (Koste-
lanetz 1991:195)
Kostelanetz phrase of the ear that wishes to perceive highlights the fact
that aestheticised listening is generally induced by choice of the listener herself
rather than created by an author. Nevertheless, aestheticised listening can
be facilitated by works of art. In my opinion the realisation of this circum-
stance constitutes a key aspect of the development of sound art as an artistic
genre. Since Cages pioneering work, which has been described extensively by
himself (1976, 1981, 1987), Kostelanetz (1991, 2003), Revill (1992) and others,
several generations of artists have explored strategies for aestheticising aural
experience. The objective of my research project was to identify such strate-
gies, both existing and new, in order to extend and consolidate their discussion.
The aestheticisation of aural experience through works of sound art is often

performed with the intention of increasing the audiences aural awareness; a
term which I would like to dene simply as a conscious perception of the sound
environment.1 At the same time, many of these artworks demand such an en-
hanced awareness already as the listener confronts them; similar to the manner
in which a concert hall visitor is expected to be all ears before the perfor-
mance has even started. This demonstrates that aural awareness represents
both a prerequisite and a result of aestheticised listening, with the two con-
cepts complementing each other in a mutual relationship. Many of the works
of sound art presented in this thesis deliberately operate beyond (or reinter-
pret) environments traditionally associated with aestheticised listening, such as
concert halls. Through the aestheticisation of sounds which were not originally
created for this purpose, sound art illustrates that aesthetic aural experience
is neither restricted to sounds created by musical instruments nor to dedicated
performance spaces, but that it extends towards everyday sounds and envi-
ronments.2
This is why the everyday constitutes another core concept of this thesis. It is a
concept which is particularly dicult to grasp, as Henri Lefebvre has pointed
out:
How can everyday life be dened? It surrounds us, it besieges us,

on all sides and from all directions. We are inside it and outside it.
No so-called elevated activity can be reduced to it, nor can it be
separated from it. (Lefebvre 2008a:41)
Despite the diculties of dening the everyday (or maybe because of them?),
its metaphor has provided an important source of inspiration for Western think-
ing in recent decades. Lefebvre (2008b:47) argues that everyday activities have
1
The many dierent ways in which such a conscious perception of sound can be achieved
will be discussed in chapter 3.
2
In this respect, aestheticised listening is clearly distinct from Smalls (1998) concept
of musicking. Both encourage an engaged, performative attitude towards aural experience.
But while musicking is exclusively concerned with music performance, aestheticised listening
extends towards sounds which were not originally created for the sake of aesthetic experience.
recently gained signicant weight across several disciplines after a previous pe-
riod of alienation. The practice of everyday life (de Certeau 1988) has been
rehabilitated as a eld of aesthetic action and reection. Philosophy, which once
established a deliberate distance from everyday life and considered it unwor-
thy of thought (Lefebvre 2008c:3), has rediscovered the quotidian. Likewise,
the social sciences have found in the everyday the concreteness, the reality
they were pursuing (Lefebvre 2008c:4). In the arts, the new quest towards the
everyday has been described by Berleant (1991:26), Bourriaud (2002), Kaprow
(2003), Lefebvre (2008b) and others. It manifests itself in an abandonment
of the artwork as an object, away from representations encoded in symbolic
systems towards the everyday as lived action (LaBelle 2007:42f).
Lefebvre argues that the question of how people live is simultaneously dicult
and obvious, trivial and profound (2008a:47). He does, however, attempt a def-
inition of everyday life by arguing that it can be regarded as a totality related
to all activities and at the same time as residualas what is left over after
all distinct, superior, specialized, structured activities have been singled out by
analysis (2008b:97). This seems to contradict the concept of aestheticised lis-
tening, which constitutes such a distinct, specialised and structured activity by
denition. The contradiction is, however, easily resolved. In the context of our
discussion, the everyday primarily signies a context which was not originally
intended as a background for aestheticised listening, but is reinterpreted in such
a manner by an artist. What this thesis hopes to illustrate is how works of
sound art appropriate everyday situations as environments for aesthetic expe-
rience. If these environments no longer deserve the attribute everyday after
such an intervention, that might well be in accordance with the artists inten-
tions. I would argue that it is precisely the metamorphosis of the mundane
into something worth listening to which many sound artists are concerned with,
even if this transformation is achieved by merely assuring the listener that the
mundane is, in fact, worth listening to. One could argue that the everyday is
of interest to sound art only in terms of its transcendence. This is a goal which
artists have striven for for centuries: to create awareness where previously there
was none; in our case aural awareness.
Another central issue of the thesis is the role of technology in this process.
Among the techniques which sound artists frequently use to aestheticise listen-
ing is its mediation3 by sound technology. By providing an electroacoustically
3
I have adopted Sternes (2003:100) terminology of mediated vs. immediate listening in this
thesis to signify the dierence between listening with and without the help of technology.
transformed variation of an otherwise familiar listening experience, it is pos-

sible to restore the listeners awareness towards that experience. The concept
of technologically mediated listening will concern us throughout the rest of this
thesis, in particular in chapters 2, 7 and 8.
0.2 A Guide to this Research Project

This thesis and portfolio of artworks (cf. appendix) represent the outcome of
nearly four years of practice-based artistic research. This process started with
the formulation of research questions which addressed the nature of aestheti-
cised listening in an age where aural experience is often mediated by technology.
These questions enquired the ability of pervasive technologies to encourage a
proactive engagement with our sonic and social environment. They were con-
cerned with everyday environments as a context for an aesthetic experience of
sound. It was decided to address these issues by means of artistic practice.
Through a methodological feedback loop between theoretical reection and
artistic practice, this thesis and portfolio were derived as two entities which
complement each other. Numerous references to the artworks in the portfolio
will be made throughout the thesis in order to illustrate the issues which it
discusses.
0.2.1 Artistic Practise (Portfolio of Artworks)

In accordance with my belief that the questions posed by technology cannot
necessarily be answered on its own terms, I decided to initially address everyday
aural awareness in a general manner, without concerning myself with a tech-
nological mediation of listening. The outcome of this rst stage of my artistic
practice were the Ohrenli(e)der series of listening scores (cf. appendix A) and
two public interventions called Straenmusik (cf. appendix B) and EaRdverts
(cf. appendix C). The common goal of these projects was the development of
strategies which aim at an increased aural awareness in everyday life.
In the second phase of my artistic practice, I conducted a series of soundscape

studies, as part of which I also addressed the technological mediation of aural
experience. Two multichannel sound installation pieces called Alexanderplatz
(cf. appendix D) were created from eld recordings conducted in Berlin. In the
site-specic Interroutes pieces (cf. appendix E), a listeners distinction between
prerecorded sounds and the real sound environment is challenged by using a
portable music player to play short extracts of earlier recordings between ex-
tended periods of silence. While conceiving these works, I developed a method

of orally annotated eld recordings (cf. section 5.5.1) as a means of initiating
and documenting listening experiences. I also developed a practice which I refer
to as spatial listening (cf. section 5.6)
The third stage of my artistic practice was explicitly dedicated to the technolog-
ical mediation of aural experience. I developed three sound installations whose
concern was everyday listening as a mobile and social experience. The portable
installation Music for Lovers (cf. appendix F) allows two mobile listeners to
swap their aural perspective in real-time. The installation 24/7 (cf. appendix
G) creates a social listening environment in a gallery through an auralisation
of everyday rhythm. The installation 9/2/5 (cf. appendix H) transforms ev-
eryday aural experience in real-time by continuously recording, processing and
replaying the sound experienced by a mobile listener.
0.2.2 Theoretical Reflection (Thesis)

In parallel to my artistic practice, I have conducted an extensive literature
review across a variety of elds in order to situate my own work in a wider
context. The resulting reections provide the basis for this thesis, which is
structured as follows:
Chapter 1 will provide an overview of the current state of our aural culture.
I will outline dierent challenges which this culture faces and argue that the
ubiquitous public debates on this subject already signify a gradually increasing
aural awareness in our society. I will criticise the widespread claim that ours is
a visually oriented culture and argue that aural culture will benet more from
a holistic understanding of sensory experience than from a revolution towards
listening.
Chapter 2 is concerned with the role of technology with regards to listening

as a cultural practice. Drawing from dierent socio-technological theories, I will
portray the relation between technological and cultural development as an inter-
dependent feedback loop. The technological mediation of aural experience will
be discussed in terms of three technological principles which have characterised
its development. I will identify an increasing mobilisation and individuation
of technologically mediated listening as two common characteristics of modern
sound technologies.
Chapter 3 portrays aural awareness as a multifaceted phenomenon. I will

discuss dierent modes of listening which demonstrate that listening is simul-
taneously a deeply personal and a culturally embedded experience.
Chapter 4 oers six dierent perspectives on sound. Besides bearing further

testimony to the diversity of sound as a physical and perceptual phenomenon,
this chapter shows how the listener-sound relationship has evolved with the
development of sound technology.
Chapter 5 discusses listening as an artistic practice as exemplied in the

works of various artists. Dierent artistic strategies for an aesthetic appreciation
of everyday soundscapes will be presented. Four mobile listening experiences
will be distinguished in order to characterise the relationship between mobility
and everyday aural awareness.
Chapter 6 investigates sound arts role with regards to everyday aural aware-
ness. I will show that in sound art an aestheticisation of the everyday occurs
on two levels: the everyday has been interpreted both as a source of artistic
material (everyday sounds) and as a context for the aesthetic presentation of
sound (everyday environments). In addition I will propose sound art as a means
of auralising everyday rhythm and propose subtlety as an aesthetic category in
this respect.
Chapter 7 will be concerned with the technological mediation of mobile lis-

tening experiences. Using the example of the mobile music player, I will identify
headphone listening as the dening characteristic of such experiences. Audio
walks will be discussed as a recent artistic extension to the concept of the
mobile music player. A special focus will be put on the design of audio walks
which are concerned with an on-the-y transformation of aural experience by
processing sound from a microphone in real-time.
Chapter 8 is dedicated to the social dimension of everyday listening. I will

argue that the mobile music player represents the provisional peak of indi-
viduated listening, and I will evaluate recent strategies which aim at turning
technologically mediated listening into a social experience, including two exam-
ples from my own artistic practice.
Chapter 9 provides a summary of the thesis, some concluding remarks and

suggestions for further research.
0.3 Contributions
As a conclusion to this introductory chapter, I would like to outline what I
regard as the main contributions of my research:
A contribution towards a better understanding of the idiosyncrasies of

technologically mediated listening (cf. sections 2.2, 7.1.2, 7.3).
A discussion of dierent listening modes and perspectives on sound, which

were hitherto scattered across the literature (cf. chapters 3, 4).
A contribution towards a better understanding of sound as space, includ-

ing the formulation of according listening strategies (cf. sections 4.6, 5.6,
appendix D).
A contribution towards an understanding of listening as an artistic prac-

tice (cf. chapter 5).
The formulation of artistic strategies for the aestheticisation of everyday

aural experience. In particular:
The use of silent public interventions as an art form for encouraging

everyday aural awareness (cf. appendices B, C).
The deliberate confusion of immediate and technologically mediated
listening as an artistic technique (cf. appendices E, H).
Strategies for the design of audio walks in which a microphone signal
is processed in real-time (cf. section 7.3, appendices F, H).
Strategies for the design of social listening environments (cf. section
8.4, appendices F, G).
Strategies for the artistic auralisation of everyday rhythm (cf. section
6.4.3, appendices G, H).
The identication of subtlety as an aesthetic category for sound art in an

everyday context (cf. section 6.5).
A contribution towards a better understanding of sound art as a distinct

artistic discipline (cf. chapter 6).
The main objective of my research was to dene strategies for listening rather
than articulating. Doing so in the context of a written thesisan articulation
in itselfrepresents an inherent contradiction whose resolution proved to be
one of the major challenges in the writing process. I hope that after consulting
this document, the reader will feel that I have at least partly succeeded.
Listening is what creates culture.
Caterina de Re (2005:75)
Aural Culture
1
In this chapter, I am concerned with the current state of aural awareness in
our culture. Just as Attali (1985) has argued that music reects the state of a
society, Meier-Dallach & Meier (1992, cited in Barthelmes 2002:103) claim that
by studying the urban soundscape,1 one can draw a picture of a society and
its values. Vigorous opinions have been voiced on this subject in recent years.
Neuhaus (1993:8f) locates contemporary aural culture in the stone age, and
Schafer (2004:25) is of the opinion that the deaf increasingly rule us. The
reality, however, is more complex. Discussions on noise pollution may suer
from many misconceptions about sound (cf. section 1.2.1), but their pervasive-
ness also suggests a widespread concern about everyday sound environments.
On the one hand, music is more ubiquitous today than ever before (DeNora
2000:155f). On the other hand, this can also be interpreted as a devaluation
of the role of music in our society. The goal of this chapter is to evaluate the
current state of contemporary aural culture; to discuss the challenges which it
faces, but also to remedy misunderstandings concerning their source.
1
The term soundscape has originally been coined by Schafer (1994:7): The soundscape is
any acoustic eld of study. We may speak of a musical composition [...] or a radio program [...]
or an acoustic environment as a soundscape. Truax (2001:xviii,50) refers to the soundscape
as the human understanding of the everyday sound environment. Thompson (2004:1f) further
claries the term: Like a landscape, a soundscape is simultaneously a physical environment
and a way of perceiving that environment; it is both a world and a culture constructed to
make sense of that world. [...] A soundscapes cultural aspects incorporate scientic and
aesthetic ways of listening, a listeners relationship to their environment, and the social
circumstances that dictate who gets to hear what.
25
CHAPTER 1. AURAL CULTURE 26
1.1 Challenges
Conicts in our aural culture are always reected in the public debate which
surrounds them. The UK Noise Association has recently stated that British
cities are now 10 times noisier than only a decade earlier (Saner 2007). This
statement expresses the increasing experience of sound as a disturbance in urban
environments. But at the same time, it symbolises a common misconception in
the noise pollution debate: the equalisation of noise and loudness. Ten times
noisier sounds dramaticbut what does it mean? Attributes such as noisy
are notoriously dicult to quantify,2 yet the public discourse on sound is often
dominated by such simplied descriptions. But noise is a semantic problem
(Fontana n.d.b).
In this section I will identify some of the problems with regards to the state
of our aural culture from a qualitative point of view. Most of these have
already been discussed in the context of acoustic ecology, a discipline which
was pioneered by R. Murray Schafer in the early 1970s and is concerned with
the study of sounds in relationship to life and society (Schafer 1994:205).3 I
will reiterate many concerns which have been raised in the context of acoustic
ecology from a viewpoint of personal experience, reecting the fact that the
sound environment is always a simultaneously public and private matter.
1.1.1 Mechanisation and Electrification

It has been argued that much of the impoverishment of the contemporary
soundscape can be traced back to the industrialisation and electrication of our
society (Schafer 1994:71; Truax 2001:137). Cars rule public acoustic space.
Andres Bosshard (2005, cited in Sedmak & Androsch 2009:24) has noted that
if, after getting out of our cars at night, we continued to scream as loudly as the
engine we have just turned o, we would immediately be arrested. Air trac,
which has a particular high impact on the acoustic environment, has multiplied
in recent years. The public debate around the third runway for Heathrow
Airport has been going on for the entire duration of this research project.
Mobile phone ringtones and conversations are a frequently cited example of a
public acoustic nuisance. The Austrian city of Graz has recently banned the
2
My guess it that in this case noisy refers to an average sound pressure level, which is
convenient to measure but tells us nothing about the level of disturbance on behalf of the
residents. Loudness does in no way correspond directly to nuisance.
3
Truax (1999) refers to acoustic ecology as the study of the eects of the acoustic
environment, or soundscape, on the physical responses or behavioural characteristics of those
living within it. Besides him and Schafer, Hildegard Westerkamp is widely acknowledged for
having had an important inuence on this young research area.
use of mobile phones on public transport (Radaelli 2008). Schafer (1994:214)

notes that [m]odern technology has given each individual the tools to activate
more acoustic space. It seems that we have not yet learnt how to handle this
newly acquired power responsibly.
1.1.2 Lack of Awareness

Many conicts in the everyday soundscape can be ascribed to a lack of aware-
ness with regards to the sounds which we produce. I would like to illustrate
this point using two examples from my personal everyday environment in re-
cent years. For instance, one loudspeaker in the main hall of Queens University
Belfasts Physical Education Centre transforms public announcementsand the
Muzak which it sometimes playsto a distorted and incomprehensible sound
mass. And a loudspeaker for screen 2 of the Queens Film Theatre in Belfast
heavily distorts even medium-ranged output signals, such as unaccompanied
dialogues. Both problems have persisted for the entire duration of this re-
search project without having been addressedand probably without having
been noted by most people among the target audience.
A lack of aural awareness also manifests itself in design aws of everyday prod-
ucts. Electronic devices can often not be congured in a manner which prevents
beeping on their behalf in any situation, including the boot process. Examples
include my current digital camera and most of the mobile phones which I have
owned. The default conguration of most desktop computer operating systems,
and the software which they run, wants to comment most events (closing win-
dows, incoming chat messages, etc.) with acoustic feedback. Many websites
play sound by default, entirely ignoring the unpredictable nature of the sound
systems which are attached to the visitors browsers. Cash dispensers in the
UK frequently remind customers of removing their cash card from the machine
with a three-time beep suciently loud to be heard a block away.
1.1.3 Commercialisation of Public Space

But it is not always a lack of awareness which is at the heart of bad sound
design. Quite contrary, the emotional power of sound is often deliberately
exploited. The Muzak corporation has become synonymous with music en-
forced upon its listeners, which today is a ubiquitous phenomenon (Westerkamp
1988:36, 1999a:19; Schafer 1994:96; DeNora 2000:129; Truax 2001:214;
Neuhaus 2006:8; LaBelle 2007:10f; Sedmak & Androsch 2009:59,65). Again,
I have experienced many examples rst-hand during the process of writing
this thesis. The management of St. Georges Market in Belfast competes with
the Centra chain of convenience stores in terms of background music obnox-
iousness.4 In the Austrian city of Graz, the Stiefelknig shoe shop in the
Herrengasse, a pedestrian zone and popular shopping mile, blasts music out
into public space long after the shop closes at night. Its strategy has recently
been imitated by the local tourist board in the same street, which displays
audiovisual information also at night, when the street is rather quiet. Back-
ground music can now be found in many public spaces which do not serve a
commercial function. In Belfast, this includes the HM Revenues & Customs
building in the Beaufort House. Various counter-initiatives to muzak have been
formed, such as Pipe Down and No Muzak (cf. Sedmak & Androsch 2009:36f)
and the No Music Day (Drummond n.d.).
Not always, however, does advertising bother to dress up as music. Vending

machines at the Europa Bus Centre in Belfast attract the attention of by-
standers with short bursts of sound. Speaking billboards on Belfast bus stops
use the glass front behind which they are displayed as a membrane for an
electroacoustic transducer. The resulting sound quality is as bad as one would
expect from a loudspeaker built from glass. The John Hewitt, a well-known
pub in Belfasts Cathedral Quarter, features acoustic adverts in its restrooms.
During this research project, I have had the dubious pleasure of learning the
in-ight acoustic advertisements of many low-fare airlines by heart; a process
which does not take long due to the insistence with which these are being
repeated. And even before take-o, airports are a great environment for ob-
serving the commercialisation of a soundscape which can hardly be referred to
as public any longer.
1.1.4 The Sounds of Health and Safety

The use of sound as a warning signal is as legitimate and useful as it tends
to be over-designed. At Belfast International Airport, a bell in the arrival
area signals that the luggage conveyor belt starts moving. The sound which
it makes, however, suggests at the very least an upcoming building evacuation
due to a re or invading army. This bell might in the last thirty years have
saved one or two people from pinching their ngers, but it surely has caused
at least as many heart attacks. Schafer (1994:241) has questioned the strategy
of attracting aural attention by means of horror. Max Neuhaus based his 1978
4
Here I mainly refer to the music from tape which precedes the live bands that play at
St. Georges on a regular basis.
redesign of the police car siren, which he unsuccessfully proposed to the New
York City Police Department, on the same argument:
We dont dress policemen as monsters. Why then do we think they

should sound like them? (Neuhaus 1993:8)
In the same spirit, he criticised the automobile backup alarm, years before it
became as ubiquitous as it is today:
Every time I hear a truck back up I have [...] an image of an

idiot trying to kill ies with a hammer. With only a little thought
and experimentation [the inventor of the truck backup alarm] could
have found a solution that would stand out of trac noise and be
conned to an area only where it is useful. (Neuhaus 1994e:5)
The one single experience which has probably shaped my own listening most
profoundly was the faulty re alarm in my Belfast at, which kept going o
during the entire night from 14 to 15 March 2009. Never have I experienced
sound more physically than on this occasion. Two days later, I could still feel
my heart beat rise whenever my ear mistook a jack hammer in the distance or
the ringtone of my mobile phone for a trace of that horrendous bell. I have
since heard similar stories from friends who conrmed that these alarmsquite
counter-productivelycause signicant disorientation; probably because while
they are on, one cannot think, as one of them put it. On the day before
writing these lines, a re alarm drill at my universitys library again made me
wonder whether the volume of an alarm bears any relation to the eciency of
peoples reactions to it.
Another mis-design concerns the frequent repetitiveness of acoustic announce-

ments. The airport of Graz does certainly not distinguish itself by the number
of passengers which it serves, but its small size makes for a much more relaxed
travel experience than most other airports I know. Nevertheless, its manage-
ment found it necessary to introduce taped instructions at its security check,
whichjust like at the big airports in London or Frankfurt!advise travellers
to take o their coats, remove laptops from their case, etc. Needless to say that
these announcements have failed to noticeably speed up the security checks
which there never was a need for anyway: the longest cue which I have ever
observed there was about ve people long. What has changed, however, is the
quality of the acoustic ambience at the airport. The main hall is now entirely
dominated by the sounds from the security area, which are repeated at short
intervals. The people who are certainly most aected by this are the security
ocers themselves, who by now must be reciting these announcements in their

dreams.
Ironically the over-design of acoustic warnings might compromise their actual

goal due to the apathy which it induces in the target audience. On almost all
aeroplanes that I boarded over the course of the last years, the ight attendants
turned up the volume at least once during the in-ight security tutorial. They
presumably wanted to guarantee the attention of the passengers, many of whom
feel they have been educated about the whereabouts of the life jacket one time
too often. The underlying problem, however, is one of communication and
cannot be solved by sheer volume.
1.1.5 Private Property

Another overused function of acoustic signals is the guarding of property. A
count made in my Belfast at in March 2009 yielded 69 car theft and burglary
alarms within 27 days, which includes only those that occurred when somebody
happened to be at home. I cannot recall a single alarm which was related to
an actual theft or burglary. Since the eectiveness of these alarms relies on the
attraction of wider attention, their owners eectively publicise the guarding of
their otherwise private property:5
Why is this person [who owns the car whose alarm went o] allowed
to make his problem ours? Pass a law against it! (Neuhaus 1994e:5)
Sound is used to enforce private property in yet more aggressive ways. A

company called Compound Security Systems has introduced a device marketed
as the Mosquito in North America and the UK, and under themore poetic,
but also more sarcasticname Beethoven in France. It emits a high-frequency
tone supposedly only perceptible by people under a certain age and is advertised
as a teen deterrent (Mosquito Northern Ireland n.d.) which keeps teenagers
from gathering around shops and public transport facilities.6 The public debate
which these devices have initiated across Europe is unfortunately limited to a
potential impact on the physical health of the target audience. The social
5
Our societys anity for private property might also be used for the contrary purpose,
though. Schwartz (2004:500) has pointed out that anti-noise campaigns are usually successful
when they portray sound as a potential threat to private property, such as when emphasising
the potential of ultrasonic booms to cause structural damage to buildings.
6
The alternative Mood Calming System, which plays royalty-free classical music (Com-
pound Security Systems n.d.), does not change the underlying problem but suggests the
same impoverished understanding of music which characterises all variations of Muzak. Jack-
son (2005) further discusses the use of classical music as a means of dispersing teenagers.
issues which are at the root of this problem are largely ignored. Considering
the rapid disappearance of public space in urban environments for the sake of
total commercialisation, it is not particularly surprising that teenagers gather
around commercial areas. It is unlikely that this lack of public space can be
successfully addressed by further enforcing private space.
1.2 Addressing the Challenges

It is beyond the scope of this thesis to discuss solutions to the outlined issues
from a viewpoint of technical acoustics, noise prevention or urban planning.
However, I would like to discuss some of the issues which I regard as relevant
for the public debate on aural culture.
1.2.1 The Noise Pollution Debate

Unfortunately, discussions on aural culture are dominated by the concept of
noise pollution. Noise has been referred to as one of the great technical con-
icts of the information age (Kosko 2006:8), the forgotten pollutant (Dixon
2007:101) and as an adequate replacement for the plague and the cholera
(Robert Koch, cited in Kleilein & Kockelkorn 2008:100). While the condem-
nation of noise has certainly raised public awareness, it might also prevent a
pro-active understanding of the sound environment. More than thirty years
ago, Max Neuhaus (1974) criticised the New York City Department of Air
Resources for publishing a pamphlet bearing the title Noise Makes You Sick,
arguing that their propaganda itself represented that which it criticisednoise.
The portrayal of sound as a physical threat created by anonymous forces (such
as trac) leaves no room for an understanding of listening and soundmaking
as aesthetic experiences. We are not the victims but the creators of the noise
which we lament; it is up to us to conceive an aural culture according to our
preferences. Although the eld of acoustic ecology has contributed much to
a better understanding of this, the focus on noise in the discourse on aural
culture stems, in my opinion, at least partly from their idealisation of silence
(cf. Schafer 1994:258f) and a certain romanticism:
Let nature speak with its own authentic voices. That is the grand
and simple theme of the acoustic designer. (Schafer 1994:247)
Unfortunately, it is also an oversimplication of a complex issue. After all,

nature includes us humans as soundmakers, and it is precisely a denition of
authenticity which we are lacking.
To think of all man-made sound as bad and any sound of natures

[sic] as good is simplistic. Many sounds in the urban soundscape
are very interesting and complex; we shouldnt reject them out of
hand just because they may not be made deliberately. (Neuhaus
1994b:7)
Similar arguments has been voiced by Lpez (1997) and Bull (2001:194). Hosokawa
(1984:174f) has criticised Schafer for neglecting the social dynamic beneath the
soundscape. Ingold (2007) has even proposed to abandon Schafers concept of
the soundscape altogether.
1.2.2 Acoustic Design of Public Space

Although a cross-cultural, qualitative approach to soundscape research is be-
coming more widely acknowledged, such an approach is not immune to drawing
simplistic conclusions. A research project involving over 10,000 interviews with
inhabitants of nineteen cities in ve European countries and China resulted
in the following recommendation with regards to the acoustic design of public
spaces:
For example, if an urban open public space is mainly designed

for older people, more natural sounds like bird songs should be
introduced, whereas if the users are mainly young people, more
articial sounds could be introduced or created. (Kang 2008:17)
This conclusion fails at several levels. Kang does not explain why the acoustic
design of public space should necessitate the introduction of any kind of sound.
Neither does he specify how exactly this should be done; despite the dierent
results which the planting of trees (to attract birds) would probably yield com-
pared to the installation of a loudspeaker system (to play bird song recordings).
The latter approach would likely yield sounds more articial than the ones
which Kang mentions without further specifying. I would also like to question
the idea that public space ought to be designed for specic demographic groups
rather than for use by old and young alike. We must not derive from the
cultural specics of aural experience an excuse to further separate age groups
whose alienation from each other already presents a signicant problem for the
cohesion of our society.
1.2.3 Architecture
It has been recognised in recent years that architectural concerns, such as
choice of building materials and decisions made by urban planners, have far-
reaching consequences for the everyday soundscape. The eld of architecture

has had to take a fair amount of criticism in recent years for its alleged igno-
rance of aural experience. Neuhaus (1994e) sees a lack of aural awareness in
the architectural community. Blesser & Salter diagnose an impoverishment of
architectural language when it comes to sound (2006:6) and have criticised the
visual orientation of architecture (2006:1). Kleilein & Kockelkorn (2008:102)
have also portrayed modern architecture as being deeply anchored in the vi-
sual. Hosokawa (1984:173) observes a neglect of sound in urban planning.
Bosshard (2005, cited in Sedmak & Androsch 2009:135) argues that modern
urban architecture appears as if planned with a maximisation of noise in mind.
Schricker (2001:42) draws a picture of architecture as a discipline which has
turned its back on sensory experience. Androsch (2009) refers to architecture as
a deaf discipline. Likewise, Schafer (1994:222) has accused modern architects
of designing for the deaf and having their ears [...] stued with bacon.
Ifas in the keynote address of a recent conference dedicated to that very

subjectthe aural awareness of architects ends with cheesy background music
for the public demonstration of a building dedicated to the education of musi-
cians, then the situation is indeed dramatic. On the other hand, sound becomes
an integral architectural element in Daniel Libeskinds Holocaust Tower at the
Jewish Museum in Berlin or in Christian de Portzamparcs Cit de la Musique.
Moreover, the ignorance between architects and sound professionals is some-
what bilateral (Brandlhuber & Emde 2008:168). Like the everyday soundscape,
architecture is often experienced as something which is simply there, beyond
ones personal reach. Aural culture would probably benet as much from an
increased architectural awareness as from the improvement of aural awareness.
1.3 A Visual Culture?

Many researchers and artists have interpreted the alleged impoverishment of
aural awareness in our society as a sign of an increasingly visually oriented
culture (Fontana n.d.b). De Certeau (1988:xxi) claims that our society is
characterized by a cancerous growth of vision. Bull (2001:194) diagnoses a
dominant visual epistemological nature of contemporary social thought. For
Schafer (1994:10), the increasingly visual orientation of Western society is evi-
dent from the way in which we have come to imagine Godonce as a voice from
the heavens, later as an icon. He argues that our love aair with vision also
manifests itself in the fact that we measure property in square meters; despite
much older methods of dening space by acoustic means (1994:33,214). Georg
Simmel (quoted in Benjamin 1973:38) distinguishes big cities by a marked

preponderance of the activity of the eye over the activity of the ear. Berendt
(1992:9) diagnoses a dominance of the eye in our culture. Slouka (2004:41)
speaks of an increasingly visual age. Truax (2001:3) argues that even the eld
of acoustics itself has gradually moved towards visual representations of sound,
and Schafer (1994:128) refers to modern acoustics as the science of sightread-
ing.7 Welsch (1993:99, quoted in Schricker 2001:62; translation by the author)
argues that the privilege of seeing is accompanied by a despise of hearing.
1.3.1 Language and Truth

Some authors have argued that the dominance of vision in our culture is re-
ected or even rooted in our language (e.g. Bull 2001:180).
Looking makes the object of vision discrete and identiable [...].

This becomes expressed as a name. The names we have are devel-
oped out of functional visual experiences [...]. Language has been
the line of demarcation. (Fontana n.d.b)
The ubiquity of explicit references to vision in our language is often pointed

out. After all, how can we develop a better informed view on listening if we do
not even have an aural equivalent for that word? The predominance of visual
metaphors in philosophical and everyday language has variably been dated back
to the Enlightenment (Sterne 2003:3), the Renaissance (McLuhan 1962) or to
the fourth century B.C. (cf. Schricker 2001:61). It has been interpreted as a
symbol of a general ocularcentrism of our culture. Schafer (2004:35) laments
that [i]t is almost as if the great achievements of Western philosophy and
science were produced in a huge anechoic chamber. Counterexamples from for-
eign or past cultural contexts are frequently cited. Carothers (1959:310, quoted
in McLuhan 1962:19) notes that for rural Africans reality seems to reside [...]
7
Their arguments were somewhat conrmed through a personal experience which I had
during the design of a sound installation in a Belfast gallery in 2008. Aiming at a reduction of
the reverberation in the exhibition space, two dierent companies were asked for quotes with
regards to the installation of an acoustic ceiling. A representative of one of the companies
supplied us with samples of the ceiling panelsin dierent colours, but much too small
to estimate their acoustic impact. Neither company was prepared to temporarily install at
least one of the actual panels in order to estimate their eect. Both oered estimations
of the reverberation time before and after ceiling installation based on Sabines formula,
but explicitly stated that they would not guarantee their equipment to comply with their
estimates. At the same time, neither company oered to conduct actual measurements in
the space, and they also rejected our oer of conducting such measurements ourselves and
providing them with the results. Although it has to be noted that the acoustic results turned
out very satisfactory in this case, it seems awkward that even those making a living from
acoustics do not seem to be prepared to stand up for the acoustic impact of their products.
in what is heard and what is said. McLuhan (1962:27) himself has referred to
the Chinese as a people of the ear. The recent rediscovery of oral (and thus
aural) cultures (Ong 2002:16) expresses a desire for regaining this lost way
of viewingno: hearing!the world. McLuhan (1962:26) has famously located
electronic media at the root of a cultural shift back from a visual to an au-
ditory orientation. Bull (2001:192f) has suggested that studies of technologies
such as the mobile phone or the Walkman can benet from an application of
aural rather than visual epistemologies.
However, the relationship between language and the construction of reality

might not be as simple as the above arguments suggest:
[T]he philosophical privilege of sight is not the same thing as its

privilege in practice. [There is] a disjuncture between the aurality
of a practice and the ocularcentric language used to describe it.
(Sterne 2003:105)
Sterne argues that aural practices evolved precisely because of languages inade-
quacy to formally describe sound (2003:94). Nevertheless, it is certainly correct
that [h]earing has its own relation to truth: [...] to accepting things that are
promised, even if they cannot be shown (Tonkiss 2004:307). The nature of
this relation has been investigated in recent philosophy:
[S]houldnt truth itself [...] be listened to rather than seen? [...]

What secret is at stake when one truly listens, that is, when one
tries to capture or surprise the sonority rather than the message?
(Nancy 2007:4f)
Nancy concludes that [t]o be listening is to be inclined toward the opening of

meaning (2007:27). Fiumara is also concerned with listening as a philosophical
method:
A philosophy of listening can be envisaged as an attempt to recover

the neglected and perhaps deeper roots of what we call thinking, an
activity which in some way gathers and synthesizes human endeav-
ours. (Fiumara 1990:13)
1.3.2 The Audiovisual Litany

Eorts towards a better understanding of the aural domain are often attempted
in terms of distinguishing it from that of vision. Ironically, this does not always
serve our insight into either of the two. An often cited example is the absence
of an aural equivalent to the eyelids (Schafer 1994:11; Tonkiss 2004:304; Nancy
2007:14).8 The fact that [w]e are condemned to listen (Schafer 2004:25) and
at [the] mercy (Straus 1966:16) of the acoustic has supported an understand-
ing of the ear as an organ incapable of defending itself (e.g. Schricker 2001:63).
By contrast, Max Neuhauswho claims to have probably encountered every
misconception about sound known to man (1994e:3)points out that the body
does have means of protecting itself against sound (1974). While mechanisms
such as temporary threshold rising do indeed provide some degree of protec-
tion, I do not wish to suggest that the ear is capable of defending itself against
any sound, independently of level or exposure time. However, the myth of the
indefensible ear parallels the victimisation of listeners in the noise pollution
debate (Schwartz 2004). It needs to be questioned whether a picture of defence-
less listeners equipped with defenceless ears will contribute much to a sense of
responsibility in our aural culture.
It is beyond the scope of this thesis to investigate the validity of all popular
contrasts between aural and visual perception. This is particularly unfortunate
in the case of some arguments whose apparent captivating logic might not with-
stand closer investigation. An example is the simplied interpretation of vision
as active and hearing as passive (Schnhammer 1989). The frequent claim that
seeing implies directional focus, whereas listening is immersive and omnidirec-
tional (Truax 2001:17; Tonkiss 2004:304; Fontana n.d.b) might tell us less about
perception than about our misunderstanding of it. Problematic generalisations
might also be at the root of descriptions of listening as an intimate sense
expressing proximity (Bull 2004a:103); in contrast to vision, which allegedly
distances an object from the subject (Schricker 2001:63). The ephemeral
nature of sound as opposed to visual scenes is often noted (Schnhammer
1989; Schricker 2001:63; Nancy 2007:2). So is the archaic nature of listening,
which of course allows us to identify threats (Licht 2007:15) for the sake of
survival (Oliveros 2005:xxv), or to evoke memories (Tonkiss 2004:307; Toop
2007:114) and emotions (Kleilein & Kockelkorn 2008:103). Straus (1963:377)
has referred to seeing as an analytical and hearing as a synthesising sense,
which allegedly explains why visualization and quantication are near twins
(McLuhan 1962:159). Similarly, Ong (2002:38f) argues that visual cultures are
analytical, whereas oral cultures are aggregative. However, most audio engi-
neers and acousticians will agree that hearing can in fact be employed in a
8
The concept of earlids is reected in my Ohrenli(e)der series of directed listening scores
(cf. appendix A).
very analytical manner, and many painters would make a case for the synthe-
sising qualities of vision. Hearing supposedly operates inwards; vision outwards
(Schricker 2001:62). Nevertheless, vision is frequently related to individuality
and hearing to sociality (Schnhammer 1989; Schricker 2001:63).
Due to the redundancy of the above arguments and their usual presentation in
form of a list, Sterne has referred to them as the audiovisual litany (2003:15),
which he portrays as a powerful ideological frame for the history of the senses,
but [...] not an accurate description of that history (2003:127). One reason why
such contrasts of the aural and visual domain are not always useful is a lack of
precision with regards to what they compare. Do they contrast sound and light
as physical phenomena; seeing and hearing as perceptual processes; looking and
listening as manifestations of perceptual attention? Ingold (2007:11) notes that
sound is regularly compared to vision, whereas more properly it ought to be
compared to light.
1.3.3 The Audiovisual Competition

Comparisons of the visual and the aural domain unfortunately tend to con-
cern themselves with demonstrating the superiority of one over the other, as
in the following example from a popular textbook on perception: Test subjects
equipped with a pseudophone, a mechanical device consisting of two tubes which
leads sound from the left side of the listener to her right ear and vice versa,
are still able to correctly judge directions of sound sources when they have
their eyes open. According to the authors, this is the most convincing proof
of visions dominance (Blake & Sekuler 2002:481) over the auditory system.
But in this experiment, vision is established as the undisturbed reference frame
which an articially modied listening experience needs to hold up against.9
The test variable in the above experimentthe direction of a sound sourceis
in itself inherently visual. Ong (2002:129) argues that it was originally the
technology of print which encouraged us to organise our mind in spatial terms.
Vision might therefore well provide the ultimate reference for three-dimensional
spatial thinking itself. In the experiment above, it is not aural perception, but
a culturally specic way of understanding space which is dominated by vision.
9
I cannot blame any pedestrian navigating downtown trac with a pseudophone on top
of her head who iseven if unconsciously somore willing to trust her eyes more than her
ears. One can easily think of counterexamples proving the dominance of hearing: If test
subjects were shown a video of a woman speaking, with her lips synchronised to a male voice
emerging from behind the screen, I think it is unlikely that they would judge the real person
(obviously the one behind the screen) to be female.
Licht (2007:14f) claims that it may be true that [...] we are more responsive
to visual than aural stimuli, as light is faster than sound. But the physical
speed of sound does in no way resemble the speed of its perceptual processing.
Quite contrary, we tend to let vision conrm what hearing presupposes (Connor
2004:154). Scheich (2008:66) claims that [v]isual scenes and their transforma-
tion into pictures or pictograms contain much more information than a sound,
but without addressing the quantication of information (besides a brief refer-
ence to Shannon) to support his claim. Neuhaus has pinpointed the inherent
problem of these superiority debates:
[...] I often nd myself in discussions with people who insist that

the eye is superior to the ear. I am always tempted to smile during
these discussions because, as my interlocutor derides hearing and I
defend it, he doesnt realize that without his ear he would not even
be able to make his argument. (Neuhaus 1994e:1)
Vice versa, it has also been attempted to demonstrate the ears superiority
over they eye as a sensory instrument (McLuhan 1962:27; Sedmak & Androsch
2009:15) or the higher complexity of sound compared to light as a physical
phenomenon (Blesser & Salter 2006:215f). However,
[o]utside of language, the question of one [eye or ear] being superior

to the other is a false one. (Neuhaus 1994e:1)
Competitive comparisons of the visual and the aural domain do not tend to
contribute much to our understanding neither of the physics nor of the percep-
tion of sound and light.
1.3.4 Perceptual Coherence

Sterne (2003:58) points out that the separation of the senses in the nine-
teenth century, whose origins McLuhan (1962:42f) dates back to the invention
of the alphabet, was necessary for modern listening to develop to its present
form. Nevertheless, aural and visual perception are in fact virtually insepara-
ble (Ingold 2007:11). Neuhaus (1994e:1) notes how well ear and eye comple-
ment each other, and both Licht (2007:15) and Connor (2004:154) remark how
we constantly apply them as a single entity. Chion (2006:56f) and Schricker
(2001:149) argue that the perception of sound is trans-sensorial; i.e. it is signi-
cantly inuenced by senses other than hearing, such as smell and touch. George
Pennington (quoted in Ablinger 2009:34; translation by the author) states that
[w]hat we call reality essentially relies on coherence in our sensory perception.
This perceptual coherence (Handel 2006) is best illustrated by the dramatic

eects of any disturbance in the synchronicity of hearing and seeing (Schricker
2001:15). It can be observed in Peter Ablingers (2007b) piece Echtzeit, where
the audience hears music performed by a cellist behind a window half a sec-
ond after it is being played. The deliberate disturbance of visual and auditory
perception has also been explored in my installations 24/7 (cf. appendix G)
and 9/2/5 (cf. appendix H) and will be discussed as a composition technique
in section 7.3.2.
Some authors who have argued that ours is an ocularcentric culture have con-
cluded that we would be better o in a society where aural perception predom-
inates. Copeland (1995) already imagines a time when people employ sight
only when it is absolutely necessary or particularly appropriate to do so. What
he fails to explain is why this should be desirable. Blesser & Salter (2006:361)
argue that the alleged dominance of the eye comes at the expense not only of
hearing, but also of smell, taste and touch. It is not clear how a dominance
of the ear would better prevent the neglect of these senses. Ingold (2007:10f)
warns us to repeat mistakes from visual studies, and Schricker (2001:91f) ar-
gues that a predominance of hearing would be as undesirable as one of vision.
He and Ganchrow (2008:157) point out that an increased aural awareness also
enhances ones understanding of vision. Connor summarises the importance of
considering the senses as an entity:
[W]hat a culture oers is not just a static consortium of the senses

[...], but rather a eld of possibility, a repertoire of forms, images,
and dreams whereby reection on the senses take place. Intersenso-
riality is the means by which this is enacted. (Connor 2004:156)
1.4 The Revolution is Hear!

Modern aural culture is regularly portrayed as being in an impoverished condi-
tion due to an alleged dominance of vision. The aural seems to be in constant
need of defence in a culture which has chosen the gaze as its primary means
of constructing reality. But is ours really a society of the spectacle (Debord
1967)? Other authors oer a dierent interpretation:
[E]ven if sight is in some way the privileged sense in European

philosophical discourse since the Enlightenment, it is fallacious to
think that sight alone [...] explains modernity. (Sterne 2003:3)
Sterne argues that listening is central to a modern form of knowledge (2003:127)

and argues that the Enlightenment was parallelled by an Ensoniment (2003:2).
Schwartz (2004:491) argues that hearing is crucial for orientation in the mod-
ern world. Jay (1993) diagnoses a denigration of vision in twentieth-century
French thought. Sedmak & Androsch (2009:7) see contemporary aural culture
in a concurrent decline and rise. Du Gay et al. speak of a revolution in sound
(1997:19) and in the culture of listening (1997:21). Drobnick (2004:10) refers
to a sonic turn, Cox & Warner (2004:xiii) to an auditory turn. The revo-
lution which is hear! is already here.
This revolution manifests itself in various recent suggestions for the acous-
tic design of everyday environments. Schafer (1994:238) has proposed four
acoustic design principles, along with ideas for improving the design of trac
crosswalk signals, telephone bells and car horns.10 Truax (2001:106) has sug-
gested three aspects of promoting change in a malfunctioning acoustic system.
He (2001:76) and Schricker (2001:29,39,84) have identied a balance between
coherence and variety as essential for acoustic design to satisfy both the lis-
teners curiosity and a desire for security and intimacy. Neuhaus (2006:7) has
proclaimed a new era in which architecture considers cities not only from a
visual, but also from an aural perspective. Blesser & Salter (2006) have pro-
posed their concept of aural architecture, which describes the relation between
the built environment, social and acoustic space. Amphoux (1993, cited in
Paquette 2004) has dened three qualitative descriptors of urban soundscapes.
Augoyard & Torgue (2006) have introduced the concept of the sonic eect (cf.
section 4.5) as a qualitative tool for urban acoustic design. Chelko (1991) and
Sedmak & Androsch (2009:155) have also discussed sound in an urban design
context. What unites most authors reecting on sound in public environments
is their conviction that it necessitates an understanding in terms of the inhab-
itants rather than the planners viewpoint (e.g. Hosokawa 1984:172f; Schafer
1994:206; Dixon 2007:104).11
Manifestations of the quiet revolution which is hear! are already audible in

our everyday environment. The legacy of Neuhaus 1978 Sirens project (cf.
Neuhaus 1993) can be observed at Stansted Airport, where the vehicles which
10
It is interesting to note that the realisation of Schafers vision of personalised telephone
ringtones (1994:242) has hardly contributed to an increase of the overall quality of the
soundscape.
11
This concept echoes practices pioneered by the Situationists, who proposed an under-
standing of urban environments from the perspective of lived reality rather than from the
God-like birds-eye view of the urban planner (de Certeau 1988:91).
collect the luggage trolleys emit soft bursts of coloured noise. As opposed to
the usual obnoxious beep, this signal attracts the attention of only those people
in the immediate proximity who it needs to concern. The new aural awareness
has also started to infuse actual policy making. The city council of Berlin
has recently acknowledged that it is fundamentally and socially tolerable for
children to make noise as part of their play (BBC 2010). In 2009, the city
council of Linz, Austria has adopted the Linzer Charta, which explicitly states
the right of all inhabitants to contribute to the design of their acoustic environ-
ment (Sedmak & Androsch 2009). Initiatives such as the Positive Soundscapes
Project (Davies et al. 2007) move the public discourse away from the noise
pollution debate towards a pro-active understanding of everyday soundscapes.
Sound art can and does contribute to this new aural culture in many ways.
Its ability to express artistic concerns and ideas through aesthetic experience
represents an important alternative to the moralisation which often accompa-
nies discussions on everyday aural awareness. In this thesis I hope to show
the manifold artistic strategies through which such alternative expressions are
realised.
Every technological progress necessarily begins with an aes-
thetic regression.
Gnther Rabl (n.d.; translation by the author)
2
Technology
Technologically mediated listening has become the dominant mode of aestheti-

cised aural perception. Bull (2007:7) notes that in our culture, [t]he con-
sumption of technologically mediated sound [...] represents a signicant mode
of being-in-the-world . An understanding of everyday aural awareness there-
fore necessitates an understanding of its relationship to technology. This has
been the concern of previous research, most notably in the context of acoustic
ecology. Although its proponents have propagated an overall positive vision of
sound technology (cf. Truax 2001:217), Schafers characterisation of electroa-
coustic media as schizophonic (1994:90) does not exactly facilitate an under-
standing of sound technology as an integral part of everyday aural experience.
While schizophonia describes an essential aspect of sound reproduction, the
term has in my opinion also nurtured idealisations of a natural soundscape,
where technology is primarily seen as a disturbance. Such romanticised views
ignore the fact that negative eects on the sound environment generally result
from a certain use of technology rather than being inherent to technology itself.
On the other hand, there is no reason to contend oneself with the wild techno-
futuristic optimism which is often expressed with regards to new technologies.
In the words of Truax (2001:115), neither a total preoccupation with technol-
ogy nor a total ignorance of it can be defended. Heidegger (1954:13,35f) has
argued that both, demonisation and exaggerated enthusiasm, are inappropriate
42
CHAPTER 2. TECHNOLOGY 43
for an understanding of the essence (Wesen) of technology. According to him,

this essence is nothing technological itself, and it is precisely the arts which
lend themselves to revealing it (1954:43).
The very development of sound art as a discipline distinct from music is closely
linked to technological development. Electroacoustic and digital media have
enabled sound art to take the artistic presentation of sound beyond the concert
hall and bring it closer to everyday environments. This makes a reection on
technology in the context of sound art and everyday aural awareness all the
more relevant. Technology is neverand especially not in the artsa mere
means to an end. Heidegger (1954:40) has warned us that an interpretation of
technology as a neutral tool leaves us with the false illusion of being able to
master it. Neither demonisation, nor ignorance, nor glorication can substitute
for a thorough reection on technology, which is the purpose of this chapter. I
will rst discuss dierent theories of technological development as a product of
social and cultural forces. After this, I will describe three essential principles
which have shaped technologies for the mediation of listening.
2.1 Theories of Technological Development

To understand technologys relationship to everyday aural awareness is to un-
derstand its relationship to the culture which created it. The underlying dy-
namics are arguably too complex to be adequately described in a few pages.
At the danger of being somewhat simplistic, this section aims at clarifying the
relation between technological and cultural development by contrasting dierent
viewpoints.
2.1.1 Deterministic Views

Technological and cultural evolutions are often discussed in terms of a unidirec-
tional cause-eect relationship by describing the eect which a new technology
has on a society. Marshall McLuhan has argued that such an eect can be ob-
served from the demand generated by the sheer presence of a technology:
Nobody wants a motorcar till there are motorcars, and nobody is

interested in TV until there are TV programs. (McLuhan 1964:67)
Such interpretations of technological development as the source of cultural

change are sometimes summarised under the term technological determinism.
Sterne (2003:84) has criticised this view for promoting an understanding of
technology as miraculously dropping from the sky. He refers to such readings

as impact narratives, which according to him spring from an impoverished
notion of causality (2003:7f). Echoing this argument, Rothenbuhler & Peters
cite the phonograph as an example of an invention whose development was as
much a social as a technological process, and which therefore cannot be said to
have caused anything at all (1997:243).
By contrast, technological innovation is sometimes interpreted as a mere re-

sult of greater underlying cultural developments, which would occur anyway.
This view on social change as occurring independently from technological de-
velopment is referred to as social determinism, which according to Winner
(1980:122) mainly serves as a necessary corrective to its technological twin.
Williams (1974:13f) refers to this view as symptomatic technology and ar-
gues that it suers from the same simplication as technological determinism:
an isolationist understanding of technological and sociocultural development as
self-acting, independent forces.
2.1.2 Constructivist Views

Other perspectives have emphasised the inherent relatedness of technological
and cultural evolution. Williams (1974:14) argues that technological devel-
opment is driven by specic social intentions. He interprets the invention of
television as the identication of a need for a social communication system to
match the new systems of production and transport which were already in place.
The idea of technology as being socially constructed has since been formalised
both as a theory and a methodology (Bijker et al. 1987; Bijker & Law 1992;
Bijker 1995). This social construction continues beyond the initial introduction
of a technology. Williams (1974:23) argues that while today, the concept of
broadcasting seems like the natural, predestined application for the wireless
transmission of sound and images, it actually represents the result of a social
decision-making process. Sterne (2003:194f) has described how the phonograph
literally had to become a music reproduction machine after its introduction.
Edison had originally imagined a whole range of dierent applications for his
invention, most of which never found widespread use (2003:202). Sterne also
reminds us that the telephone industry was initially opposed to the use of their
network for social conversation (2003:197). He argues that such processes of
social appropriation eventually turn technologies into media (2003:182f,210,213).
Social constructivism has been criticised by Winner (1993:368) for explaining

how certain technologies are selected and introduced into society, but not how
these choices later aect a society in return. He argues that this view turns
a blind eye towards the often-painful ironies (1993:371) which technological
development tends to bring with it, such as the unintended erosion of com-
munities as a byproduct of modern transportation. Winner has accused social
constructivism of moral and political indierence and of a consequent lack of
vision towards a better society.
2.1.3 The Importance of Metaphors

Ultimately, the relationship between technological and cultural development can
only be understood as a complex feedback loop between the social construction
and appropriation of a new technology and its subsequent eectsboth deliber-
ate and unintentionalon society. An important aspect of this process concerns
the question of how we make sense of new technologies, which challenge our
view of the world to accommodate their very presence (Coyne 1995:282). Our
strategies for doing so are largely based on metaphorical interpretation:
The usual way in which we plan today for tomorrow is in yester-

days vocabulary. We do so, because we try to get away with the
concepts we are familiar with [...]. (Dijkstra 1988:0)
New technologies are often understood in metaphorical terms before they de-
velop their own forms of expression and thereby turn into media. Early lm
resembles photographed theatre (Mertens & Meiner 2002:133), and early TV
feels like radio with images. As an example from the eld of sound technol-
ogy, consider the portable digital music player,1 whichto a certain degreeis
a Walkman (only digital), which is a personal stereo (only portable), which is
a public address system (only personal), which is a musician on a stage (only
electroacoustic). Another example is the interpretation of electronic synthesisers
as substitutes for non-electronic instruments. The understanding of technology
through metaphors serves both the development and use of new technologies
(Coyne 1995:250,283). It accompanies the circular process of technological and
cultural development at every level:
Metaphors set problems that technologies are commonly put for-

ward to address. These technologies in turn promote metaphors
that set the problems. (Coyne 1995:286)
1
Du Gay et al. (1997:14,16) have in fact proposed metaphor as a means of culturally
describing the portable music player. The signicance of mobile music players in the context
of technologically mediated listening is the subject of section 7.1.
Ricoeur (1991:80) argues that metaphors provide us with the ability [t]o see
sameness in the dierence. Johnson (1987:169) has even hailed them as a
fundamental basis of creativity. At the very least, metaphors provide a means
of getting to terms with new and existing technologies. However, their use-
fulness has its limits. Kuhn (1970) has shown that in the history of science,
some paradigm shifts have been too signicant in order to be accommodated by
means of cumulative interpretation. Naughton (1999:112) argues that Kuhns
concept also applies to technological development. Dijkstra (1988:1) points out
that in the face of radical scientic or technological change, the method of
reasoning by analogy is as tempting and widespread as it is counterproductive
and dangerous. He argues that as science and technology have proven to be
capable of imposing radical novelties on us, we need to learn how to intellectu-
ally accommodate these by other means.
Art fulls an essential function in this respect, because of its potential to break
the metaphoric loop of technological development. It can provide alterna-
tive views on technology through its creative use and misuse. For example,
many listeners are initially confused with regards to the technology used in the
portable sound installation Music for Lovers (cf. appendix F). In this work,
two listeners are connected through the cables of their headphones. The sound
heard on each listeners headphones comes from a pair of microphones, which
are mounted on the earcups of the other persons headphones. The audiences
attitude towards this setup is challenged by its use of telecommunication tech-
nology in a situation where two people can hear each other perfectly well.
Before they can appreciate Music for Lovers as a means of hearing the world
through somebody elses ears, they have to unlearn their use of a medium.
When they succeed in doing so, they are rewarded with an experience which
they could never have had by using the same technology according to its user
manual.2 I have observed the same phenomenon in my installation 24/7 (cf.
appendix G), in which sound is continuously being recorded in a gallery, sub-
jected to dierent delays (ranging from a few seconds to an entire week) and
eventually replayed on various headphones in the gallery. Some listeners are
initially disappointed when they encounter the same sounds as those which
occur in the gallery on a daily basis. Again, they have to rid themselves of
expectations which they have come to associate with the use of headphones
(such as instant reward with music) in order to experience the installation as
an auralisation of everyday rhythm in a social listening environment.3
2
Some expressions of such experiences by actual listeners can be found in section 8.4.1.
3
These aspects of 24/7 will be discussed in sections 6.4.3 and 8.4.2, respectively.
Within the context of commercial production, an understanding of technology

by metaphor is particularly widespread; often with the intention of present-
ing the customer with familiar categories. The mobile phone turned out to
be a commercially more successful metaphor than the handheld computer,
simply because more people have learnt to come to terms with phones than
with computers. However, while this strategy might enable an easier adop-
tion of technology it also prevents a deeper reection and understanding on
behalf of its users. Artistic approaches represent a necessary corrective to such
simplications. They teach us that a portable digital music player is not sim-
ply a Walkman by other means. Instead, it can, for example, be interpreted
as a general-purpose mobile computer with an audio interface, whichthrough
freely available open source software and a little know-howbecomes a portable
electronic music instrument (Steiner & Schebella 2008). According to McLuhan
(1964:65), this ability of the artist to sidestep the bully blow of new technology
of any age, and to parry such violence with full awareness is what legitimates
art itself.
2.2 Technologically Mediated Listening

An awareness that technological and cultural development cannot be described
through simplistic cause-and-eect relationships is essential for understanding
technologys role with regards to aural culture. This role can be entirely in-
cidental, such as in the case of the audible side-eects of industrialisation (cf.
section 1.1.1). In this section, however, I will focus on technologies which are
explicitly concerned with a mediation of aural experience. Technologically me-
diated listening has primarily been discussed in terms of technologys eect
on aural culture (e.g. Chion 2006:209). As we have seen, this represents a
problematic simplication, and Sterne (2003:92,256) has shown that such inter-
pretations ignore the fact that the very development of sound technology was
informed by changing attitudes towards listening itself. Thompson (2004:247f),
on the other hand, has pointed out that audiences apply listening habits ac-
quired through technological mediation also in non-mediated situations. These
observations illustrate the complexity of the relationship between sound tech-
nology and aural culture. In this section I will discuss this relationship by
following three essential paradigms of sound technologys historical evolution:
the tympanic principle, the electroacoustic principle and the digital principle.
2.2.1 The Tympanic Principle

Sound technologies are generally associated with electroacoustic representations
of sound. Because this represents the basis of virtually all listening technolo-
gies in use today, it is easily forgotten that the origins of sound technology are
of a mechanical nature. Ear trumpets and stethoscopes are examples of early
listening technologies, and Sterne (2003:104) provides an excellent history of
the stethoscope in the context of changing listening attitudes in the nineteenth
century. However, these devices were not able to xate let alone reproduce
sound, which soon became the focus of research in sound technology. Early
attempts in this direction oriented themselves on models of the human mouth,
but these speaking automata were limited in their abilities (2003:73).
Ironically, the breakthrough in sound reproduction occurred when the focus

shifted from the production of sound through the mouth towards the reception
of sound through the ear (Sterne 2003:77). The interpretation of sound as
a vibration independent of its source led to the discovery of the tympanic
principle (2003:34f): A diaphragm, whose function roughly resembles that of the
middle ear (eardrum and attached ossicles), translates acoustical to mechanical
vibrations. This concept rst allowed the xation of sound through Scotts
phonautograph in 1857, anddue to its reversibilitylater also its reproduction
through Edisons phonograph from 1877 and Berliners gramophone from 1888.
[T]he vibrating diaphragm that allowed telephones and phono-

graphs to function was itself an artifact of changing understandings
of human hearing. (Sterne 2003:7)
Modern attitudes towards listening date back to the development of audile4

techniques in the medical practice of auscultation. With the invention of the
stethoscope by Laennec (ca. 1817), immediate auscultationas part of which
the doctor places his ear directly on the patients bodywas replaced by me-
diate auscultation. With the stethoscopes success came a shift from the mouth
towards the ear as the most important means of diagnosis. Rather than relying
on verbal descriptions by the patient herself, the idea of the ear as an instru-
ment was born (Sterne 2003:99).5
4
Sterne (2003:96) uses the term audile to connote hearing and listening as developed and
specialized practices.
5
Sterne (2003:51) notes that the new orientation towards hearing and the ear itself,
as exemplied by the development of tympanic devices, is particularly evident from the ear
phonautograph by Bell and Blake (1874), which used an actual pigs ear to capture acoustic
oscillations.
As much as modern sound reproduction technologies were themselves products

of a shift in aural culture, they certainly intensied this process in return. The
cultural implications of sounds reproducibility have been famously discussed
by Benjamin (1974), Adorno & Levin (1990) and others. The main arguments
have been summarised by Rothenbuhler & Peters (1997:243), who remind us
that with sound reproduction, music no longer required a performer, could
be repeated and copied at will and became disembodied as well as a casual
pleasure independent of specic performance environments. Sound reproduc-
tion allows the audience to control the performance of music and in fact gave
birth to the very notion of live music as an antipode to reproduced music.
Truax (2001:131) adds that reproduced sound became an objectied commod-
ity, which could be bought, owned, collected and sold. In short, the listener
was redened as a consumer (2001:159).
These eects were primarily signicant with regards to the social circumstances
under which aestheticised listening occurred. After all, the entire practice of
musical performance can be regarded as a byproduct of an inability to x-
ate sound before the invention of the phonograph. If people wanted to listen
to music, they needed to gather at a specic place and time. The concert
was in a sense born from sounds ephemerality. With sound reproduction, the
performance of music was disassociated from the social event which used to
necessarily accompany it. The result was a gradual individuation of listening;
a process which according to Sterne (2003:155) had started in the nineteenth
century with the development of audile techniques associated with the stetho-
scope, sound telegraphy, hearing tubes, headphones and the phone booth.
Rather than revolutionizing hearing, sound-reproduction technolo-

gies would expand on and further disseminate constructs of listening
based on audile technique. (Sterne 2003:174)
Once more, and not only in a grammatical sense, the revolution which is
allegedly hear! turns out to actually be hereand to have been so for quite
a while already.
2.2.2 The Electroacoustic Principle

At the heart of the tympanic principle is the concept of translating acoustic vi-
brations to another medium. The nature of the target medium itself is exible.
While the xation of sound initially succeeded with the translation of acous-
tic to mechanic oscillations, the transmission of sound over long distances was
made possible by representing sound as an electrical signal. The electroacoustic

principle, which can be regarded as a specic manifestation of the tympanic
principle, has since become the almost exclusive method for not only the trans-
mission, but also the recording and reproduction of sound.
The conversion of sound to electrical signals has brought its own characteristics
to the technological mediation of listening. It has contributed to the spreading
of sound in every sense of the word. With electroacoustic technology, sound
reproduction became a mass phenomenon, facilitated by the ever increasing
availability and aordability of electronic components. The possibility of elec-
tric amplication largely increased the loudness and thereby the range of sound
reproduction systems and also allowed the transmission of sound over greater
distances than ever before. For Truax (2001:124), the essence of the electroa-
coustic principle is that, for the rst time ever, it changed the very rules by
which sound spreads. Rather than at the speed of sound it could now travel
at the speed of light; almost a million times faster. By reaching out to listen-
ers everywhere, electroacoustic technologies further individuated and mobilised
technologically mediated listening.
Tympanic and electroacoustic sound reproduction eectively result in a separa-

tion of sound from its source in temporal, spatial and energetic terms, as I am
going to discuss in section 4.2. Together these two principles have dened the
two characteristic listening situations of the modern age: listening to record-
ings (vinyl, tape, CDs, etc.) and to transmissions (telephone, radio, digital
streams) of sound. This corresponds to Schafers (1994:89) identication of the
telephone, the phonograph and the radio as the three most inuential listening
technologies.
2.2.3 The Digital Principle

Digital representations of sound add another layer of conversion to the tech-
nological mediation of listening. Digitally encoded sounds are represented as
sequences of numbers, which cannot be recorded or played back as sound be-
fore being converted from or to an analog signal as generated by a tympanic
(and in practice virtually always electroacoustic) transducer. The digital prin-
ciple therefore enhances its tympanic and electroacoustic counterparts, but it
does not supersede either of them. Its cultural implications have primarily
amplied those associated with tympanic and electroacoustic technologies. Dig-
itally encoded sound can be copied without any loss of quality, thereby adding
to sounds reproducibility. The continuous miniaturisation of digital hardware

has further contributed to the mobilisation and individuation of technologically
mediated listening, as is evident from the popularity of portable digital mu-
sic players. Further developments associated with digital sound technology are
the convenience of non-linear data access, the possibility of transmitting sound
faster than in real-time (i.e. in a shorter period than the length of sound which
it represents) and the exible organisation of sound in databases. But although
the integration of sound into a digital infrastructure has certainly enhanced
the above processes, neither of them is inherent to the digital representation of
sound itself. The conveniences associated with digital sound are largely due to
the universality of digital code, which turns sound into a computable medium
that can easily be integrated with digital representations of data other than
sound.
Like many new technologies, digital sound has been welcomed with both praise
and scepticism: Rothenbuhler & Peters have mourned the lost nature in
digital media, arguing that as opposed to analog recordings, digital media do
not contain physical traces of the music (1997:246). They claim that at
its heart, digital recording is as fundamentally arbitrary as analog recording is
fundamentally natural (1997:250), ignoring the fact that a digital recording
is merely a dierent representation of a previous analog recording. They have
argued that digital sound reproduction has been accompanied with an overall
loss of sound quality, due to the inherently limited resolution of digital encod-
ing.6 At the same time, Rothenbuhler & Peters as well as many other authors
have hailed digital media for their alleged democratising potential. Winner
(1980:121) reminds us that this claim has been made for most new technolo-
gies, including factory systems, television, the space programme and nuclear
power. While digital representations of sound greatly amplify the impact of
earlier technologies, their revolutionary tendencies have been questioned by
Sterne, who echoes Heideggers warnings outlined earlier in this chapter:
[W]e cannot assume that, by their existence alone, digital trans-

mission and storage media herald a new age, a fundamental trans-
formation in modern sound culture. It may be the case that they do
mark some deeper structural changes, or at least lead us to them.
But, in order to determine whether they do, we must move beyond
6
This argument is quite typical of early criticisms of digital sound reproduction. However,
the greater loss of quality has since then arguably occurred with the standardisation of lossy
audio compression formats, which accompanied the increasing popularity of the internet as a
platform for music distribution.
the technologies themselves. (Sterne 2003:338f)
2.3 The Mobilisation and Individuation of Au-

ral Experience
In this chapter I have argued that technological and cultural development are
too closely intertwined to be explained merely in terms of an eect of the for-
mer on the latter. Technology serves both as a means of reecting on our aural
culture and as a propellant for its development. Two developments have turned
out to be of particular signicance in this context: the increasing mobilisation
and individuation of aural experience. All three principles of technologically
mediated listening that I have discussed in this chapter have contributed to
this process. They thereby echo a general evolution of modern society, which
Williams (1974:26) has in fact characterised in terms of a mobile privatisation.
Through technological mediation, aestheticised listening has become an increas-

ingly mobile and individual experience. Bull (2004c:179) traces this deliberate
individuation of aural experience by means of technology back to the myth
of Odysseus, who stued wax into his ears in order to avoid the song of the
sirens. Hosokawa (1984) sees a historical evolution from living together (in
the immediate sound environment) and making music together to listening to
music together (through sound technology) and eventually listening to music
alone with the birth of the portable music player. In a sense, the cultural
circumstances of aestheticised listening have reversed themselves with (but not
necessarily as a result of) the development of sound technology. Less than two
centuries ago, listeners needed to participate in a social experience in order to
listen to music; at least if they did not play an instrument themselves. By
contrast, the experience of music through a portable music player requires a
previous detachment from ones social environment (Tonkiss 2004:305). Bull
(2007:21) concludes that [t]he price of technologically mediated empowerment
is privatisation. Sterne (2003:155) has shown that even when sound technol-
ogy is used to mediate a social listening experience (e.g. phone conversations,
or the family gathering around the radio), this collectivisation follows a prior
individuation of listening.
The mobilisation of aesthetic aural experience will be investigated in chapter 7

(Mobile Listening). The individuation of technologically mediated listening will
be the subject of chapter 8 (Social Listening).
Part II
Sound
53
Listening is [...] the means of perceiving perception.
Peter Ablinger (2008c:93; translation by the author)
[T]he hearing of sound is what makes it.

Jonathan Sterne (2003:11)
Aural Awareness
3
The complexity of aural experience is reected in the impossibility of describ-
ing it through a single coherent theory (Handel 1993:181f). Blesser & Salter
(2006:302) argue that the diculty in dening such a theory is grounded in
the problem of how to quantify a perceptual experience whose cognitive in-
terpretation is largely controlled by the listener herself. They argue that a
perceptual uncertainty principle represents the natural limit for the ability of
formal science to describe human experience. It is beyond the scope of this the-
sis to discuss human hearing as a scientically quantiable phenomenon. There
are plenty of excellent publications on this subject. Handel (1993) provides
an overview of the physiological foundations of hearing. Bregman (1990) has
established the functional model of auditory scene analysis to describe how the
human auditory system segregates dierent sound sources from the mixture of
sound waves arriving at the ears.1 The perception of music is discussed from a
psychological viewpoint in (Deutsch 1999). Blauert (1997) and other researchers
have investigated the localisation of sound sources in three-dimensional space.
By contrast, this chapter focuses on qualitative descriptions of listening as a

reective perceptual process. It is concerned with the listeners awareness to-
wards the sound environment and the listening process itself. Blesser & Salter
1
Bregman (1990:5f) likens the complexity of this cognitive synthesis to being able to tell
the number, positions and sizes of boats on a lake only from looking at the superposition of
the resulting waves at a single location on the lakes shore.
54
CHAPTER 3. AURAL AWARENESS 55
(2006:14) have coined the term auditory awareness,2 which they vaguely dene
as some neurological reaction to [...] acoustics, including both conscious and
unconscious changes to the listeners body state. They have proposed a three-
stage functional model of auditory awareness, in which sensation refers to the
initial detection of a sound, followed by its recognition through perception and
eventually emotional aect. Unfortunately, they do not develop this model in
further depth. While they acknowledge the limited role of scientic quanti-
cation, their model does not contribute much to the qualitative description of
aural experience either. In this chapter I will discuss various such qualitative
descriptions by various authors to portray listening as a multifaceted experience.
One goal of this discussion is to add some coherence to the existing terminology.
Aural awareness has been described through a plurality of terms associated with
listening, such as listening intentions (Thoresen & Hedman 2007), functions
(Schaeer 1966), modes (Chion 1983, 1994; Huron 2002; Tuuri et al. 2007),
strategies (Farnell 2008; Huron 2002; Tuuri et al. 2007; Blesser & Salter 2006),
behaviours (Delalande 1998), attention (Truax 2001), mechanisms (Young 2004)
and even listening styles (Huron 2002). Moreover, this list merely covers terms
coined by English speaking authors and translators. The term which I will
adopt in this thesis is listening mode, which Huron denes as
[...] a distinctive attitude or approach that can be brought to bear

on a listening experience. (Huron 2002)
Tuuri et al. (2007:13) note that modes of listening have received relatively little
attention in the literature so far. This chapter aims at making an according
contribution.
3.1 Listening as Attention

The primary distinction whichat least the Englishlanguage has to oer with
regards to aural experience is the one between hearing and listening. However,
there is a plurality of interpretations as to what distinguishes the former from
the latter. Sterne notes that while the popular distinction of hearing as passive
and listening as active can be dated back to the early nineteenth century
(2003:100), it is not necessarily always adequate (2003:96). A more rened
denition states that listening, by contrast to hearing, requires attention:
2
Blesser & Salter specically refer to auditory spatial awareness (cf. section 4.6.2), but I
think it is fair to generalise their point. I use the term auditory awareness to explicitly refer
to the model by Blesser & Salter, and aural awareness for my own discussion in this thesis.
Both terms are however concerned with similar aspects of aural experience.
To hear is the physical means that enables perception. To lis-

ten is to give attention to what is perceived both acoustically and
psychologically. (Oliveros 2005:xxii)
In contrast to hearing, listening is an active process that provides

a means to pick out information for our needs from the auditory
environment. It is usually associated with voluntary attention and
focusing on something. (Tuuri et al. 2007:13)
Many descriptors of listening are concerned with the level of attention which the
listener bears on the aural experience. Schafer (1994:117) contrasts concentrated
listening with peripheral hearing. Augoyard & Torgue (2006:127) distinguish be-
tween intentional and everyday listening. The latter term is also used by Gaver
(1989), who contrasts it with musical listening, although Tuuri et al. (2007:14)
correctly note that music is not necessarily listened to at a higher level of at-
tention than everyday sounds. Increased attention with regards to the listening
process is also expressed by the terms attentive (Blesser & Salter 2006:15) and
intent listening (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:124). A lack of attention, on the
other hand, has been described as non-listening (Delalande 1998) or as tangen-
tial or metaphysical listening (Huron 2002). The most rened model has been
provided by Truax (2001:21), who distinguishes three levels of aural attention:
Listening in search is the most active listening mode and involves an active
search for auditory cues in the environment. As an example, Truax refers
to echo whistling; a technique which boat captains use for navigating
through a channel in bad visibility conditions and without radar. Similar
to the navigational techniques employed by bats, they use short whistles
to judge the distance to each shore by comparing the delays of the re-
spective echoes. In this listening mode, soundmaking becomes an active
part of listening itselfa means of interrogating the sonic environment
for specic information.
Listening in readiness is described by Truax (2001:22) as a listening mode

in which the attention is in readiness to receive signicant information,
but where the focus of ones attention is probably directed elsewhere.
As an example, he points out the tendency of a mother to be woken by
the cry of her child, but not by potentially much louder sounds such as
trac noise. The successful use of this listening mode depends on learnt
associations and on the quality of the acoustic environment.
Background listening occurs when the listener is neither actively nor pas-
sively searching the environment for any particular sound. An example
are memories of certain sounds, which were never listened to consciously

but formed an integral part of the listeners childhood. Truax argues
that background listening still requires a certain amount of awareness and
therefore is dierent from subliminal perception.
Truax notes that the attention level can rise abruptly when a familiar sound
suddenly stops or changes.3 He argues that the advent of electroacoustic tech-
nology has facilitated the extension of listening-in-search towards analytical
listening and of background listening towards distracted listening (2001:168f).
The latter term is also used by Huron (2002).
It is worth pointing out that while increased attention is required to focus on

auditory detail, it does not imply such an increased focus. This distinction
between attention and focus is expressed by Oliveros (2005:15) denition of
exclusive listening as focal attention, which she contrasts with inclusive lis-
tening as global attention. Franois Bayle (cited in Proy 2002:17) makes a
similar distinction between perception allocentrique, a focus-free mode of listen-
ing where every sound becomes a centre of attention, and perception egocen-
trique, which is associated with a particular focus. The process of listening
at an increased level of attention, but without any particular focus, has also
been termed contemplative (or oating or disconnected) listening by Augoyard
& Torgue (2006:75). On the other hand, the latter authors describe aural focus
as the basis of interpretative listening. [T]o perceive is to select (2006:124),
as they argue. This truism arguably carries a cultural bias. Eastern think-
ing is quite comfortable with the idea that high levels of consciousness can
be achieved in the absence of focus, which is reected in various meditation
techniques. Kato (2003) explicitly points out that an increased state of aural
awareness can be achieved also without focus. The conceptual equivalence of
attention and focus seems to reect typical Western conceptions of sensory ex-
perience.
Schafer (1994:117) has argued that it was the introduction of the concert hall
which made concentrated listening possible. This argument seems somewhat
far-fetched. Concert halls were introduced at a stage where Western music
had already achieved a signicant level of renement. Also, it has been noted
that early concert hall audiences were engaged in many activities other than
listening (Johnson 1995). It seems to me that the concert hall represents
3
As I will show in section 4.6.3, this property of aural attention can be understood in
terms of the cut out eect (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:29), which sound artist Max Neuhaus
has exploited extensively in his work (cf. section 5.2.5).
a cultural artefact which responded to attentive listening practices that had

already started to develop earlier.
3.2 Listening as Interpretation

Not in all situations does attention constitute the sole criterion which distin-
guishes listening from hearing:
Listening [...] might well be indiscriminate and automatic, as for

example with telegraph and telephone operators, and hearing might
well be specic and voluntary, as with hypnotic commands, only
some of which would be heard and acted upon [...]. (Schwartz
2004:488)
For Truax (2001:18), it is not only attention to, but also the interpretation of
sound which denes listening. Similarly, Nancy (2007:6) argues that listening
requires an interpretative eort which is not present in hearing.4 How we
attend to everyday sound largely depends on our interpretation of it. Schaeer
(1966:112) has distinguished four modes5 of listening which account for this
fact:6
Our represents the most elementary level of perception. It refers to the

passive, raw mode of listeningprior to any attempt of understanding or
interpreting the sound arriving at our ear.
Entendre also avoids the interpretation of sound, but as opposed to our, it

demonstrates an active intention to listen. Attention is focused on specic
features of a sound in order to build a mental description of it.
couter interprets sound as an index of its source, which is either a person,

animal or object. This mode of listening is concerned with the identica-
tion of a sounds cause.
Comprendre aims at deciphering the meaning of sound as a sign in a code

or language.
4
It should be noted that the distinction between the terms hearing and listening is in
this case a by-product of the publications English translation. The original text is in French.
5
In the French original, Schaeer speaks of fonctions de lcoute. The translation to
listening modes is also used in (Chion 1983).
6
To prevent confusion, Schaeers four listening modes are presented here in their original
French form. The English translations used in (Chion 1983) are: perceiving (our), hearing
(entendre), listening (couter) and comprehending (comprendre). Because I have used the
terms hearing and listening with dierent connotations earlier in this chapter, I have
avoided the use of these English translations in the present context.
The four modes can be summarised in the following sentence:
I perceived (our) what you said despite myself, although I did not
listen (couter) at the door, but I didnt comprehend (comprendre)
what I heard (entendre). (Chion 1983:20; italics added)
As shown in table 3.1, Schaeer classied his modes along the parameter pairs
objective/subjective and abstract/concrete.7 Like Truax listening modes, en-
tendre and our refer to the level of attention towards the listening process.
Comprendre and couter, on the other hand, are concerned with the interpre-
tation of sound as either an index or a sign.
abstract concrete
objective comprendre couter
subjective entendre our
Table 3.1: The four listening modes according to Schaeer (1966:116).
3.3 Listening as Such

The interpretation of sound in terms of its cause or meaning was something
which Schaeer tried to explicitly avoid in his denition of reduced listening;8 a
listening mode which emphasises sound as a perceptual object in its own right.
Reduced listening is based on the modes our and entendre, while deliberately
suppressing comprendre and couter (Kane 2007:18).
Reduced listening is the listening attitude which consists in listen-

ing to the sound for its own sake, as a sound object, by removing
its real or supposed source and the meaning it may convey. (Chion
1983:30)
This understanding of sound as object is going to be discussed in detail in sec-

tion 4.3. Chion (1983:31) refers to reduced listening as an anti-natural and
articial mode of listening and speaks of a need to decondition the listener,
who is used to understand sound in terms of something outside of itself. Blesser
& Salter (2006:183) echo that reduced listening requires training and discipline.
7
Chion (1983:23) notes that for the special case of listening to musical instruments, Scha-
eer shifts couter towards the abstract side, leaving entendre as the only truly concrete
mode.
8
Being widely and unambiguously used in the English literature, I have adopted reduced
listening as the translation of the original French term lcoute rduite. The only other
translation that I know of is reductive listening (Thoresen & Hedman 2007).
Having been developed in the context of musique concrte, reduced listening is

closely related to acousmatic listening, a concept introduced by Pierre Schaeer
and Jrme Peignot (Chion 1983:11, 2010:144). The term is derived from Old
Greek. The o o (akousmatikoi) were the disciples of Pythagoras,
who were separated from their master by a curtain while he was giving his lec-
tures, allowing them to hear but not to see him (Kane 2007:17). An acousmatic
situation is one in which the sources of the audible sounds are invisible, such
as in many works of electroacoustic music. Such situations create favourable
conditions for reduced listening (Chion 1983:11), but they do not imply it
(Tuuri et al. 2007:14).9 Chion (1994:32) notes that an acousmatic context can
sometimes even increase the listeners eort to aurally identify a sounds cause.
This tendency towards source bonding (Smalley 1997:110) actually represents a
great imaginative potential:
In acousmatic music, one may recognize the sound sources, but

one also notices that they are out of their usual context. [...] Like
reading a detective story, one invents a scenario to nd the chain of
causality that explains the situation. (Bayle 1997)
In an everyday context, reduced listening requires an even greater discipline

than in the electroacoustic concert hall, because of the non-acousmatic nature
of most everyday situations and the natural tendency to identify the source of a
sound. Nevertheless, it can serve as a means of appreciating the everyday sound
environment and as such informs the listening practices discussed in chapter 5.
3.4 The Listener-Sound Relationship

Chion (1994:25) has proposed a model consisting of three listening modes,
which reduces Schaeers ideas to their essence.10 While all of Truax and two
of Schaeers four listening modes are concerned with the listeners attention
towards aural perception, this concept has entirely given way to a denition of
the relation between the listener and sound in Chions model:
Causal listening corresponds to gathering information about a sounds cause

or source. Although Chion does not explicitly mention it, this listening
mode resembles Schaeers couter. Chion refers to it as the most com-
mon but also the most easily inuenced and deceptive mode of listening
9
Smalley (1997:111) and Thoresen & Hedman (2007:132) have in fact criticised a too
strong focus on reduced listening in electroacoustic music.
10
Elsewhere (2006:238), Chion attributes these three listening modes to Schaeer himself,
although without providing any reference.
(1994:26). Tuuri et al. (2007:13) note that causal listening seems to be

so eortless that we are not conscious of it.
Semantic listening is concerned with the interpretation of sounds as symbols

of a code or language. Chion (1983:20) himself admits its direct relation
to Schaeers comprendre. In a later publication (2006:238), Chion prefers
the term lcoute codale, which I leave here untranslated, to denote the
same listening mode.
Reduced listening refers directly to Schaeers concept described in section

3.3. As I have noted there, it is informed by Schaeers listening modes
entendre and our. Reduced listening, with its deliberate omission of
a sounds source or meaning, is incompatible with causal and semantic
listening.
Chions simplication of Schaeerian concepts points towards three perspectives

on sound whichamongst othersare going to be discussed in the following
chapter. While causal listening invites an understanding of sound in terms of
its source (cf. section 4.1) and semantic listening interprets sound as a context-
dependent event (cf. section 4.4), reduced listening understands sound as an
object in its own right (cf. section 4.3).
Tuuri et al. (2007) have added ve more modes to Chions model, which further
rene the listener-sound relationship:
Reflexive listening refers to automatic, quick responses evoked by sound.

Due to the impossibility of consciously controlling these reexes, this
does not actually represent a listening mode in the sense of the denition
provided at the beginning of this chapter.
Connotative listening occurs at a higher level of consciousness and is con-

cerned with early associations which a listener makes regarding the physi-
cal properties of an acoustic source. These associations are often described
in terms of other sounds (a . . . -like sound).
Empathetic listening actively searches for cues which allow for the interpre-
tation of another persons state of mind, such as sadness in someones
voice.
Functional listening is concerned with the purpose of a sound in its specic

context. It distinguishes dierent functions of sound, such as alarming,
attention-demanding or prohibiting. Tuuri et al. argue that by contrast to
Chions semantic listening, this mode incorporates higher-level concepts

such as cultural context.
Critical listening is associated with a reection on the listeners behalf as to

how appropriate or authentic a sound appears in its given context. At a
higher level, this can also include aesthetic judgements.
Together with Chions three modes, the model by Tuuri et al. comprises eight
modes of listening, which they group into four dierent classes as shown in
table 3.2. These classes further rene Chions understanding of sound in terms
of its source, its context and as an object in its own right.
Type Mode
Reexive listening
Pre-conscious modes
Connotative listening
Causal listening
Source-orientated modes
Empathetic listening
Functional listening
Context-orientated modes Semantic listening
Critical listening
Quality-orientated mode Reduced listening
Table 3.2: Eight listening modes according to Tuuri et al. (2007:16).
Tuuri et al. (2007:15) argue that [p]revious accounts of listening modes have
been incoherent and limited in their scope. However, while their scheme ex-
tends previous work in a coherent manner, it suers from the same limited
scopesimply because any model of aural awareness does. While theirs is a
valuable contribution, the variety of aural perception with regards to dierent
individuals, demographic groups and cultures seems to resist simple categorisa-
tions.
3.5 The Multimodality of Listening

Listening is truly a multimodal experience.11 The plurality of listening modes
discussed in the literature does not end here, and for the sake of completion,
I will provide an overview of some additional terminology. Chion distinguishes
gurative listening (2006:121,238; translation by the author), which is similar,
but not identical to causal listening. It occurs, for example, when one listens
11
When I speak of listening as a multimodal experience, I am referring to the variety of
listening modes which this experience accommodates, as I have shown in this chapter. By
contrast, the term multimodal is sometimes used to signify experiences shaped by multiple
senses. For example, aural experience is aected by senses other than hearing. To signify
this circumstance, I prefer the term perceptual coherence (Handel 2006; cf. section 1.3.4).
to the electroacoustic synthesis of a violin, in which case one might be able

distinguish both the sounds actual source (the synthesiser) and the conceptual
source (the violin). Barthes (1986:248f) denes three listening modes which
partly resemble Chions. Other authors have dened modes which focus on a
specic context. Amphoux (1991, 1993, cited in Paquette 2004) distinguishes
between lcoute environnementale (environmental listening), lcoute mdiale
(milieu listening) and lcoute paysagre (landscape listening)12 as a means of
soundscape analysis in an architectural-sociological context. Farnell (2008:100f)
has assembled a list of listening modes relevant to sound design, which is
partly informed by the work of Tuuri et al. (2007) and Huron (2002). The
latter author has discussed modes specic to music listening. Delalande (1998)
has observed dierent listening modes in the reception of electroacoustic music.
Another model of electroacoustic music listening has been proposed by Franois
Bayle (Proy 2002:17).
The selection of listening modes presented in this chapter cannot be exhaustive:
There is no universal approach to listening: every individual, every

group, every culture listens in its own way. (Augoyard & Torgue
2006:4)
Matters are further complicated by the fact that one can simultaneously be
engaged in multiple modes of listening, and those modes can also inuence
each other (Tuuri et al. 2007:13). For example, Chion (2006:238) notes that
causal and semantic listening can operate concurrently. The fact that listening
can be characterised as an activity which is at the same time deeply individual
and rmly embedded into its specic cultural context means that any model of
aural awareness necessarily faces the borders of its own validity.
The main merit of the listening modes discussed in this chapter is that they
demonstrate the multimodality of aural experience and at the same time oer
the engaged listener a means of appreciating it. They provide a useful termi-
nology for the dierent attitudes towards aural sensation which many listeners
have implicitly experienced, but which few of them consciously reect on. While
these modes of listening do not explain aural perception in its entity, they oer
a means of sharpening ones own aural awareness in everyday life. They enable
dierent interpretations of sound which are going to be discussed in chapter 4,
and they can be applied as part of various listening practices which will be the
subject of chapter 5.
12
English translations by Paquette (2004).
Sound is intrinsically and unignorably relational: it emanates,a
propagates,b communicates,c vibrates,d and agitates; it leaves
a body and enters others; it binds and unhinges, harmonizes
and traumatizes; it sends the body moving, the mind dreaming,
the air oscillating. It seemingly eludes definition,e while having
profound effect.f
Brandon LaBelle (2007:ix)
a
cf. section 4.1
b
cf. section 4.6
4
c
cf. section 4.4
d
cf. section 4.2
e
cf. section 4.3
f
cf. section 4.5
Six Perspectives on Sound
The dierent modes of listening discussed in the last chapter are emblematic
for our understanding of sound as a physical and perceptual phenomenon. In
this chapter, I will discuss six dierent perspectives on sound which reect on
this understanding in more detail. These perspectives describe the relationship
between sound, the listener and the listening environment and will provide a
basis for the discussion in the rest of this thesis. In particular, they will inform
a selection of listening practices, which I am going to present in the following
chapter. The aim of this chapter is to further develop a concept of sound as a
multifaceted phenomenon.
4.1 Sound as Source

Prior to the invention of sound reproduction, all external1 sound experience was
directly coupled to its source, i.e. the agent which can be associated with the
creation of the sound. Smalley (1997:110) uses the term source bonding for our
natural tendency to relate sounds to supposed sources and causes. This eect
has also been noted by Connor (2004:157f) and is present in Schaeers listening
mode couter and Chions causal listening, which were discussed in sections 3.2
1
I refer to sounds generated outside our own bodies and minds as external sound expe-
rience; as opposed to internal sound experience, such as imagined sounds. The latter will
particularly interest us in sections 4.3.3, 4.5 and 4.6.2.
64
CHAPTER 4. SIX PERSPECTIVES ON SOUND 65
and 3.4. Schaeer (1966:557f; translations from Chion 1983:179) argues that
sound indicates the nature of its source directly through its sonority. For
example, sounds of a regular pulse are generally of mechanical origin, whereas
a supple periodicity signies a living agent, contrasting the unpredictable
irregularity of natural phenomena. Similar source-based references to sound
can frequently be found across the literature (Chion 1983:32, 1994:27; Schafer
1994:137; Augoyard & Torgue 2006:5,126) and usually take approximately the
following form:
Sounds of life are created by humans or animals through their own body or
through an instrument (musical or otherwise). Such sounds might be
created intentionally for the sake of communication (Chion 1983:28) or as
a mere by-product of other actions.
Sounds of nature occur without the interference of a living agent and as such
are free of intention (Chion 1983:27). Examples are the sound of wind in
the leaves of a tree or of ice crackling due to thermal expansion.
Mechanical sounds are those created by machines, where the sound is pri-
marily associated with the machine itself rather than with its human
operator or inventor. The constant hum of a ventilator or the impersonal
drone from a distant highway are examples of this. Mechanical sounds
operate at the edge of intentionality. The machines creating them have
always been built with some sort of human intention (if only to build the
machine), but they might continue to sound long after.
The above categorisation leaves much room for debate. Many people would
consider bird song to be a sound of nature as much as a sound of life. Two
res might sound exactly the same, but one might be of natural origin whereas
the other one could have been started by humans as a means of preparing food
or shaping a piece of metal. Furthermore, the three categories above imply a
conceptual separation of living creatures from the background of nature; an
ecological conception which becomes more and more problematic as we begin
to understand our own impact on the ecosystem of this planet (Truax 2001:65).2
But while the above categories are uid and ambiguous, they still represent an
essential aspect of everyday auditory experience. To understand what creates
a sounda living being, a natural phenomenon or a machinecan be of vital
importance in an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of sound in
terms of its source is immediately accessible to any human being, regardless
2
The cultural roots of this separation have been described by Elias (1984:58).
of musical skills. But the archaic nature of source-based listening should not
distract from the fact that it also represents the most skillful technique (Au-
goyard & Torgue 2006:126), which can be practised and improved.
However, there are inherent limitations to the description of sound in terms of

the source which produces it. Truax (2001:xviii) notes that a sound means
something partly because of what produces it, but mainly because of the cir-
cumstances under which it is heard. Sound functions not only as an in-
dex of it source, but also as a sign, whose meaning depends on the context
(Chion 1983:89; Proy 2002). Source-based explanations of sound also fail to ex-
plain internal aural experience such as phonomnesis, which Augoyard & Torgue
(2006:85f) dene as the act of imagining a sound (cf. section 4.5). Moreover,
the notion of sound as source reduces our understanding of an acoustic space
to the sum of all sound-producing elements which it contains, ignoring any
acoustic qualities of the space itself.
4.2 Sound as Signal

Sound reproduction technologies further challenge the latent equalisation of
sound and sound source. What is the source of a voice recording played back
through a loudspeakerthe human body which the voice belongs to, or the
loudspeaker itself? This simple thought experiment illustrates that at the very
heart of sound reproduction is an understanding of sound as independent from
its source (Sterne 2003:34f,65,80). As I discussed in section 2.2.1, the tympanic
principle forms the basis of modern sound reproduction technologies. Its success
was grounded in the realisation that acoustic oscillations represent a signal
which can be transferred to another medium. This understanding of sound as
a signal allows for its capture, storage, transformation and transmission, and
all of these processes eectively separate sound from its source. At least three3
such separations can be distinguished:
Separation of time refers to the possibility of replaying a sound at a later

time than its original occurrence. This is a direct implication of the
tympanic principle (cf. section 2.2.1).
Separation of space means that a recorded sound can be replayed in dif-

ferent spaces than the one which it was originally created in. Sterne
3
Michael Alcorn has noted in a private conversation that electroacoustic eects (such as
articial reverberation) also separate sound from its source with respect to timbre. However,
a discussion of timbral separation exceeds the scope of this thesis and will therefore not be
discussed here.
Figure 4.1: A visual representation of sound as signal.
(2003:206) notes that this possibility has primarily been facilitated by the
electroacoustic principle (cf. section 2.2.2), which allows for the long-range
transmission of sound. Thompson (2004:235) argues that electroacoustic
sound reproduction not only resembles a separation, but eectively an
annihilation of acoustic space.
Separation of energy is another implication of the electroacoustic principle

and refers to the relation between the energy fed into and the energy
emitted by an acoustic system. Contrary to conventional musical instru-
ments, there is no apparent proportional relation between the two in an
electroacoustic system (Truax 2001:124). For example, one does not need
to push the play button of a CD player harder in order to increase the
playback volume. Separation of energy relies of course on the illusion of
unlimited energy supply through the wall socket.
It has been argued that the signal interpretation has eectively removed sound
from the ux of causality (Kane 2007:18) and turned it from a temporal
into an objectied, spatial medium (Truax 2001:131). The concept of sound as
signal has in many ways become the primary view on sound for many artists
and researchers in the eld of acoustics and music. The visual waveform rep-
resentation shown in gure 4.1, which is used in virtually all audio editing
software packages, has become so common that one is tempted to mistake it
for the actual sound. But while this representation is useful for navigating,
analysing and editing sound, it does not always refer to our auditory percep-
tion. It does not account for the inner ear, which experiences sound in the
absence of a physical signal. As I will show in section 4.4, electroacoustic
storage and transmission also de-contextualises sound and thereby redenes its
meaning for the listener. Moreover, sound recordings sample a sound eld only
at the microphone locations and thereby alter the spatial quality of acoustic
experience.4
4
An attempt to solve this problem is to capture the spatiality of a sound eld in its entity
by means of a multi-capsule microphone array. However, there are real-world constraints
which limit the spatial resolution and the frequency band within which spatial characteristics
are faithfully recorded by means of such arrays (Plessas 2009).
4.3 Sound as Object

Sound is always in danger of being apprehended
as something other than itself [...].
Brian Kane (2007:18)
The representation of sound in terms of a signal independent from its source

eectively resembles an objectication of sound. While instrumental composers
use abstract representations of sound, the work of the electroacoustic composer
is much more similar to that of a sculptor or painter who works directly on
her medium. The concept of the objet sonoreof sound as objecthas been
developed and formalised by Pierre Schaeer as the theoretical foundation of
musique concrte. It is closely related to his concepts of entendre, reduced and
acousmatic listening, which I have discussed in the last chapter.
4.3.1 Object vs. Source and Signal

The distinction of the sound object from the two perspectives on sound dis-
cussed so far (source and signal) is programmatic (Chion 2006:240).
The sound object must not be confused with the sounding body
by which it is produced. (Schaeer, quoted in Schafer 1994:130)
The distinction between object and source is so important for Schaeer that he
devised the practice of reduced listening (cf. section 3.3) as a means of bypass-
ing the ears natural tendency to associate sound with its source. Through a
conscious eort to listen to sound only as sound, the sound object reveals itself
to the listener (Chion 1983:32f). Although the concept of the sound object was
derived by Schaeer from early electroacoustic experiments,5 it also diers from
an understanding of sound as signal. While the signal refers to a quantiable
and thus measurable physical entity, the sound object represents a phenomeno-
logical6 unit, which arises from the listeners perception (Chion 1983:15f). The
signal is what is measured, whereas the sound object represents what is be-
ing listened to (Schaeer 1966:269). Schaeer regarded human perception as
the ultimate authority in the study of sound and therefore determined the
relationship between signal and object as follows:
5
In the closed groove experiment, Schaeer created sound loops by means of vinyl records
with a single (closed) groove. The cut bell experiment refers to the process of cutting o a
sounds attack, such as listening to only the decay of a bell sound after the clapper has hit
it. The latter experiment led to the discovery that the attack of a sound plays an essential
role in the correct identication of its source.
6
Kane (2007) has shown that Schaeers ideas are rmly grounded in phenomenological
thinking, and that poch, the process of phenomenological reduction, is at the heart of
reduced listening.
It is the sound object [...] that determines the signal to be studied

[...]. (Schaeer 1966:269; translation from Chion 1983:16)
This process is not reversible; just as it is impossible to determine the per-

ception of colour from the wavelength of light alone (Chion 1983:15). The
dierence between signal and object becomes apparent in situations where the
two contradict each other;7 not due to our perception being deceptive, but
because the sound object possesses its own inherent objectivity which cannot
be reduced to the world of physical phenomena (Chion 1983:17).
4.3.2 Describing the Sound Object

Although some authors (Schafer 1994:136,138; Thoresen & Hedman 2007) have
proposed graphical representations of sound objects, Schaeer himself (1966:492)
criticised the use of notational symbols. Instead he aimed at a verbal descrip-
tion of sound objects and suggested seven criteria for their classication, which
are summarised in table 4.1.
Criterion Description
Mass generalisation of [...] pitch (Chion 1983:162)
Harmonic timbre diuse halo (Schaeer 1966:516; translation from
Chion 1983:168)
Grain gives texture (Schafer 1994:135)
Allure generalisation of vibrato (Chion 1983:178)
Dynamic temporal development of intensity (Chion 1983:174)
Melodic prole temporal development of mass (Chion 1983:183)
Mass prole internal variation of mass (Chion 1983:185)
Table 4.1: Seven morphological criteria according to Schaeer (1966:584).
Schaeers ultimate concern was a typology of sound objects according to their

musical suitability (Chion 1983:106f). While he somewhat extended his observa-
tions towards composed sound objects (made from simultaneous elements) and
composite sound objects (made from successive elements), he largely restricted
his observations to isolated objects (Chion 1983:188; Schafer 1994:134). Scha-
eers ideas have been further developed by various researchers. Michel Chion
has revisited (1983) and extended (2006) Schaeers theories. Franois Bayles
concept of the image du son can be seen as an extension of the sound object
(Proy 2002:17). Smalleys concept of spectromorphology (1997) represents an-
other extension to Schaeers ideas and was devised as a tool for the analysis
and description of electroacoustic music.
7
An example is the psychoacoustic phenomenon of combination tones, where the human
ear can identify frequencies which are not physically present in the surrounding environment.
4.3.3 Critique
The phenomenological nature of the sound object oers a distinct advantage
compared to the perspectives on sound discussed so far. The sound objects
independence from the physical signal and from the sound source means it can
also account for internal sound experience. In phenomenological terms, there is
no dierence between imagined and actual hearing (Kane 2007:19). The imagi-
nation of soundreferred to by Augoyard & Torgue (2006:85f) as phonomnesis
(cf. section 4.5)is an essential part of everyday sonic experience. Although
largely neglected by acoustic research, it forms an integral part of how we
acoustically make sense of the world.8 Another merit of Schaeers theories is
the rich vocabulary which they provide for the description of aural experience.
Although historically grounded in musique concrte, Schaeers concepts were
by no means exclusively concerned with electroacoustically produced sounds.
Quite contrary, he saw his work as a rst step towards a more general music
theory, which aimed at making concrte (and thus everyday) sound material
accessible to aesthetic perception.
But despite this concern with everyday sounds, Schaeer developed his ideas
with a view on the concert hall and the electronic music studio as the primary
sites of aestheticised listening. This is evident from his claim that a musical
sound object is, amongst other criteria, characterised by a suitable duration
(Chion 1983:140). Schaeer argued that human perception functions better
within certain temporal limits (Chion 1983:136). However, there seems to be
no lower limit to the acceptable duration of a sound object in contemporary
musical practice (cf. Roads 2004), and any upper limit is primarily given by
the implicit social contract which denes the concert as an event of limited
duration. In an everyday environment, on the other hand, what keeps us from
aestheticising a twenty-four-hour sound object? While the shifting focus of
aural attention in everyday life might not represent the ideal environment for
reduced listening which Schaeer had in mind, it provides a suitable frame for
the observation of long-term sonic developments and structures which cannot
reveal themselves in the limited time frame of a concert. I have explored this
idea in my installations 24/7 (cf. appendix G) and 9/2/5 (cf. appendix H).
8
Ihde (1976:133) and Moore (2007) have provided discussions of this inner ear. Similarly,
Harnoncourt (1982:37; translation by the author) describes the discrepancies between notated
and playable note durations in harpsichord or triple-stop violin music: The reality (of a
sustained sound) is not better than the fantasy (the illusion of this sound). Harnoncourt
claims that in certain situations, an actual sustained sound can even disturb the preferable
illusion of the imagined sound. Augoyard & Torgue (2006:87) use the term remanence to
describe such an imagined continuation of a sound no longer heard (cf. section 4.5). The
imagination of sounds and voices has also been discussed by Schafer (2004:34,36).
From my own experience, it is quite possible to listen to sounds as objects

also in an everyday context; according suggestions can be found in chapter 5.
While such reduced listening practices require training and experience, they can
serve as the basis of an aestheticisation of sound in everyday life, just like they
can initiate the appreciation of concrte sounds in the concert hall. After all,
our everyday aural perception is actually far less determined by source-based
relationships than we are tempted to think. Most sound sources in an outdoor
urban scene, for example, are beyond the listeners visual eld and conscious
attention. While our perception subconsciously tries to link those sounds to
particular events, it does not necessarily always do so in an accurate manner.
Schaeer (1966:93; translation from Kane 2007:17f) claims that in the acous-
matic experience, we discover that much of what we thought we were hearing,
was in reality only seen, and explained, by the context. My work Interroutes
(cf. appendix E) addresses this phenomenon by deliberately confusing the lis-
teners perception of whether a sound occurs in the real environment or on
the headphones of her portable music player. It is surprising how credible any
sound of a car is when one happens to be walking down a busy street. Our
everyday sound environment is a matter of personal interpretation as much as
it is a manifestation of physical facts.
4.4 Sound as Event

While the perspectives on sound as signal and object provide us with useful
tools for the artistic production as well as the aestheticised perception of sound,
they both rely on an almost clinical separation of sound from its original source
and context. It is for this reason that R. Murray Schafer (1994:131) refers to
Pierre Schaeers sound objects as laboratory specimens. The function and
meaning which a sound has for a listener depends partly on its source, but
for the most part on its social and environmental context (Schafer 1994:150;
Truax 2001:27). However, the temporal and spatial separations which are in-
herent to electroacoustic reproduction (cf. section 4.2) separate sound not only
from its source, but also from its context. Schafer (1994:88) refers to this
de-contextualisation of sound as schizophonia. Truax (2001:12) points out the
novelty of this situation and argues that electroacoustic delity is merely con-
cerned with an appropriate restoration of the signal, ignoring the fact that
there can be no delity in context between the original and the reproduced
sound. Schafer (1994:131) has therefore proposed the sound event as a context-
aware counterpart to Schaeers sound object. It can be dened as
[a] sound or sound sequence in its spatial and temporal context as

part of a soundscape. Whereas the sound object is abstracted from
its original context and exists only as an acoustical object for study,
the sound event acquires its meaning through its social and envi-
ronmental context, as well as from its own acoustic characteristics.
(Truax 1999)
Sound events are specic to a location and the community which inhabits it.
They are independent from the acoustic signal, since the same sound can con-
vey two entirely dierent meanings within two dierent contexts. Sound events
can be evaluated in emotional terms, such in the case of sound romances and
sound phobias (Schafer 1994:146). They can become sound symbols when gain-
ing symbolic or metaphoric meaning, such as the sounds of water and wind or
of bells and gongs (1994:169). Sound is identied as an event through the
listening modes of comprendre and semantic listening, which I have discussed
in sections 3.2 and 3.4.
As an example of a categorisation of sound events according to their context

rather than their morphological qualities, consider the four soundscape features
dened by Schafer (1994:9f):
Keynote sounds are the anchor of a soundscape, similar to the tonic in tonal
music. Schafer denes a keynote sound as a regular sound underpinning
other more fugitive or novel sound events (1994:48), which may possess
archetypal signicance (1994:10). He notes that while keynote sounds
are usually not consciously listened to, it is often their sudden change
or removal which retrospectively reveals their signicance to a commu-
nity (1994:60).9 Keynote sounds are often determined by local materials
(1994:58).
Signals represent acoustic warnings specically designed to be consciously lis-

tened to.10 Examples are re alarms, the sounds of emergency vehicles,
etc. Signals communicate their message through often quite sophisticated
codes, which might only be known to the members of a specic commu-
nity.
Soundmarks are analogous to landmarks. These sounds dene the acoustic

life of a community and according to Schafer (1994:239f) are therefore
9
This can be interpreted as a long-term example of the cut out eect (Augoyard & Torgue
2006:29), which I will discuss in section 4.6.3.
10
Sound signals should not be confused with the perspective on sound as signal, which I
have discussed in section 4.2.
Figure 4.2: The mediating function of sound in the relationship between listener
and environment, according to Truax (2001:12).
worth being protected as part of a soundscapes acoustic design.
Archetypal sounds carry symbolic or metaphoric meaning over the course

of many generations, such as the sounds of the sea or the hunting horn
(Schafer 1994:18,47).
Truax (2001:11f) observed that the concept of the sound event suggests a com-
municational approach to sound. In his model, sound serves as a mediator
between the listener and the environment (cf. gure 4.2). In this tripartite
relationship, one can recognise the perspectives on sound which have been dis-
cussed earlier in this chapter: Whereas the concept of sound as signal is centred
around the sound itself, and the sound object focuses on the listener, the idea
of sound as event is concerned with their common environment. Like the sound
object, the sound event is concerned with the listeners perception, but from
a semiotic and semantic rather than a sonoric viewpoint. By exchanging the
laboratory environment of the electronic music studio for the original context
in which a sound occurs, the perspective on sound as event lends itself directly
to an aestheticisation of everyday listening.
4.5 Sound as Effect

The sound object operates at a quite elementary level of sound organisation.
It focuses on the actual sonority rather than on the context of a sound. The
sound event, on the other hand, is quite universal in its approach. It is more
concerned with the environment which a sound is embedded in than with
its sonorous content. The sound object, with its focus on a single listeners
perception, represents a very personal approach to sound, whereas the sound
event plays its role within a community. In order to link these individual and
communal approaches to aural experience, Augoyard & Torgue (2006) have
introduced the concept of the sonic eect. Like the sound object, it oers
a phenomenological view on sound beyond the physical signal, but without
representing an object in itself (2006:10). Like the sound event, the sonic eect
takes into consideration the context in which a sound occurs, but in addition to
describing the function of a sound with regards to community life, it also refers
to the personal experience of an individual listener. The sonic eect describes
the
[...] interaction between the physical sound environment, the sound

milieu of a socio-cultural community, and the internal soundscape
of every individual. (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:9)
The sonic eect is analogous to the sound eect (as it appears in lm sound
design, rock guitar playing, etc.) in so far as it is guided by functional motiva-
tions; i.e. it is concerned with the eect which a sound has on a listener rather
than with the exact reproduction of a reference signal.
[S]ound has always been a privileged tool to create an eect,

to astonish [...]. As soon as it is perceived contextually, sound is
inseparable from an eect [...]. (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:11).
The sonic eect has been designed as an interdisciplinary tool for the analysis
and representation of complex sound environments (2006:11), and as such has
been used in the social sciences, urban planning and applied acoustics (2006:7).
Augoyard & Torgue have presented a non-exhaustive list of 82 eects, which
they have grouped into six categories and divided into 16 major and 66 minor
eects (cf. table 4.2).11 They discuss them with regards to six reference do-
mains: physical and applied acoustics; architecture and urbanism; psychology
and physiology of perception; sociology and everyday culture; musical and elec-
troacoustic aesthetics; textual and media expressions. The asyndeton and synec-
doche eects form the perceptual basis of any aural interpretation (2006:124).
Synecdoche is described as the ability to valorize one specic element [from the
acoustic environment] through selection (2006:123), whereas asyndeton refers
to the complementary ability of omitting sounds from perception or memory
(2006:126). By removing irrelevant sounds from our consciousness through
asyndeton, selection of relevant sounds through synecdoche becomes possible.
On this basis, Augoyard & Torgue describe a wide variety of other eects.
These include the drone, electroacoustic eects such as anger and noise gate,
generalisations of musical terms (e.g. decrescendo, accelerando), eects reecting
the emotional response to a sound (attraction, repulsion), psychoacoustic eects
11
There are some inconsistencies between the eects as they are listed in the thematic and
alphabetical lists vs. the actual text by Augoyard & Torgue. Table 4.2 is an attempt at
restoring the thematic list such that it matches the information in the text.
Elementary eects Compositional eects Mnemo-perceptive eects
Colouring Accelerando Anamnesis

Delay Blurring Anticipation
Distortion Coupling Asyndeton
Dullness Crescendo Cocktail
Echo Crossfade Delocalization
Filtration Cut Out Erasure
Flutter Echo Decrescendo Hyperlocalization
Haas Digression Immersion
Resonance Doppler Metamorphosis
Reverberation Drone Phonomnesis
Emergence Remanence
Mask Synecdoche
Mixing Ubiquity
Rallentando Wall
Release
Reprise
Tartini
Wave
Semantic eects Psychomotor eects Electroacoustic eects
Decontextualization Attraction Chorus

Dilation Chain Compression
Envelopment Deburau Expansion
Imitation Desynchronization Fade
Narrowing Incursion Feedback
Perdition Intrusion Flange
Quotation Lombard Fuzz
Repetition Niche Harmonization
Sharawadji Phonotonie Larsen
Suspension Repulsion Limitation
Synchronization Noise Gate
Phase
Print-through
Rumble
Tremolo
Vibrato
Wha Wha
Wobble
Wow
Table 4.2: Sonic eects according to Augoyard & Torgue (2006:viif), including
corrections of inconsistencies between their version of this table and the publications
actual text. Major eects are printed in bold type.
(Haas, cocktail party, masking), physical eects (e.g. Doppler, utter echo), spa-
tial eects (cut out, ubiquity) and neurological eects such as anamnesisan
evocation of the past through a sound in the present. Maybe most importantly,
many eects refer to internal aural experience, including anticipation (hearing
a sound before it actually occurs), phonomnesis (imagining a sound, such as
remembering one from the past) and remanence (imagined continuation of a
sound no longer sounding).
The concept of the sonic eect is sometimes ambiguous. Augoyard & Torgue
try to establish the sonic eect as a concept more generic than the sound eect
known, for example, from lm sound. At the same time, however, they try to
apply their concept to prefabricated electroacoustic eects (chorus, noise-gate,
etc.) and complex psychoacoustic phenomena alike. The benets of this broad
approach are not always clear, which might be the reason why the category
of electroacoustic eects has been omitted in a later retrospective of the sonic
eect (Amphoux & Chelko 2008). The main merit of the sonic eect is its
contribution to an interdisciplinary andthanks to the available English and
Italian translations of the original French publicationinterlingual vocabulary
for the description of aural experience. By developing a common language
based on a systematic observation of personal listening experiences, Augoyard
& Torgue allow for the description of auditory phenomena which despite their
ubiquity have received little attention in acoustic research. This is particularly
true of the eects referring to internal sound experience. By literally christen-
ing aural experiences such as anamnesis, phonomnesis and remanence, these
become available to the discourse on sound and listening. By contrast, the
concept of the sound object also accounts for internal listening but has con-
tributed little to an according terminology. The same is true for the sound
event; despite Schafers (1994:144) concern with mythological sounds and the
sounds of dreams and hallucinations. Having been developed through everyday
practices, the sonic eect lends itself naturally to a discussion of everyday aural
experience.
4.6 Sound as Space

The attachment of sound to its context, which I have discussed in the last
two sections, is not merely metaphorical. In fact, it forms an integral part of
sounds very nature:
In a sense, the sound wave arriving at the ears is the analogue of

the current state of the physical environment [...]. (Truax 2001:17)
Sound is a propagation and is therefore directly connected to cir-

cumstances. (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:9)
The above statements illustrate the direct relation between the physics accord-
ing to which and the environment within which sound operates. As a wave
propagation, sound shapes the physical medium through which it spreads. A
sound eld unfolds space. Sound is not merely in space, because sound and
space can hardly be separated from each other. Sound literally is space. This
is reected in the fact that spatiality is an integral part of every auditory
experience (Kendall & Ardila 2008). Blesser & Salter argue that the strange
feeling of lost space, which many listeners experience during their rst visit to
an anechoic chamber (2006:20), or the astonishing accuracy with which visually
impaired people experience space acoustically (2006:43f), demonstrate that we
can actually hear space.
4.6.1 Beyond Localisation

Although the inherent spatiality of sound is often referred to in the literature,
its discussion is often dominated by the metaphor of localisation; i.e. the iden-
tication of a sounds position in three-dimensional space. However, Augoyard
& Torgue (2006:130) remind us that it is impossible to delimit or materialize
the location of a sound. Michel Chion (cited in Augoyard & Torgue 2006:187)
has pointed out that when we speak of localising a sound, we actually refer to
the localisation of its source; a confusion which reminds us of the discussion in
section 4.1. While this metaphor has its merits, such as in the spatialisation
of virtual sound sources in electroacoustic music, it also has inherent limita-
tions. Aural experience escapes a purely cumulative understanding of space in
terms of the sources which it contains. The passive acoustic characteristics of
our environment play a more important role in our aural perception than we
are generally aware of. For instance, a large portion of the sounds heard in an
average urban scene are actually reections of other sounds.
It is certainly no coincidence that the eld of electroacoustic music, which has

traditionally addressed sound as independent from its source (cf. section 4.3),
has contributed signicantly to an understanding of sound as space beyond
source localisation. Smalley (2007:37) argues that in acousmatic music, an
accurate reproduction of a sound sources position is not essential to create,
for instance, the experience of an elevated sound. Kendall (2010) extends
the concept of the point source by emphasising the spatial extent of sound
sources as given through their width, depth and height. He also discusses
the dierent artistic meanings of the axes surrounding the listeners body (left-
right, front-back, up-down). Kendall & Ardila (2008) propose the idea of
auditory spatial schemata; patterns through which the listener understands the
spatial behaviour of sound, such as the concept of containment. Rumsey (2002)
discusses spatial attributes of aural experience such as spaciousness, presence
and envelopment. Emmerson (1998:153) provides a discussion of musical space
in terms of the metaphors event, stage, arena, and landscape. In the context
of sound art, Campesato (2009) distinguishes between acoustical, architectural
and representational space. Stankievech (2009) has investigated the sound-space
relationship in a curated series of sonic artworks.
We can no longer draw an absolute distinction between space and

the things which occupy it, nor indeed between the pure idea of
space and the concrete spectacle it presents to our senses. (Merleau-
Ponty 2004:39)
Although Merleau-Ponty is referring to the visual arts in the above quote, this
does not change the validity of his statement with regards to sonic experience.
An understanding of sound as space rather than merely in space could represent
one of the ultimate contributions of the sonic arts.
4.6.2 Auditory Spatial Awareness

A signicant contribution to an understanding of sound as space has been made
by Blesser & Salter, who have dened auditory spatial awareness as
[...] the internal experience of an external environment. (Blesser

& Salter 2006:131)
Like the concepts of sound as object or as eect, which I have discussed ear-
lier in this chapter, the above denition explicitly includes internal listening
experiences (cf. sections 4.3.3 and 4.5). However, the model of auditory spa-
tial awareness goes one step further by addressing also the relation between
external and internal experience. Blesser & Salter (2006:46) emphasise the
importance of cognitive maps with regards to the internalisation of external
space. Cognitive maps are mental models of spaces and places, which can be
either informed by memory or by pure imagination.12 Blesser & Salter distin-
12
In my own head, for example, there are two dierent cognitive maps of Ban, Canada.
One loosely models the Ban which I actually visited in 2008, whereas the other one repre-
sents the Ban which I imagined as I was preparing for my visit, but before having actually
ever been there.
guish the allocentric view (where objects are positioned in relation to a xed
external framework) from the egocentric view (where objects are arranged in
relation to the perceiver). The choice between the two informs all our spatial
experiences, including the construction of cognitive maps. Blesser & Salter
point out that cognitive maps represent a fusion of aural, visual, tactile, and
olfactory inputs; just as spatial experience in general can be understood as a
synthesis of dierent sensory impressions (Schricker 2001:78; Kendall & Ardila
2008).
According to Blesser & Salter (2006:11), auditory spatial awareness manifests

itself in at least four dierent ways:
Inuence on social behavior
Orientation and navigation
Aesthetic sense of space
An enhanced experience of music and voice
They note that these manifestations are uid. For example, a concert hall is
usually experienced as a musical space, but when the lights in the hall fail,
our spatial experience immediately refocuses towards navigation (2006:64). The
above four realms of auditory spatial awareness link physical, acoustic and social
space and establish the aural perception of space as an aesthetic experience in
an everyday context.
4.6.3 Spatial Effects

Several of the sonic eects by Augoyard & Torgue (2006), which I have dis-
cussed in section 4.5, can be regarded as spatial eects, as they are concerned
with the inherent spatiality of sound. In table 4.3, I have collected descriptions
of eighteen eects which refer directly to sounds physical propagation or to
the spatial experience of a listener. This non-exhaustive list provides useful
terminology for a discussion of the relationship between sound and space.
With regards to everyday sound experience, the cut out and ubiquity eects
are maybe the most relevant. Cut out describes the acoustic transition from
one space to another, which we regularly experience in an everyday context,
for example when entering a small shop from a busy street, or when closing
the window to a public square. Such abrupt changes in our spatial acoustic ex-
perience temporarily bring aural awareness to the foreground of our perception
Eect Description
Cut out punctuates movement from one ambience to an-
other (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:29)
Decontextualization for example, sounds from the private domain
heard in a public space(2006:37)
Delocalization recognition of an error in localizing a sound
source (2006:38)
Dilation refers to the feeling of the emitter concerning
the space of propagation (2006:39)
Doppler A change in pitch of sound sources moving rela-
tive to the listener.
Echo a reection in the space of diusion (2006:47)
Envelopment The feeling of being surrounded by a body of
sound (2006:47)
Filtration Implicitly occurs through the propagation of
sound through its environment.
Flutter echo A special avour of echo.
Haas Describes a relation between intensity, time of
arrival and perceived direction of a sound wave.
Hyperlocalization irresistibly focalizes the listeners attention on
the location of emission (2006:59)
Immersion The dominance of a sonic micromilieu that takes
precedence over a distant or secondary perceptive
eld (2006:64)
Narrowing a sensation that the space is shrinking
(2006:78)
Resonance Can be an implication of a rooms acoustics.
Reverberation A propagation eect in which a sound continues
after the cessation of its emission (2006:111)
Ubiquity diculty or impossibility of locating a sound
source (2006:130)
Wall a continuous high intensity sound creating an
impression of sound materialized in the shape of
a wall (2006:145)
Wave The second of two types of this eect is linked
to the conditions of a sounds propagation.
(2006:146)
Table 4.3: Some spatial eects according to Augoyard & Torgue (2006).
(Augoyard & Torgue 2006:34). In their description of the ubiquity eect, Augo-
yard & Torgue (2006:132f) distinguish between the two situations of a listener
being situated outside the acoustic space she perceives vs. being located within
this space. These two archetypal relationships between listener and perceived
acoustic space are going to interest us with regards to the spatial analysis of a
soundscape, which will be discussed in section 5.6.
4.6.4 Spatiomorphology
Smalley (1997, 2007) is also concerned with the spatiality of sound. His spa-
tiomorphology attempts a much more general discussion of the relation between
sound and space than merely dening a grammar of localisation (1997:122),
as he claims himself. While many of his ideas are restricted to the analysis of
electroacoustic music, his distinction of the following spatial styles (1997:124)
is of interest also in an everyday context:
Single spatial setting
Multiple spatial settings
Spatial simultaneity
Implied spatial simultaneity
Spatial passage
Spatial equilibrium
The above distinction can be directly applied to everyday listening: How many
acoustic spaces are present (spatial simultaneity) and have been present since
I started listening (single vs. multiple spatial settings)? What is the balance
between them (spatial equilibrium)? Am I still aware of spaces which are al-
ready absent (implied spatial simultaneity)? What are the transitions between
spaces like (spatial passage, which resembles the cut out eect discussed in the
last section)? These questions will be further developed in section 5.6, which
is concerned with the practice of spatial listening.
While Smalley is primarily concerned with electroacoustic music production,

he partly discusses his concepts in the context of a listening experience in
the French countryside (2007), which demonstrates that these ideas are also
applicable to everyday environments.
4.7 Sound: a Multifaceted Phenomenon

[A] sound is all the possible ways there are to hear it.
Bill Fontana (2009)
Ganchrow (2008:156) has pointed out that no representation of sound is ever

neutral. The six perspectives on sound presented in this chapter reect on
the aural culture within which they have been formulated. They reect on
the interplay between technological and social development and bear witness to
the complexity of aural experience, which cannot be easily reduced to simple
models. By no means do these six perspectives on sound exhaust the dierent
ways in which sonic phenomena can be addressed.
These six perspectives on sound relate directly to the modes of listening which
I have discussed in the last chapter. Although not all of them have been for-
mulated within a context of everyday listening, they can be applied to such a
context in meaningful ways. The perspective on sound as source is naturally ac-
cessible to any listener, as it represents the default mode of everyday listening.
Listening to sound as an object, on the other hand, oers aestheticised views on
both external and internal aural experience beyond simple cause-and-eect re-
lationships. An understanding of sound as signal is at the heart of technologies
which let us record and re-hear everyday sounds and thus appreciate them at a
dierent level. The sound event lends itself naturally to everyday life and oers
the possibility of analysing long-term acoustic developments. Sound as eect
provides a useful terminology for the analysis and communication of everyday
acoustic experience, both from a social and individual perspective. The notion
of sound as space combines the physical with the perceptual and social nature
of sound.
Most importantly, the six perspectives on sound from this chapter allow us
to appreciate aural experience in a multifaceted manner. They can help to
increase ones aural awareness by experiencing sound and listening from various
angles. As such, they inform the dierent everyday listening practices which I
am going to discuss in the following chapter.
The first task of the acoustic designer is to learn how to listen.
R. Murray Schafer (1994:208)
I came to regard listening as a form of composition; as a form

of making music.
Bill Fontana (BBC 2008)
Are you listening now?

Pauline Oliveros (2005:34)
5
Listening Practices
This chapter is devoted to various listening practices which have been applied
in an artistic context as well as to research in the elds of soundscape analysis
and acoustic design and for educational purposes. Their purpose is to train
ones aural perception towards an increased ability to interpret and appreci-
ate the everyday sound environment. The title of this chapter points towards
listening as a skill, which canin every sense of the wordbe practised. For
example, Schaeer (1966; translations from Chion 1983) distinguishes between
ordinary vs. specialist listening, natural vs. cultural listening, musical and mu-
sicianly listening. Thoresen & Hedman (2007:129) identify the ability to switch
between dierent listening modes (cf. chapter 3) as an indicator for virtuoso
listening. Oliveros (2005:xxii) argues that the process of learning to listen con-
tinues throughout ones entire life. To become aware of and accelerate this
process, she recommends the following:
When a sight, sound, movement, or place attracts your attention

during your daily life, consider that moment an art experience.
(Oliveros 2005:46)
The listening practices presented in this chapter aim at facilitating such aes-
thetic experiences.
83
CHAPTER 5. LISTENING PRACTICES 84
5.1 Before Listening

Oliveros (2005:15) notes that [r]eadiness to listen is always present while al-
ready engaged in listening. Getting ready to listen, however, requires time and
preparation. Various artists have proposed exercises to facilitate this process.
Listening unites body and mind in a complex interplay. Since the same is true
for many meditation practices, it is not surprising that many preparative listen-
ing exercises demonstrate a meditative quality. Schafer (1994:208), for example,
suggests to refrain from talking for an entire day as an exercise to develop a
sensibility and respect for silence. He uses various ear cleaning 1 exercises for
relaxation and concentration in his teaching and claims that it can take an
hour or longer to prepare properly for listening. Schafer (1976:268) notes that
he sometimes never gets beyond these elementary sensitising exercises in his
classes.
Pauline Oliveros has provided the most complete collection of preparative lis-
tening exercises. Under the term Deep Listening, she has summarised several
decades of personal aural experience. Although Oliveros argues that the ques-
tion of what constitutes Deep Listening is answered in the process of practicing
listening (2005:xxi), she nevertheless attempts to dene it as
[...] a practice that is intended to heighten and expand conscious-
ness of sound in as many dimensions of awareness and attentional
dynamics as humanly possible. (2005:xxiii)
Oliveros approach to aural perception is a holistic one. It is concerned with
the role of the entire body (as opposed to merely the ears) in aural perception
(2005:14f).2 It also covers the entire process of aural perception, including
time for preparing to listen and a reection on the experience in its aftermath.
The preparative exercises include bodywork exercises from Qi Gong, Tai Chi,
Yoga and kinetic awareness practices (2005:5) as well as breathing exercises
(2005:10f). Several of Oliveros prose listening instructions are concerned with
increasing ones bodily awareness in order to get ready to listen:
Can you imagine sensing the subtlest vibrations of the ground or
oor that is supporting you? (Oliveros 2005:32)
1
Schafer (1976:49) speaks of ear cleaning as a rst step towards ear training, but unfor-
tunately does not further specify the relation between the two. Whereas Pierre Schaeers
solfge des objets musicaux (1966) aims at a phenomenological foundation for a new form of
ear training itself, Schafer seems to be primarily concerned with hygiene: Before we train
a surgeon to perform delicate operations we rst ask him to get into the habit of washing
his hands, Schafer (1976:49) argues in favour of ear cleaning. But with regards to auditory
perception, who is supposed to be the patient being operated?
2
The whole body is an ear, Doug Muir is quoted by Schafer (1976:268).
What is the current tempo of your heart rate? (2005:48)
Elsewhere Oliveros addresses the aural imagination of a group of listeners by

asking them to describe an imaginary piece of music they would write were there
no technical, nancial or other restraints (2005:38). Her Listening Questions
reect on auditory perception in a general manner:
What is your earliest memory of sound? [...] What sound reminds

you of home? [...] What is listening? [...] How long can you listen?
[...] What sound changes your breathing? (Oliveros 2005:55f)
While these preparative exercises do not directly instruct to listen, they can
still trigger aural experiences. They demonstrate that it is hard to distinguish
between preparing to listen and listening itself.
5.2 Directed Listening

Many listening practices are based on the concept of directed listening, which
I would like to dene as any auditory experience initiated by an instruction
or situation explicitly designed to encourage aural attention. Directed listening
is not only a way of practising, but also of communicating listening. It often
restricts itself to those sounds which are already present in the environment,
without introducing any more of them. My material is not sound. My mate-
rial is audibility, composer Peter Ablinger (2008a) remarks with regards to his
work, which will be discussed in this section. But as I will show, soundmaking
is not generally tabooed in directed listening; neither on behalf of the artist
nor on behalf of the audience.
A challenge in the composition of a directed listening situation is the indeter-

minacy of the everyday sound environment. As opposed to the conventional
composer, an artist who is creating a directed listening experience cannot simply
point towards predetermined sounds but instead works with the probabilities
and long-term developments of everyday rhythms. But how does one commu-
nicate an experience based on sounds whose occurrence is uncertain and whose
perception by the audience is deeply individual? In this section, I will discuss
ve dierent strategies which address this problem.
5.2.1 Referring to the External Sound Environment

Listening can be directed towards active or passive features of the sound en-
vironment. Active features create sound by themselves and are frequently ref-
erenced in an everyday discourse (Did you hear this ___?). This form of
directed listening invites an understanding of sound as source (cf. section 4.1).
Passive features, on the other hand, shape their acoustic environment without
sounding themselves. An example would be a characteristic mountain echo,
which is in fact capable of directing aural attention without any artistic inter-
vention. Passive acoustic features invite an understanding of sound as eect
(cf. section 4.5) or as space (cf. section 4.6). Often more subtle than active
features, they are much less frequently referenced in everyday language. For
example, the passive acoustic features of urban environments are probably not
consciously perceived by the majority of their inhabitants.
Directing auditory attention to features of the sound environment typically re-

sults in an experience which is specic to a certain location. Many artworks
embrace this site-specicity as an integral part of their design. In my piece
Straenmusik (cf. appendix B), an in situ listening score is created, which
guides the listener along a white trail of chalk featuring listening (and some-
times also soundmaking) instructions specic to the environment. Noah Vawter
used ocial-looking tags in his project Sonic Authority to mark tonal com-
ponents in noisy spaces (2006:28), which he had identied through analyses
of eld recordings. Chris Murphy attached plaques to various listening points
along Donegall Street in Belfast as part of the Street Archaeology project in
2005. The plaque attached to Pauls Cafe read:
A 60 pence large black coee buys more than a caeine x at

Pauls Cafe. The sound of the radio is supplemented by the sharp
sizzle of sausage, eggs and bacon, freshly fried. The persistent hiss
of the frying pan is only interrupted by the conversation from a
steady stream of regulars stopping in for their morning fry to set
them up for the day. (Murphy 2009)
Peter Ablinger also marks acoustic environments of interest. In a 2002 version of

his piece Weiss/weisslich 35, Schilderungen (designations), some of the plaques
distributed around the Karlsplatz in Vienna read:
The reels of the skateboarders sound brighter on stone than on

asphalt or tar.
The timbre of the lime tree is created by the breaking of the wind
in the leaves; the darker sound of the ivy, on the other hand, is due
to its leaves grazing each other.
The unlubricated swing and the sparrows are located in the same
pitch range. (Ablinger 2006d; translation by the author)
Similar references to site-specic acoustic phenomena can be found in Ablingers

Places series (2006c). The four pieces forming his work Weiss/weisslich 10,
however, take site-specicity to the extreme. These pieces, which Ablinger
started to work on in 1994, consist of nothing but their titles, each of which
describes a certain location without explicitly stating what the acoustic feature
of interest is:
10a: cloister with fountain-house, Lilienfeld, Austria

10b: free-way tunnel, Plabutsch, Austria
10c: ravine, Burgau, Austria
10d: whitethorn wood, Hiddensee, Germany (Ablinger 2002a)
According to Ablinger (2008b), pieces like these can either be experienced in the
indicated location, or they can simply be imagined. If we read free-way tunnel
in the context of directed listening, we can hear the tunnels acoustics, no
matter whether we are actually there or not. This demonstrates that directed
listening can also trigger internal aural experiences such as phonomnesis, which
Augoyard & Torgue (2006:85f) dene as the imagination of a sound (cf. section
4.5).
5.2.2 Referring to Listening Itself

By referring to the process of listening itself rather than to features of the
external sound world, it is possible to create directed listening experiences which
are not specic to a certain location. This strategy lends itself particularly well
to internal aural experience. Hildegard Westerkamp directs aural attention by
encouraging the reader of a text to imagine the written words as spoken ones:
I imagine the reader looking at this page. All ear. Listening to

these words. Hearing this writing. Listening to the sounds I am
making at this moment on this page. (Westerkamp 1999a:17)
The Deep Listening Pieces by Pauline Oliveros use a similar strategy:
[C]an you imagine including more and more of the whole eld of
sound into your listening? (Near sounds, far sounds, internal sounds,
remembered sounds, imagined sounds.) (Oliveros 2005:32)
What causes you to listen? (2005:34)

Figure 5.1: Akio Suzukis oto-date (Anonymous n.d.a)
If you are lookingwhat are you listening to or for? (2005:39)
David Dunn (1999) has devised a complex notation for directed listening scores,
which incorporates remembered and imagined sounds as well as the direction,
height and proximity which to direct ones aural attention to. Other artists
are less descriptive in their instructions. Ablingers Weiss/weisslich 14 from
1995 consists of nothing but the proposal sitting and listening (2007c). Max
Neuhaus restricted himself to the simple imperative Listen,3 a series of works
which he started in 1966 and has since been realised in many dierent formats
(cf. section 5.3.3).
In other works, the reference to listening is entirely indirect. In my EaRd-

verts project (cf. appendix C), big arrows are pointed towards ears visible on
advertising billboards in the public environment. The arrows contain textual
references to the process of listening and an ear icon which I have also used
in Straenmusik (cf. appendix B). Akio Suzuki uses a similar icon representing
both a pair of ears and a pair of feet (cf. gure 5.1) in his work Otodate from
1996 (Langebartels 2000). Peter Ablinger (2006a) uses rows of chairsthe
classical occidental site of hearingas a means of recreating the aural focus of
the auditorium in an everyday environment (cf. gure 5.2). Chairs have played
a similar role in Akio Suzukis Economical Music from 2006 (Licht 2007:128).
These architectural interventions direct listening by creating a situation rather
than through direct instruction.
3
Drever (2009:187) notes that six years earlier, Dennis Johnson already used the word
listen as the single instruction in a Fluxus score.
Figure 5.2: The third part of Peter Ablingers Listening Piece in Four Parts (2001).
Photograph by Maria Tran and by courtesy of Peter Ablinger.
5.2.3 Changing the Conditions of Listening

Another way of directing auditory perception is to change the conditions under
which it operates. Concannon (1987) notes that Bill Fontanas sound sculp-
tures aim at slightly shifting the balance of the everyday sound environment in
order to attract the listeners aural attention. Peter Ablinger invites the audi-
ence of his 1994 piece Weiss/weisslich 8 to hold a snails shell to your ear
(Ablinger 2002f). This piece has recently been extended to a version consisting
of three shells which lter environmental sounds according to an E major chord
(2008c:79). Another of Ablingers pieces instructs the listener to place her
hands behind her ears and remove them again in a certain succession (cf. gure
5.3). In Weiss/weisslich 25 from 1996, ones auditory perception is altered by
closing mouth, eyes and ears concurrently (2002e). In my own Ohrenli(e)der
series of directed listening scores (cf. appendix A), the audience is instructed
to cover and uncover their ears to varying degrees, following dierent patterns
for the left and right ear.
Some artists use architectural interventions as a means of changing the con-

ditions of everyday aural perception. Ablinger invites his audience to move
through a narrow wooden construction, whose inside is covered by sound-
absorbing foam (2002b). A labyrinth of white laundry serves him as another
distinct listening environment (2008c:68), as does a large sound absorber at-
tached to the wall of a gallery (2007d). Sound-absorbing material has been
used in a similar manner in Bruce Naumanns work Acoustic Wall from 1969
(Concannon 1987). Akio Suzuki constructed the Hinatabokko no kukan (space
in the sun) in 1988; two parallel walls in between which the artist can sit
Figure 5.3: Peter Ablingers Weiss/weisslich 19 from 1995, performed by Sven ke

Johansson. Photographs by Siegrid Ablinger and by courtesy of Peter Ablinger.
all day and purify his hearing by listening to the reected sounds of nature
(Anonymous n.d.b). Suzuki did exactly that for a period of twelve hours, only
to discover that only when he stopped consciously listening could he really
listen to every minute sound (Licht 2007:269f).
5.2.4 Sound Creation by the Listener

Another strategy for directing a listeners aural attention is to encourage her to
make sound herself. An example of this technique is Terry Rileys Ear Piece 4
from 1963:
THE PERFORMER TAKES ANY OBJECT(S) SUCH AS A PIECE OF PAPER

CARDBOARD PLASTIC ETC AND PLACES IT ON HIS EAR(S) HE THEN
PRODUCES THE SOUND BY RUBBING SCRATCHING TAPPING OR TEARING
IT OR SIMPLY DRAGGING IT ACROSS HIS EAR HE ALSO MAY JUST HOLD
IT THERE IT MAY BE PLAYED IN COUNTERPOINT WITH ANY OTHER
PIECE OR SOUND SOURCE IF THE PERFORMER WEARS A HEARING AID
IT WOULD BE BEST TO MAKE THE SOUNDS CLOSE TO THE MICROPHONE
(OF THE HEARING AID) THE DURATION OF THE PERFORMANCE IS UP TO
THE PERFORMER CHILDREN PERFORMING EARPIECE SHOULD BE WARNED
NOT TO STICK THEIR FINGERS TOO FAR INTO THEIR EARS AS THEY
MAY SERIOUSLY DAMAGE THE INNER EAR (Potter 1976:100)
In the pieces by Pauline Oliveros, soundmaking on behalf of the listener often

plays an essential role, for example by reinforcing the pitch of a characteristic
sound in the environment through ones own voice (Oliveros 2005:35). As
another example, consider The New Sound Meditation from 1989:
Listen
During any one breath
Make a sound
Breathe
4
Oliveros (2005:34) has written a directed listening piece of the same title in 1998.
Listen outwardly for a sound

Breathe
Make exactly the sound that someone else has made
Breathe
Listen inwardly
Breathe
Make a new sound that no one else has made
Breathe
Continue this cycle until there are no more new sounds.
(Oliveros 2005:44)
5.2.5 Sound Creation by the Designer

In other directed listening pieces it is the artist who adds sound to an en-
vironment. Peter Ablingers piece Weiss/weisslich 15 plays noise at barely
perceivable levels in ve dierent rooms. The noise in each room is coloured
according to the formant of a dierent vowel and is played at such soft levels
that the listener experiences it as a change in the quality of the space rather
than as actual sound (Ablinger 2002d, 2008c:84). In the Place Pieces by Max
Neuhaus, the introduced sound is so integrated [into the environment] that it
shift[s] and pull[s] people into hearing the existing sounds in a dierent way
(Neuhaus 1994c). This includes installations like the one at New York Citys
Times Square from 1977, which was made up of a eld of very soft click- or
tick-like sound zones (1994b).5 In Neuhaus Time Pieces, on the other hand,
auditory attention is directed by removing sound from an environment. In the
2003 piece installed in Graz, Austria, for example, a drone is gradually intro-
duced into the city centre environment. Its volume increases over a period of
several minutes until it is simultaneously loud enough to be noticed and soft
enough to be missed. The drone is designed to enter the listeners consciousness
only after it is then abruptly turned o.6 This strategy can be interpreted as
a deliberate exploitation of the cut out eects (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:29)
ability to attract aural attention (cf. section 4.6.3).
5
The sounds in Times Square are generated by sixteen underground loudspeakers (Neuhaus
1994b). After having been dismantled in 1992, the work was restored in 2002 and is still on
display on the pedestrian island that runs between 45th and 46th Street where Broadway
and 7th Avenue intersect (Stein n.d.). I visited the installation in 2011, but it sounded very
dierent from the above description.
6
I refer to this technique as the Neuhaus fade. Neuhaus original inspiration was his
observation that one tends not to register the moment when somebody turns on the coee-
grinding machine in a caf, but that there is clear moment of silence when the machine is
turned o again (Neuhaus 1994d).
The sound sculptures of Bill Fontana bring sounds to the listeners aware-
ness by relocating them into a dierent context, thereby creating an acoustic
paradox (Fontana 2008:156). In 1983, he recorded the sounds of cars driv-
ing over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and transmitted them live
to the World Trade Center (2008:155f). In the work Entfernte Zge (distant
trains) from 1984, Fontana played sounds from the Cologne train station, the
busiest in Europe, at the ruins of the former Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, us-
ing buried loudspeakers to convincingly create the impression of a vivid train
station (2008:156f). In Metropolis Kln from 1985, he collected eighteen live
streams from around the city of Cologne and replayed them at a central square
next to the citys cathedral (2008:157f). In Sound Island from 1994, sounds
from Normandy were relocated to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (Fontana
n.d.b). Live transmissions were also used in the Cologne San Francisco Sound
Bridge from 1987 and Landscape Soundings from 1990 (Fontana n.d.a).
Directing listening through sound has the advantage that the sense being ad-
dressed (hearing) matches the medium employed for doing so (sound). By
contrast, Ablingers architectural interventions or pieces like Straenmusik (cf.
appendix B) initially attract their audiences attention by visual means. The
audience might misinterpret these works as an invitation to look rather than to
listen. In EaRdverts (cf. appendix C), matters are further complicated by the
pieces competition with commercial advertising. The interventions coloured
arrows, which point at ears visible on advertising billboards, try to convey a
message about listening by adding to a stimulus which aims at attracting peo-
ples visual attention. How does one avoid that this message is misinterpreted
or simply lost? I encountered the problem of referring to aural perception by
visual means also with the Ohrenli(e)der (cf. appendix A): Many people seemed
to enjoy the scores primarily from a visual point of view, often without actually
performing them. On the other hand, some of these people reported much later
that the pieces had initiated some kind of listening experience in them; often
in quite a dierent manner than the pieces themselves suggest.
5.3 Soundwalking
Wherever we go we will give our ears priority.
Hildegard Westerkamp (2007:49)
In the last four decades, soundwalking has become a popular practice at the pe-
riphery of experimental music, architecture, cultural geography, sociology, nat-
ural history, urban design and other disciplines (Drever 2009:166f). It emerged
from the everyday concept of going for a walk (Westerkamp 2007:51).7 In the
broadest sense of the term,
[a] soundwalk is any excursion whose main purpose is listening to

the environment. (Westerkamp 2007:49)
A soundwalk provides the circumstances for an extended period of directed

listening. Westerkamp (2007:49) argues that its purpose is to rediscover and
reactivate our sense of hearing. Ferrington (2007) regards it as a technique
for practising what he calls purposeful listening. Fenner (2003b) notes that
soundwalking encourages to ask questions about the environment and ones
own relation to it. Far from being an esoteric activity, soundwalking has also
become accepted as a research method in urban design (Venot & Smidor 2006;
Adams & Bruce 2008; Adams 2009).
5.3.1 Mobile Listening Experiences

The term soundwalk has been applied to a variety of formats. A clarication of
the terminology used in this thesis is therefore required. Arguably, the essence
of a soundwalk lies in the combination of two activities, listening and walking.
Drever (2009:166) points out the simplicity and universality of soundwalking
in this respect. It is the quintessential and original mobile listening experience.
Other mobile listening experiences rely on audio technology to varying degrees
and do not match Westerkamps denition of soundwalking, since their focus
shifts from listening to the environment towards a technological mediation of
aural experience. In this thesis, I distinguish between four types of mobile
listening experiences:
Soundwalks are mainly concerned with listening to the environment. A

soundwalker (or group of soundwalkers) might be guided by a map or
score which points out certain acoustic features of the environment. For
soundwalks not guided by a map, Schafer (1994:212f) proposes the term
listening walk. In accordance with most other literature, I use the term
soundwalk for both practices.8
7
Histories of walking have been written by Solnit (2001) and Amato (2004). The French
translation of soundwalking, promenade sonore, reects its recreational aspect. The concept
of the soundwalk also suggests a relation to the drive, a technique of rapid passage through
varied ambiences (Debord 2006:62) which the Situationists pioneered as a means of under-
standing urban environments from the inhabitants viewpoint. Lefebvre (1997) has provided
a description of the drive.
8
I see no qualitative dierence between what Schafer calls a listening walk and a sound-
walk. Group soundwalks are often led by an experienced guide, who eectively occupies the
same role as a printed score.
Field recording is concerned with capturing the sound of everyday environ-

ments, often as part of a soundwalk. Although its focus shifts from the
immediate listening experience towards collecting sound material for later
use, eld recording can be regarded as a listening practice in its own
right. It will be discussed in section 5.4.
Mobile music players extend the mobile listening experience by means of

playing rather than recording soundtypically through headphones. They
can serve the aestheticisation of everyday life by providing it with a
soundtrack (Williams 2007:20). However, the sounds created by a mo-
bile music player bear no inherent relation to the acoustic environment in
which they are being listened to. Mobile music players will be discussed
in section 7.1.
Audio walks create a technologically mediated listening experience similar to

mobile music players, but the sounds which they create relate in some
way to the listeners environment. In section 7.2 I will discuss various
artistic strategies for the design of audio walks, ranging from site-specic
walks to works which aim at transforming the listeners aural experience
in real-time.
In the above list, the use of technology increases with every item, and so does
the potential detachment of the listener from her actual acoustic environment.
While eld recording can increase the listeners connectedness to an everyday
sound environment, mobile music players and audio walks are concerned with
technology as a means of enhancing or extending aural perception. Their dis-
cussion will therefore be postponed to chapter 7, where the relation between
listening, mobility and technology will be investigated in detail.
The term soundwalk has also been applied to formats which do not qualify
as mobile listening experiences at all. Vicarious soundwalks (Drever 2009:191)
aim at a virtual reconstruction of a recorded soundwalk. Examples are A
Soundmap of the Hudson River by Annea Lockwood (1989) or the Kits Beach
Soundwalk by Hildegard Westerkamp (Kolber 2002). In these cases, it is only
the compositional process which involves a mobile listening experience. The
audience, on the other hand, can enjoy them without even having to get out of
their chairs. This arguably results in a very dierent listening experience than
going for a soundwalk oneself. Works of sound art which aim at a reconstruction
of an everyday soundscape on an array of loudspeakers are also sometimes
referred to as soundwalks. But while movement and spatial exploration on the
audiences behalf might form an integral part of such works, I think it is more
appropriate to refer to them as sound installations.
5.3.2 Soundwalking Techniques

The variations on the simple theme of soundwalking are manifold and have in-
stigated a diverse methodology (Fenner 2003b; Drever 2009:163). Westerkamp
(2007:49) and Ferrington (2007) have noted that soundwalks can be done alone,
with a friend or as a group. In the latter case they are often led by someone
with prior experience, using methods which are largely a matter of personal
style. Darren Copeland, for example, assigns specic listening tasks to each
member of a soundwalking group (Fenner 2003b).
As for the length of a soundwalk, Ferrington (2007) recommends 30 to 60

minutes. The soundwalks led by Phil Morton (2008) last between 60 and 90
minutes with intermediate breaks for group discussion. From my own experi-
ence, and from feedback I received from participants in a soundwalk which I
led in Belfasts Belvoir Forest in March 2009, I nd that it can take signicant
time to get into the mood of the walk. Extended walks can often turn out
very rewarding, as they can sharpen ones sensitivity to astonishing degrees. In
2008, I participated in a group soundwalk through inner Manchester, led by
Phil Morton. On this rainy day, our shoes left tiny bubbles of air on the wet
street, whichin the centre of Manchester!I could hear burst.
Schafer (1994:211) notes that the ear is always much more alert [...] in unfa-
miliar environments and therefore proposes sonic tourism as a form of sound-
walking which deliberately focuses on environments foreign to the listener. In
order to familiarise oneself with an acoustic environment, on the other hand,
Ferrington (2007) suggests to repeat the same walk at dierent times of the day
or under dierent weather conditions. The location of a soundwalk is some-
times chosen with regards to specic sounds which can be expected en route.
For this it is useful to have a guide who knows the area. During the Manch-
ester soundwalk mentioned above, Phil Morton took us to the Power Hall of
the Museum of Science and Industry, which displays a variety of engines from
the early days of the Industrial Revolution in actionan amazing sonic experi-
ence. Soundwalks can cover large areas or focus on a single location in a static
soundwalk (Morton 2009). Westerkamp (2007:49) recommends that beginning
soundwalkers limit the geographical scope of their rst walk. Ferrington (2007)
suggests that beginners start with a diverse acoustic environment and gradually
move towards quieter soundscapes, which require developed listening skills.
Weather conditions should be considered as well. Phil Morton supplies his

soundwalkers with umbrellas; an idea which I can recommend to anyone lead-
ing an outdoor soundwalk in the UK. Fenner (2003a) recommends noise-free
clothing, i.e. soft shoes, cotton or wool rather than nylon, jackets with buttons
rather than zippers and pockets emptied from keys and change. She suggests
to prepare for a soundwalk in the following succession: wearing earplugs for
a couple of minutes; closing ones eyes for a while; listening to the sound of
ones breath; focusing on a sound that one especially likes; gradually expand-
ing ones awareness to other sounds; and eventually breathing a few more times.
Ferrington (2007) and others recommend to refrain from talking during sound-
walks. As Fenner (2003a) notes, this includes not talking to oneself (not even
in ones head), in order to maintain a better balance between inner and outer
experience. As for the soundwalking group, Phil Morton (2009) argues that
talking breaks the spell of collective. In the words of Blesser & Salter:
Group silence is the ultimate manifestation of social cohesiveness

because silence can exist only if all members cease from speaking
total deference to the groups values. (Blesser & Salter 2006:33)
This silence is also one reason for the often strong reactions which soundwalk-
ers receive from non-participating passers-by. The view of a group of people
silently roaming a city leaves a powerful impression, which can be enhanced by
the presence of recording equipment (McCartney 2000). Soundwalkers there-
fore have to be prepared to receive sceptical looks and be disturbed by curios
outsiders who want to know whether they are working for a TV or radio sta-
tion or members of a religious order (Ferrington 2007). Phil Morton (2008)
hands out little cards on his soundwalks saying I choose not to talkIm in
a soundwalk, which his fellow soundwalkers can show to curious intruders.
Morton himself uses two non-intrusive bird call whistles to communicate with
the group, one to indicate breaks, and another one to signal soundwalkers in
danger of getting astray.
In spite of the non-talking rule, soundmaking can be an essential part of what

Westerkamp (2007:52) calls a participatory soundwalk. An active exploration
of sounds created with local materials or through ones own body (voice, foot-
steps, ones clothes rubbing against each other while walking) can enhance the
listening experience (Truax 1999; Fenner 2003b). Phil Morton brings along
various noise-makers to his soundwalks, which he invites his co-walkers to try

in locations with noteworthy acoustics.
A crucial aspect of soundwalking is the reection on the experience, so Fenner

(2003a) and Ferrington (2007) recommend to bring a journal for describing or
drawing sounds encountered during the walk. For group walks, these authors
suggest a discussion at the end or during intermediate breaks. Phil Morton lets
each participant write down a description of one sound which they encountered
and reads all of them out aloud at the end of the walk.
5.3.3 Historic Context of Soundwalking

While soundwalking is usually associated with the research practices of acoustic
ecology, the idea has been explored independently by various sound artists as
early as the mid-1960s, although they did not necessarily use the term itself.
Fluxus artist Philip Corner began to take people on walks in New York in
1966, instructing people to listen to the sounds of the environment as if at a
concert (Corner 1982, quoted in Drever 2009:185). In the same year and city,
Max Neuhaus started to lead walks as part of his Listen series:
The rst performance was for a small group of invited friends. I

asked them to meet me on the corner of Avenue D and West 14th
Street in Manhattan. I rubber stamped Listen on each persons
hand and began walking with them down 14th Street towards the
East River. At that point the street bisects a power plant and, as
I had noticed previously, one can hear some spectacularly massive
rumbling. We continued, crossing the highway and walking alongside
the sound of its tire wash, down river for a few blocks, re-crossing
over a pedestrian bridge, passing through the Puerto Rican street
life of the lower east side to my studio where I performed some
percussion pieces for them. (Neuhaus 1990:63)
Later, Neuhaus began to take out concert hall and university lecture audiences
on similar walks. He started to organise eld-trips to places that were gener-
ally inaccessible and had sounds that could never be captured on a recording
(1990:67). The Listen series also found other manifestations in the form of
posters and a do-it-yourself decal postcard (1990:67). An approach similar to
those of Corner and Neuhaus was adopted by John Cage in his 1971 Demon-
stration of the Sounds of the Environment (Drever 2009:187).
5.3.4 Soundwalk Artists

Hildegard Westerkamps soundwalking practice is well documented, such as her
recent soundwalk in Mexico City (2009). Andra McCartney (n.d.) has docu-
mented her soundwalk with Westerkamp through Vancouvers Queen Elizabeth
Park. Other Canadian soundwalk artists include Richard Windeyer (n.d.) and
Darren Copeland (1998). UK artist Phil Morton (2008) has been organising
soundwalks in the Liverpool area and elsewhere as part of his project The
Listening Room for many years. He sometimes combines his soundwalks with
artistic interventions or musical performances (2009) and has also done slow
soundwalks, where a path usually taking 10 minutes is stretched to an hour
(2004).9 Bill Thompson (2008) did an eight-hour soundwalk entitled of ab-
erdeen, which he recorded and then made accessible as a vicarious soundwalk
in a headphone-based installation. John Levack Drever (2007a, 2008) regularly
leads soundwalks in dierent UK cities. The Weiss/weisslich 9 pieces by Peter
Ablinger (2002g), which only consist of their subtitles Walk and Listen to the
Wind and Walk and Listen to the Water, are eectively soundwalk instructions.
My own work Straenmusik (cf. appendix B) can be regarded as a hybrid be-
tween a soundwalk, a public intervention and grati art, as it leads random
passers-by on a soundwalk by means of a white trail of chalk.
At the website of Vancouver New Music (n.d.), you can generate your personal
soundwalk instructions through a web interface designed by Stephanie Loveless
and Brady Marks. The same website also regularly posts soundwalk events in
the Vancouver area. A website by Michelle Nagai (n.d.) allows you to submit
your own soundwalk instructions. Andres Bosshard (2009) compiled a list of
twenty-ve Hrenswrdigkeiten (a pun expressing the acoustic equivalent of the
German word for sights) in the city of Linz, Austria, which inhabitants and
visitors could use for conducting their own soundwalks.
I led two soundwalks myself in Belvoir Forest in Belfast in March 2009. The
participants were visitors of an event organised by the National Trust and
included people from all age groups. Phil Morton generously allowed me to
apply some of his techniques, including the I cant talk card (see above) and
the use of specic sounds to communicate with the group, in this case a bell
and a whistle. Before the walks, I asked the participants to write down the
sounds which they expected to hear. At the end, I let them write down what
9
The Deep Listening exercises by Pauline Oliveros include a similar practice called the
Extreme Slow Walk (Oliveros 2005:20), which in turn is inspired by the Zen practice of
walking zazen (Drever 2009:174f).
they had actually heard, and a comparison of the two lists served as the basis
for a discussion. One participant, who spends some time in that forest every
day, remarked how he had never noticed the dominance of sounds alien to the
forests, such as trac noise from the near A55 road and sounds from a nearby
rugby eld. While I do not want to demonise those sounds in any way, I nd
this a remarkable example of how soundwalking can literally transform our
aural perspective on everyday life.
5.3.5 Critique
The enhanced state of aural perception in a soundwalk is somewhat incompat-
ible with everyday life; a concern which is relevant to all sound art operating
in an everyday context:
On one level [soundwalking] demands the reverence of concert hall

listening, yet we nd ourselves physically placed and passing through
the everyday: a state that naturally prompts everyday behaviour,
which is at odds with the contingencies of concert hall listening.
(Drever 2009:164)
Nevertheless, soundwalking constitutes a worthwhile everyday listening practice.

McCartney (2000) notes that [l]ike many simple experiences, soundwalking is
often profound as well. Ferrington (2007) promises that [e]ach listening walk
[...] will provide you with new experiences, and Westerkamp (2007:52) argues
that [w]hen attentive listening becomes a daily practice, requesting sound
quality becomes a natural activity. Soundwalking clearly has an educating
function with regards to an appreciation and aestheticisation of our acoustic
environment. Fenner (2003a) claims [a]fter you have learned to soundwalk you
will probably nd that [...] at all times and places you will be conscious of the
sounds that surround you, whether good or bad [...]. A chance to obtain this
level of aural awareness, beyond any moralisation of what constitutes good
or bad sounds, is the main contribution which soundwalking has to oer.
Moreover, soundwalks are not limited to the sense of hearing; they can initiate
multi-sensory experiences. Listeners frequently report that their sense of vision
and smell improves during a soundwalk.
It is not necessary to follow Westerkamps (2007) inated optimism when

she states that [p]erhaps soundwalking can be a step towards enhancing our
chances of survival [as a species], nor her somewhat banal observation that
soundwalking can simply be fun. In between these two statements, there is
enough that soundwalking has to oer as a listening practice which enhances

our auditory experience of everyday life.
5.4 Field Recording

Both soundwalking and eld recording are mobile listening practices concerned
with an aural investigation of everyday environments. In the latter case, how-
ever, the environment is concurrently being recorded. Possible motivations can
include the collection of sound trophies, a soundscape analysis, or the realisa-
tion of an audio walk (cf. section 7.2) or a soundscape composition (cf. section
6.2.1). Field recording has become increasingly popular in recent years with
the advent of aordable semi-professional recording devices. As with any doc-
umenting practice (e.g. photography), its focus shifts from being in a moment
to capturing that moment. However, eld recording can be regarded as a lis-
tening practice in itself. Both Oliveros (2005:28) and Schafer (1994:208f) have
noted that it can increase ones aural awareness. It can serve as an excuse
for extended periods of directed listening, as it implicitly makes the recordist
comply with the rules of listening, including silence on ones own behalf and a
respect towards the sounding environment.
With increasing experience, it becomes easier for the eld recorder to keep the
focus on both, ones immediate presence in an environment (listening) and the
capturing of it for later use (recording). This balance is also inuenced by the
use of the recording equipment. It makes a dierence, for example, whether or
not the recording is being monitored on headphones. Oliveros (2005:28) notes
that the use of headphones allows the recordist to focus her attention on sounds
which she otherwise would not notice. But listening to an environment through
headphones also changes ones relation to that environment. Restricting oneself
to visually monitoring the input signal through VU metres allows one to retain
a listening experience which is closer to that of a soundwalk.10 In my own
experience, the dierence between what one hears and what is being recorded
can be compensated by familiarity with ones equipment; similarly to mixing
engineers being able to extrapolate from the sound of their high-end studio
monitors to the average car stereo system.
An absence of headphones also minimises the amount of equipment one needs to

carry around. This allows one to take along the equipment on a regular basis
Oliveros (2005:28) recommends to listen to an environment both with and without head-
10
phones before recording it.

including trips not primarily serving the purpose of eld recordingand to start
recording more spontaneously. To minimise equipment also means to minimise
its visibility, which represents another advantage, as [o]ne of the recordists
biggest problems is to devise ways of recording social settings without interrupt-
ing them (Schafer 1994:210). Wearing microphones in ones earseectively
turning ones own head into a dummy head for a binaural11 recordingis
a particularly suitable technique in this respect. Peter Plessas has noted in
a private conversation that passers-by tend to mistake in-ear microphones for
earphones, thinking that one is playing back rather than recording sound.12
Recording with little and small equipment might not always yield the best-
possible delity, but its exibility and non-intrusiveness allows one to capture
sounds which would otherwise never be recorded at all. Ultimately, however,
the choice of equipment is determined by the purpose of the recording, and its
use a matter of personal style. Andra McCartney (2000) compares the work
of a eld recording artist to a jazz improviser, using perspective, motion, and
proximity rather than melodic and rhythmic lines and harmonic progressions.
The best-known eld recordists have gone a long way for their work; arguably
not simply for the sake of capturing extraordinary sound material, but also
for having a unique listening experience. Francisco Lpez (2009) conducts the
Mamori Sound Project, an annual two-week eld recording workshop at Lake
Mamori in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Chris Watson (n.d.) has recorded
natural environments of various African countries, the Galapagos Islands, the
rainforests of Costa Rica and Islandic glaciers. Other eld recording artists
include Aaron Ximm (n.d.), Jon Drummond (2008) and Toshiya Tsunoda (De-
mers 2009). Bernie Krause (2002) specialises in wildlife recordings. Patrick
McGinley (2010) has established a eld recording radio broadcast.
5.5 Annotated Listening

Although the description of perception through language is problematic, it nev-
ertheless represents one of the most powerful means we have for communicating
personal listening experiences. Schafer (1994:8) notes that ear witness reports
11
Binaural recordings are based on the concept of placing two microphones as close as
possible to the eardrums of a real or model human head. Recordings conducted in this
manner convey a high degree of spatial realism when listened to on stereo headphones. This
advantage is exploited by various artworks which will be discussed in chapter 7 and elsewhere,
including some of my own works (cf. appendix F, G, H).
12
The ethical implications of recording people without their knowledge should of course be
pointed out. It is the responsibility of the sound artist or researcher to treat the recorded
material in a responsible manner.
are the only means of gaining an understanding of sound environments dating

back to the days before the invention of recording. Researchers in the eld of
acoustic ecology used face-to-face interviews as a method for soundscape anal-
yses (cf. Truax 2001:19). Schafer (1994) has collected numerous descriptions
of sounds and listening in prose and poetry. But all these practices describe
listening after the fact. Alternatively, in situ descriptions of listening have been
established as an artistic practice which I refer to as annotated listening and
which can be realised in either oral or written form.
5.5.1 Oral Annotation

Thibaud (2001) has proposed the method of the parcour comment as a re-
search method for understanding a persons experience of the urban environ-
ment: As inhabitants walk through the area which they live in, they verbally
describe their sensory impressions. Schnhammer (1989) used a similar tech-
nique to let Walkman users describe their experience, but claims that the
task of permanent verbalization is not adequate to the nature of the stream of
consciousness . I have made contrary experiences during the realisation of the
piece Alexanderplatz (cf. appendix D), when I started to use commented eld
recordings as a method for reecting on and thereby getting to know an acous-
tic environment. This practice allowed me to develop a personal language for
describing aural experience and ultimately led to the concept of spatial listening
(cf. section 5.6). I usually record continuous ve-minute chunks of audio, often
in dierent locations of an area which I want to get to know, and include a
verbal description of my aural impressions at the end of the recording. When
I listen to these recordings later, the annotations re-contextualise the sounds,
which allows me to remember the recording situation in much greater detail.
But more importantly, the process of verbalising the listening experience in-
tensies it, so that even without listening to the annotations, I usually have a
better memory of the recording situation.
The technique of contextualising sound through a verbal description of the en-

vironment has also been applied in Westerkamps Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989).
Oral annotations of listening have also been presented as an artwork itself in
Peter Ablingers speech performance Weiss/weisslich 11d from 2005 (Ablinger
2007a). The subtitle of this piece, Sitzen und sagen was ich hre (sitting and
saying what I hear), describes the work in its entity.
5.5.2 Written Annotation

Keeping a listening journal (Oliveros 2005:17) or soundscape diary (Schafer
1994:211) is recommended as part of many listening practices. In the most
immediate form, written annotations are created in the moment of listening
itself. The 1968 article Some Sound Observations by Pauline Oliveros represents
an example of such a process:
[...] In the distance a bulldozer is eating away a hillside while its

motor is a cascade of harmonics dening the space between it and
the Rock and Roll radio playing in the next room. Sounds of birds,
insects, childrens voices and the rustling of trees eck this space.
As I penetrate the deep drone of the bulldozer with my ear, the mind
opens and reveals the high pitched whine of my nervous system. It
reaches out and joins the ight of an airplane drone, oats down
the curve of Doppler eect.
Now, fteen minutes since the beginning of this writing, the bull-
dozer has stopped for a while. The freeway one-half mile away,
unmasked, sends its ever-shifting drone to join with the train whis-
tle from Encinitas. (Oliveros 2004:102)
Toop (2007:114) and Smalley (2007) have written similar accounts of personal
listening experiences. According to Morton (2008) examples of this practice
could also be found in the British Musics magazine of the late 1970s. Peter
Ablinger writes down his aural impressions over a period of 40 minutes, in a
continuous ow without punctuation. The resulting text forms a piece whose
subtitle consist of the location, date and time of its creation. As an example,
consider the beginning of Weiss/weisslich 11b7, Pacic Palisades, Villa Aurora,
Terrace, Sunday, October 7, 2001, 10:38 to 11:18 :
THE UPWARDS RISING MAGPIE-LIKE CROAKING OF THE BLUE JAY THE

NOISE FROM THE TIRES OF A PASSING VEHICLE A SLOW DOWNWARDS
GLISSANDO OF A SINGLE-ENGINE PLANE AGAIN THE CROAKING RIS-
ING UPWARDS AND ANOTHER QUITE DIFFERENT BIRDS VOICE WITH
VARIED TRILLING AND CALLING A CAR HORN IN TWO PARTS AND THE
CONTINUOUS BRIGHT ROAR OF TRAFFIC IN THE DISTANCE NEARLY
EVEN STATIC BUT WITH DELICATE MODULATIONS BRIEF SEQUENCES
OF HUMMINGBIRD IMPULSES LIKE WEAK DISCHARGES FROM ELECTRI-
CAL WIRES AND ONCE AGAIN THE TRILLING AND CALLING WITH REP-
ETITIONS REMINISCENT OF THRUSHES SOFT RUSTLING LIKE CLOTHES
OR NYLON PANTS RUBBING AGAINST EACH OTHER [...] (Ablinger

2002c)
Ablinger (2002c) notes that since the writing speed is independent of the actual
density of events, an automatic ltering process takes place when ones auditory
perception registers sounds at a faster speed than one can write at. Little sonic
activity, on the other hand, allows a more detailed focus, going as far as
descriptions of the sounds of writing itself. In the 2001 piece Weiss/weisslich
11c, Sitzen und schreiben (sitting and writing), Peter Ablinger (2007a) performs
real-time listening annotations live with the help of a keyboard and visual
projection of the resulting text.
5.6 Spatial Listening

In the last section of this chapter, I would like to discuss a practice which I
refer to as spatial listening; a form of directed listening with a focus on sound
as space (cf. section 4.6). The inherent spatiality of sound represents a natural
means by which to describe aural experience. Spatial listening should, however,
not be confused with spatial hearing; a term which has been used in the
context of a formal scientic investigation regarding the perception of acoustic
space and the localisation of sound sources by the auditory system (Blauert
1997). Spatial listening, by contrast, investigates acoustic space in a qualitative
manner, without relying on a formal denition of spatial acoustic qualities
or being concerned with a quantication of aural experience. The practice
has originally been developed through annotated eld recordings during the
realisation of the piece Alexanderplatz (cf. appendix D). I use spatial listening
as a means of getting to know an acoustic scene and developing a personal
language for describing it. What follows is a set of questions inspired by
Smalleys concept of spatial styles, which I have discussed in section 4.6.4.
These questions can serve as a starting point for practising spatial listening.
How many acoustic spaces can be identified? Spatial listening starts with
a simple identication of acoustic spaces in ones environment. For exam-
ple, as I am writing these lines, the sound of a washing machine to my
left identies the room next door, including quite minute detail regarding
its size and overall acoustics. Sounds carry their space with them, as
Smalley (2007:37) argues. The sound of cars to my right comes from the
street in front of my house. It unambiguously identies that remote space,
which I cannot see or otherwise perceive, as an urban outdoor environ-
ment. Until ve minutes ago, the sound of rain from the open balcony
door drew a clear acoustic picture of the intimacy of my backyard, which

contrasts the busy activity on the street. The sounds created by the per-
son I live with create another, more dynamic space. The overall timbre of
these sounds lets me not only identify their source, but also tells me much
about the dierent spaces which the person is moving through. Again,
sounds serve as space-bearers (Smalley 2007:38). Any such enumeration
of acoustic spaces will of course be a matter of personal interpretation,
but individual reection rather than objective analysis is precisely the
purpose of spatial listening.
How can the identified acoustic spaces be characterised? What is their

size and extension? Are they enclosed or open? Private or public? Fa-
miliar or foreign? Some spaces might not be familiar as such but through
analogies. For example, the acoustic space of an underground train enter-
ing the station is slightly dierent in every city, but it is still perceivable
as an overall quality. The possible attributes which the listener can assign
to acoustic spaces are virtually limitless. The development of a personal
vocabulary in this respect represents one of the main tasks of spatial
listening.
Which of the present acoustic spaces am I a part of? This question eval-
uates the listeners own position in the current spatial conguration. Au-
goyard & Torgue (2006:132f) distinguish between the two archetypal sit-
uations of the listener being immersed in vs. being outside of an acoustic
space. It is worth emphasising the astonishing detail of spatial informa-
tion which our auditory perception can derive even from entirely remote
spaces. One task of spatial listening can be to try and visually imagine
such spaces, which are perceptible only through sound, in the greatest
possible detail.
Which sound sources are part of which acoustic spaces? Is a space un-
folded by a single sound source, several sources or more than we can
count? Are the sound sources linked to specic acoustic spaces, or do
they move among dierent spaces in the current conguration? Do the
sizes of the dierent spaces relate to the number of sources which they
encompass?
Is the current spatial configuration constant or dynamic? If it is dy-

namic, what do the dynamics depend on? Are they due to everyday
rhythms changing the overall soundscape? Or to atmospheric changes,
such as wind carrying away a distant space constituted by childrens
voices on a playground? Is it the listeners own movement which changes

the spatial conguration? The transition between acoustic spaces can be
described through the cut out eect (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:29; cf.
section 4.6.3). It constitutes the basis of several works by Peter Ablinger
(2002a), such as his Listening Piece in 2 Parts from 2005, which consists
only of the transition from a large to a small room and vice versa. The
Passage Pieces by Max Neuhaus are also concerned with transits from
one acoustic space to another (Tarantino 1998).
How do the aural and visual experience of space correspond? This ques-
tion can often yield surprising answers if the situation is investigated in
depth. During the recordings for Alexanderplatz, I conducted a recording
in a location with signicant background trac noise. At the same time,
I could see a tram station in the distance, where I had recorded earlier.
From my position, I would have imagined the tram station to be a rather
noisy space, similar to the one I was currently recording in. It was only
because of the earlier recording that I knew that the station actually
represented a calm acoustic oasis in the centre of the square.
If the above questions seem trivial, it is because any directed listening practice
is ultimately concerned with the conscious application of a simple everyday
activity. These questions might be answered through oral annotations in a
commented eld recording or in written form as part of a listening diary, or
their answers might simply be imagined. They allow an application of various
listening modes and practices which have been discussed in this thesis.
5.7 The Relation between Modes, Perspectives

and Practices of Aural Awareness
This chapter concludes the second part of this thesis, which was concerned with
auditory perception as a multifaceted phenomenon. The modes of listening dis-
cussed in chapter 3 demonstrate the complexity of aural awareness. They also
bear witness to the diversity of the listener-sound relationship, which has been
investigated in detail in chapter 4. In the present chapter, I have discussed a
variety of listening practices which are concerned with aural awareness in an
everyday context.
The modes of listening, perspectives on sound and listening practices discussed

in these chapters can all be regarded as interrelated. For example, reduced
listening (cf. section 3.3) lends itself directly to an understanding of sound as

object (cf. section 4.3) and can be applied during a soundwalk (cf. section
5.3). Causal listening (cf. section 3.4) invites an understanding of sound as
source (cf. section 4.1), which in turn can form the basis of a directed listening
instruction (cf. section 5.2.1). An understanding of sound as space (cf. section
4.6) informs the practice of spatial listening (cf. section 5.6). Together these
modes, perspectives and practices of aural awareness provide a framework for
the aestheticisation of aural perception in everyday life.
Part III
Art
108
The object of aesthetics is what a society in its critical discourse
is prepared to perceive and thematize at a specific point in time.
Susanne Hauser (2008:133)
The sounds do not interest me; not as such.

Peter Ablinger (2008c:98)
Sound Art and the Everyday

6
This thesis is concerned with sound art as a means of addressing aural aware-
ness in an everyday context. In this chapter I hope to contribute something
to the still very vivid discussion of what it is precisely that the term sound
art denotes. I will oer a reading of sound arts development in terms of its
increasing concern with the everyday. This concern has originally manifested
itself in an interest in everyday sound material, but has gradually been ex-
tended towards everyday life as a general context for aestheticised auditory
perception. I will argue that sound art lends itself to an auralisation of ev-
eryday rhythms and conclude the chapter by discussing some of the aesthetic
implications brought forward by sound art operating in an everyday context.
6.1 What is Sound Art?

Both Campesato (2009:27) and Licht (2009:3) point out that the term sound
art emerged much later than the rst examples of artworks in this eld.1 The
term itself dates back to William Hellermanns Sound Art Foundation, which
was established in the late 1970s and produced the Sound/Art exhibition at
the Sculpture Center in New York in 1983 (Licht 2009:3). Sound art was pop-
1
Licht suggests that this distinguishes sound art from other art forms, but I do not agree.
We do not know how long music, for example, had been practised before it was rst named
as such.
109
CHAPTER 6. SOUND ART AND THE EVERYDAY 110
ularised in the 1990s through a number of important exhibitions (Licht 2007,

2009; Cox 2009; Engstrm & Stjerna 2009). At the same time, the term started
to be used for all kinds of experimental music (Licht 2007:12), owing to the
genres historical heritage of Cageian and Schaeerian ideas (Kahn 2006; La-
Belle 2007). Engstrm & Stjerna (2009:17) argue that the term sound art has
since become as vague as to almost be useless. The enthusiasm with which the
term has been embraced by artists, curators and critics alike has been viewed
sceptically by Kahn (2006:2f) and others. Licht (2007:13) criticises the oppor-
tunism of artists who use the term to avoid negative connotations associated
with the term experimental music. Max Neuhaus (2000) has expressed worries
that sound art might represent nothing but an art fad and has questioned its
originality as an art form:
Much of what has been called Sound Art has not much to do
with either sound or art. (Neuhaus 2000)
Neuhaus argues that the term is often used to describe artworks which could
equally well be labelled music. This is an important observation, because it
is precisely its distinction from music through which sound art is often de-
ned as a genre (Cox 2009:19; Engstrm & Stjerna 2009:12; Licht 2009:9). On
the surface, this distinction is primarily signied through sound arts frequent
presentation in a gallery rather than a concert hall context. However, Licht
(2009:4) questions whether music performed in a gallery automatically repre-
sents sound art. Kahn (1999, 2006) therefore distinguishes sound art from the
broader concept of sound in the arts.2
A conviction which unites many authors is that sound art demonstrates an

approach to space and time which is distinct from musics; for example by
extending the xed durations of recording media or concert programmes (Licht
2009:3) towards the more open time frames of the art installation (Campesato
2009:32). Licht (2007:13) has somewhat oversimplied this contrast by argu-
ing that only music is time-based, whereas sound art is presumably all things
space. But the idea that space can be articulated through sound rather than
merely represent a container for it (Engstrm & Stjerna 2009:12) has recently
received signicant attention also in electroacoustic and instrumental music (cf.
section 4.6). Kahn (2006) and Campesato (2009) have argued that sound art
is precisely about transcending the demarcation between the spatial and the
2
Licht makes a similar distinction (2007:141), although elsewhere (2007:17) he explicitly
includes visual artwork which also has a sound-producing function and sound by visual
artists into his denition of sound art.
time-based arts, and Engstrm & Stjerna (2009) have noted that the German
equivalent term Klangkunst (de la Motte-Haber et al. 2006) is often dened
along these lines.
Some authors have argued that as opposed to music, sound art demonstrates
an understanding of sound-in-itself (Cox 2003); a concrete, almost mate-
rial conception (Campesato 2009:27) of sound, which contrasts the codied
grammars of Western art music. However, this too represents a general artis-
tic development of the twentieth century, which can also be observed in the
contemporary music discourse, including, for example, Pierre Schaeers (1966)
concepts of reduced listening (cf. section 3.3) and the sound object (cf. section
4.3). Campesato (2009:27) proposes an absence of narrative as a characteristic
of sound art, but this argument seems somewhat awed if one considers works
such as Janet Cardis audio walks (cf. section 7.2.2). Another frequently cited
aspect of sound art is its site-specicity (cf. section 6.3.2), but this too can
hardly be interpreted as a distinguishing characteristic of all sound art (De-
mers 2009:39). While the above distinctions clarify many facets of sound art,
counterexamples for all of them can be found in the personal practices of vari-
ous artists (Kahn 2006:3).
But although sound art seems to elude a clear denition, I think the term is still
useful. I do, however, believe that we should not satisfy ourselves with a view
on sound as one of several artistic parameters (Engstrm & Stjerna 2009:14)
or an extension of the artists particular aesthetic, generally expressed in other
media (Licht 2007:17). As Khazam (2007:66) has noted, sound is more than
just a new material. At the same time, it is not necessary to mystify sound
art as addressing an auditory unconscious, a transcendental or virtual domain
of sound (Cox 2009:19). Sound art can open our ears to the very real world
by addressing it in terms of sound. Since the radicalness of this approach lies
within the perception of the listener rather than the artworks themselves, aural
awareness should be situated at the centre of the sound art debate.
The contribution which this chapter hopes to make towards a better under-
standing of sound art is not based on a contrast with other art forms. Instead
I will oer a reading of sound art in terms of a general cultural process, which
can also be observed in music and other artistic genres. I will argue that the
very development of sound art can be interpreted as a manifestation of an in-
creasing artistic concern with the everyday over the twentieth and twenty-rst
centuries. Campesato (2009:27) contrasts two approaches to sound art: a mu-
sicalisation of sound in the sense of Kahn3 (1999, 2006) and a connection of

sound with other aspects of culture and life. In other words, the everyday
manifests itself in sound art as sonic material on the one hand and as a context
for aestheticised listening on the other. This contrast will form the basis of the
following discussion.
6.2 The Everyday as Sound Material

After Western musics ve-century long retreat from the sounds of everyday
life (Drever 2009:165), the development of sound art is closely associated with
the emancipation of everyday sound material in twentieth century art practices.
What Bill Fontana formulates as a personal artistic challenge can also be read
as a general programme of the contemporary sonic arts:
How can I make art out of ambient sounds? (Fontana 2008:154)
Luigi Russolos famous futurist manifesto LArte dei Rumori (The Art of
Noises) from 1913 pioneered a consideration of the musicality of everyday
sounds:
Let us cross a large modern capital with our ears more sensitive
than our eyes. We will delight in distinguishing the eddying of water,
of air or gas in metal pipes, the muttering of motors that breathe
and pulse with an indisputable animality, the throbbing of valves,
the bustle of pistons, the shrieks of mechanical saws, the starting of
trams on the tracks, the cracking of whips, the apping of awnings
and ags. We will amuse ourselves by orchestrating together in our
imagination the din of rolling shop shutters, the varied hubbub of
train stations, iron works, thread mills, printing presses, electrical
plants, and subways. (Russolo 2004:12)
Russolos manifesto essentially provides a recipe for aestheticised listening in an

everyday context. What is often ignored in discussions of his vision is that it
was by no means limited to the mechanical sounds of industrialisation:
To be convinced of the surprising variety of noises, one need only

think of the rumbling of thunder, the whistling of the wind, the
roaring of a waterfall, the gurgling of a brook[,] the rustling of
leaves, the trotting of a horse into the distance, the rattling jolt of
3
Kahn (2006:7) himself attributes the origins of this idea to Dan Lander.
a cart on the road, and of the full, solemn, and white breath of a
city at night. Think of all the noises made by wild and domestic
animals, and of all those that a man can make, without either
speaking or singing. (Russolo 2004:12)
However, Russolos artistic strategy for an aesthetic consideration of everyday

soundsthe famous intonarumori (noise instruments)still acknowledged the
concert hall as the site of aestheticised listening. There was clearly a belief
that the beauty of everyday sounds lay within the sounds themselves rather
than in the circumstances of listening. Following such a logic, it was sucient
to create machines which allowed the reproduction of these sounds within the
concert hall. But although Russolo had the foresight to remark that a mere
imitation of everyday sounds would not be sucient, his conviction that the
new orchestra will obtain the most complex and novel emotions (2004:14) did
eventually not full its promises.
Later attempts at revealing the musicality of everyday sounds were conducted

in musique concrte. Even just the title of Pierre Schaeers tudes de Bruits
from 1948 expresses his intention of making sounds which had hitherto been
considered noise (bruits) available for musical consideration (tude). Schaeer
applied electroacoustic techniques like cutting, reverse playback, lters, etc.
with the aim of turning ordinary sounds into something more musical. However,
other experimental music practicesmost famously John Cages 433 from
1952revealed that an aesthetic consideration of everyday sounds depends not
merely on the sound material, but also on the listening context. In other
words, aestheticised listening benets not only from an understanding of sound
as object in the sense of Pierre Schaeer (cf. section 4.3), but also as event in
the sense of R. Murray Schafer (cf. section 4.4).
6.2.1 A Critique of Soundscape Composition

The artistic practice of soundscape composition claims to be concerned with
both, everyday sound material and an everyday listening context. The name of
the genre has been coined by Barry Truax (1996, 2001) and has its origins in
the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, which
was active during the late 1960s and early 1970s (Westerkamp 1991).4
4
Gluck (1999) provides a good overview of artists associated with soundscape composition.
Westerkamp (2002:51) admits that soundscape composition represents a some-

what vague term and explicitly refrains from a clear denition herself.5 Never-
theless she tries to clarify the term by arguing that soundscape composition is
about more than a musical application of everyday sound material. According
to her, the genre extends towards the artistic, sonic transmission of meanings
about place, time, environment and listening perception (2002:52). Other com-
posers have made similar claims and have portrayed soundscape composition as
a context-embedded, meaning-conveying alternative to the allegedly abstract
methods which musique concrte, acousmatic and computer music apply to ev-
eryday sound material (Schryer 1998; Gluck 1999; Westerkamp 1999b; Truax
2001, 2000, 2008).
Whereas the use of concrte [sound] sources leaves the environment

the same and merely extracts its elements, the successful sound-
scape composition has the eect of changing the listeners awareness
and attitudes towards the soundscape, and thereby changing the
listeners relationship to it. (Truax 2001:237)
What strikes me as problematic about this denition is that, whereas it char-

acterises musique concrte in terms of artistic technique, it denes sound-
scape composition in terms of its eect on the listener. Truax declares it a
principlenot merely a goalof soundscape composition that it enhances
our understanding of the world (2001:240). Gluck echoes this promise, but
not without briey questioning its actual fullment:
Soundscape[ composition]s oer artistic promise, meaningful inter-

action, and a [sic] important cautionary tale about art and technol-
ogy. But does the practice fulll this promise? The results are no
doubt mixed, as is the case in all forms of art. (Gluck 1999:40)
However, other art forms have not chosen to dene themselves in the very
terms of their artistic success. It is not my intention to question soundscape
composition as a worthwhile artistic practice. But I criticise the tendency
of some of its proponents to dene the genre in terms of its eect on the
listener, which in my opinion makes it particularly vulnerable to criticism and
ultimately artistic failure. What disguises itself as a promise to the audience
can at best be an intention on behalf of the composer. Westerkamp notes that
in a soundscape composition, the listening experience during the recording is as
5
Elsewhere (1999b), Westerkamp refers to soundscape compositions explicitly as tape
pieces that are created with recorded environmental sounds and excludes sound installations
and site-specic works from this denition.
essential as the recorded materials themselves, since it brings alerted awareness

to the soundscape (2002:53). But she also acknowledges that this is primarily
true for the composer herself (2002:56). She claims that a true relationship
to a soundscape (2002:55) can only be expressed through material which the
composer has recorded herself, but admits that there might be no real answer
(2002:56) to the question of how this relationship can be communicated to
the listener. The assumption seems to be that the composers enhanced aural
experience somehow mystically transfers to the audience. Gluck simply declares
this a property inherent to soundscape composition itself:
The meaning of [a soundscape composition] is a product of not

only the composers intentions, but also the emotional and personal
associations that the listener necessarily has with the recognizable
material. (Gluck 1999:33; italics added)
In Glucks view, it is the material itselfunspoiled, gently edited and thus

recognisable everyday soundswhich guarantees the audiences emotional en-
gagement. But at the same time, he (1999:39) and Westerkamp (2002:56)
admit that soundscape composers are not immune to the de-contextualisation
of recorded sound (cf. section 4.4). Soundscape composition has frequently been
positioned as an artistic practice which transcends the concert hall experience
and reaches out towards an increased everyday aural awareness of its audience.
But Westerkamps own question of how precisely the genre can achieve this
(2002:52) remains unanswered. Instead she satises herself with the following
speculation:
One can assume for audiences listening to [soundscape] composi-

tions that the experience of conscious soundscape listening in daily
life would add signicantly to the understanding of and involvement
with a soundscape composition. (Westerkamp 2002:56)
In other words, soundscape composition cannot substitute for the everyday lis-
tening experience. Its promise of enhancing everyday aural awareness suddenly
becomes its own prerequisite. In order for soundscape composition to increase
aural awareness, its audience must demonstrate . . . increased aural awareness.
6.2.2 Alexanderplatz
The example of soundscape composition demonstrates the problem of encour-
aging aural awareness by means of sound material alone. However, that is not
to say that the genres methods are not useful as such. Soundscape compo-
sition has plenty to oer beyond the inated artistic promises through which
it has attempted to dene itself. Drever (2002:26) has proposed soundscape
composition as a method of ethnographic study, but acknowledges that such
an approach needs to maintain a balance between musical and representational
concerns. This is what I have attempted in my work Alexanderplatz (cf. ap-
pendix D).
Alexanderplatz represents a mixture of electroacoustic composition and sound-

scape study. The project was conducted as part of a eld recording workshop
in Berlin. From an afternoon worth of recordings, I derived two four-channel
pieces which were presented in an installation concluding the workshop. The
pieces follow the concept of phonography, i.e. they comply more with a found
soundscape approach than trying to create an abstracted soundscape (Truax
2008:106). The artistic challenge was to recreate the multifaceted acoustic en-
vironment of a huge public square on a four-channel loudspeaker array. Many
methods of soundscape composition were applied in the process, but I would
not claim that the nal result enhances aural awareness per se. The pieces
themselves represent artistic artefacts which as such are open to interpretation
by the audience. The value of Alexanderplatz does not exclusively lie in these
compositions, but also in the development of aural practices which accompa-
nied their creation. The oral annotation of aural experiences (cf. section 5.5.1)
and the practice of spatial listening (cf. section 5.6) were both developed in the
course of this study and have informed the discussion in this thesis. The docu-
mentation of Alexanderplatz (cf. appendix D) therefore emphasises the process
through which the nal pieces were created. The portfolio includes the original
annotated eld recordings, the score (a shell script and a Gnu Octave script)
through which they were assembled into the nal compositions and additional
material documenting the underlying artistic decisions.
6.3 The Everyday as a Context for Listening

It is certainly no coincidence that sound art emerged as an artistic discipline
roughly around a time when it became evident that the key to an appreciation
of everyday sounds does not exclusively lie in these sounds themselves. John
Cage, the undisputed founding father of experimental music and sound art, is
generally credited to be the rst artist who has interpreted the aesthetics of
everyday sounds as being grounded in the circumstances of listening. According
to Cage, sounds become music as soon as one listens to them as such, no matter
whether they are performed by a musician or arise from an everyday situation.

This idea has been summarised by Bill Fontana:
[T]he richness and beauty of ambient sounds come from their in-
teraction with a living situation. (Fontana 2008:154)
With the realisation that aestheticised listening cannot entirely be explained

through that which is sounding (cf. Ablinger 2008c:87), artistic interest in sound
from the environment shifted towards a concern with sound as environment
(Licht 2009:5).6
6.3.1 Abandoning the Concert Hall

Over the course of the twentieth century, the concert hall was increasingly
questioned as the primary site for aestheticised listening:
Concert hall and applause are parts of a ritual which is no longer

consciously perceived. But was [the concert hall] not originally all
about perception? (Ablinger 1997; translation by the author),
The concert hall had been established as a substitute for a rural outdoor life
on the verge of being lost. Its sound environment remained controllable; as
opposed to the increasingly urban and industrialised environment which sur-
rounded it (Schafer 1994:104f). However, the sonic arts have eventually looked
beyond the concert hall and towards everyday environments as a context for
aestheticised listening. Erik Saties Vexations (ca. 1893) and Wagners Ring
cycle from 184874 represent early challenges to conventional time frames of
music listening (Ablinger 1997). Russolos (2004:12) reference to concert halls
as hospitals for anemic sounds can be read as a provocative opening to a dis-
cussion which has already lasted for almost a century. John Cages silent piece
433 from 1952 challenged the concert hall through its perfect conation of
musical frameworks with the everyday eld of ordinary environments (LaBelle
2007:14). The gradual move away from the concert hall was also characterised
by an interest in unique performance spaces, such as in Schafers Music for
Wilderness Lake from 1979 and Stockhausens 1969 concert in the Grotto of
Jeita in Lebanon (Blesser & Salter 2006:175).
The very development of sound art is inseparably linked to a quest for alter-
native listening environments. Max Neuhaus and Christina Kubisch both per-
formed as instrumentalists before literally abandoning the concert hall in order
6
This echoes the concept of sound as a context-dependent event, which I have discussed
in section 4.4).
to pursue their sound installations (Licht 2009:5). Francisco Lpez (2004) has
written [a]gainst the stage and blindfolds the audience during his concerts,
encouraging them to aurally transcend the performance space. Peter Ablinger
(2008c:87) argues that the concert hall does not accommodate a critical reec-
tion of the conditions of music making which it creates. Sound installations and
sculptures became increasingly popular means of expression among artists, and
the art gallery was established as an alternative site for the artistic presentation
of sound. But while the gallery provided sound artists with the possibility to
develop new perspectives on musical space and timeand the audience with a
more active, sometimes even co-curating function (Kato 2003)it also imposed
its own rules on the presentation of sound:
[I]f the concert hall enforces its own ritual and traditions, the
gallery also provides a new type of space with its own conventions.
Like the concert hall, the gallerys walls and rooms also impose a
clear demarcation of what is inside and what is outside. (Campe-
sato 2009:28)
Sound art ultimately did not satisfy itself with the gallery as a substitute for the
concert hall and continued to push into everyday environments. Later versions
of 433 took to the streets of Manhattan and Boston (Drever 2009:179). Cages
ideas were further developed by the Fluxus movement, whose conceptual and
performance art blurred the borders between artistic performance and everyday
life (LaBelle 2007:58). Tittel (2009:58) notes that it is no coincidence that
what she refers to as the rst sound installation, Max Neuhaus Drive In Music
from 1967,7 had been installed in a public environment.8 Neuhaus (1994b)
himself has expressed his desire of being able to enter into peoples daily
lives through his works. Concannon (1987) has diagnosed a general trend in
American sound sculpture towards public space, which manifests itself in the
works of artists such as Douglas Hollis, Liz Phillips, Peter Richards and George
Gonzales, Bruce Odland, and Bill and Mary Buchen. According to Tittel
(2009:58), the lack of institutional acceptance of early sound art contributed
much to its quest for the everyday. She has provided an extensive overview of
works of sound art from recent decades which were conceived in environments
not generally intended for artistic presentation. More recent examples and
artistic strategies with regards to sound art in public space have been discussed
by Bandt (2005), Bircheld et al. (2006) and Klein (2009).
7
Licht (2009:5), on the other hand, has referred to Edgard Varses Pome lectronique and
Iannis Xenakis Concret PH at the Philips Pavillon of the Expo 58 as the rst signicant
sound installations.
8
The work could be listened to by tuning ones car radio to a certain frequency along a
stretch of roadway in Bualo, New York (Neuhaus 1980).
6.3.2 Sound and Place

By questioning not only the concert hall but dedicated performance spaces in
general, sound art investigates the relationship between sound and place at
a substantial level. Bill Fontana (2008:154) observed that ambient sounds
are sculptural in the way they belong to a particular place. Several authors
have identied site-specicity as a characteristic of many works of sound art
(Davis 2003; Roden 2005; LaBelle 2007; Licht 2007; Ouzounian 2008; Campe-
sato 2009). Licht (2007:271) credits Maryanne Amacher with perhaps being the
rst composer whose work was specic to particular locations. Max Neuhaus
(1994c:6) has used sound to manifest a place rather than an event. Place and
sound become almost indistinguishable in the Places series by Peter Ablinger
(2006c). Sam Auinger (2008) and Helmut Lemke (2008) have also been con-
cerned with the sound-place relationship for many years. More examples of
site-specic sound art have already been provided in section 5.2.1. Soundwalk-
ing (cf. section 5.3) also represents an inherently place-bound practice.
Numerous soundscape studies have investigated the connection between sound,

a place and its inhabitants, such as the research of the World Soundscape
Project (Schafer 1977), John Levack Drevers Topophonophilia (2007b), Peter
Cusacks Your Favourite London Sounds (Cusack 1998) and Sound from Dan-
gerous Places (Cusack 2007), the Positive Soundscapes Project (Davies et al.
2007) and studies by Jrviluoma et al. (2007), Kyt et al. (2007) and the
Oce of Global Atmospheric Protection (2007). ODwyer (2009:12) has inves-
tigated the relation of mobile sound technologies and contemporary concepts of
place, and several art projects in this area will be discussed in section 7.2. The
connection between sound and place has also been the main theme of various
projects which are concerned with listening as a social experience (cf. section
8.3.2).
6.3.3 The City as a Canvas for Sound Art

Although sound arts move into everyday environments was not restricted to the
cities (cf. Concannon 1987), sound art nevertheless represents a primarily urban
practice. With the urbanisation of Western society, the city was discovered as
an environment for sensory experience:
The city in all its dimensions, architectural-spatial, socio-economic,

technical and particularly acoustical, enter [sic] man via his senses.
(Barthelmes 2002:99)
Mumford (1961:539) also refers specically to the sound environment when he

speaks of the city as a general assault on the senses. Hauser (2008:128)
remarks that urban experience can be as fascinating as unsettling. Maybe
as a reaction to the sensory blunting experienced by many urban inhabitants
(Tonkiss 2004:304), artistic reection on the city has a long tradition in the
sonic arts. Barthelmes (2002:98f) lists several examples of orchestral pieces
from the turn of the twentieth century which feature acoustic references to
particular cities.
At the same time, the city has a long history as an environment for artistic
production and performance. Street art as performed by buskers, comedians,
jugglers, etc. has long been an integral part of urban culture. But it was ar-
guably in the second half of the twentieth century that artistic expression in
the city was combined with artistic reection on the city. Brian Enos Music for
Airports from 1978 was not only designed for an everyday urban environment
but implicitly comments on this environment as well. Peter Ablingers Stad-
toper Graz (city opera Graz) from 2003 treats the city as a target of artistic
reection and simultaneously as a performance environment (Ablinger 2006b).
Concepts of the city as a musical instrument (Augoyard & Torgue 2006:4,122;
Tanaka 2006:22; Auinger & friends 2008) or as a stage for its inhabitants to
perform on (Kato 2003) allow sound art to initiate a conversation between a
city and its people (Toop 2007:112).
But although the city is a heterogeneous environment which is not primarily

intended for aesthetic perception, it does by no means represent an entirely neu-
tral context for the production and presentation of art. Although not managed
by concert organisers or gallery curators, artistic production in public space is
not free of institutional pressures (cf. Neuhaus 1994a). The social biotope of
the city demonstrates artistic idiosyncrasies comparable to those of the concert
hall and the art gallery. The remainder of this chapter will be concerned with
identifying these idiosyncrasies and their aesthetic implications regarding the
creation and presentation of sound art in an everyday context.
6.3.4 Straenmusik and EaRdverts

One aspect which requires investigation with regards to sound art in public
environments is how to communicate its experience to the audience. I would
like to discuss my own works Straenmusik (cf. appendix B) and EaRdverts (cf.
appendix C) in this respect. Straenmusik is an unguided soundwalk consist-
ing of directed listening instructions which are drawn on the street with chalk.
EaRdverts tries to direct the aural attention of passers-by by marking any ears
visible on advertising billboards with big arrows. The biggest challenge with
regards to these works was to catch the potential audiences attention at all.
In the case of Straenmusik, I had to consider it a success if pedestrians briey
turned their heads because of the unfamiliar drawings on the road. The average
attention span of those people who noticed the piece at all seemed to be less
than three seconds. In the case of EaRdverts, such observations of the audi-
ence were virtually impossible due to the cumulative nature of the work. One
likely does not even notice the rst ear-pointing arrow which one encounters
and might only consciously notice their presence after seeing several of them.
And even then, it is still a long way for the listener to realise that the piece
is somehow concerned with aural perception, let alone to actually start listening.
Max Neuhaus (1994b:3) has pointed out that whereas one can observe whether
someone is looking at a visual artwork, there is no way of seeing whether
someone listens.9 Of course I could have observed people to nd out whether
they noticed my interventions and interviewed them to evaluate whether that
initiated a listening experience in them. But even then it would have been
impossible for me to conclude that their everyday aural awareness has been
increased beyond this immediate encounter. Neuhaus questions the value of
observing the audience of his unmarked, often anonymous sound installations:
Yes, I could go and observe people. But I know what [my] work is,
I know what it can do, otherwise I wouldnt be a very good artist.
(Neuhaus 1994c:3)
It is unlikely that the aural awareness of many listeners was increased during
their encounter of Straenmusik or EaRdverts.10 But does that make them less
worthy as works of art? In my opinion, trying to measure the success of art
merely in terms of its immediate eect is a clear sign of an underestimation
of what art can achieve. How does one measure the impact of a continuous
presence of pieces like Straenmusik or EaRdverts over a year? In fact, how
does one measure the aesthetic impact of the Mona Lisa on the eye of a viewer?
Certainly not by observing whether the viewer actually looks at the painting.
Only by adopting a long-term perspective can we appreciate arts ability to
9
Strictly speaking, I think one cannot even do the former. Through observation, one can
see whether somebody directs visual attention in a certain direction. One can see someone
gaze; thats about it. But gazing is as dierent from looking as hearing is from listening.
10
An exception to this were people who I personally invited to try Straenmusik, but of
course they had prior information which random listeners could not rely on.
change peoples perspective on the world. For art to achieve this potential we
need to encourage its presence in everyday life. If instead we choose to measure
art against its short-term eects, then short-term eects is what we are going
to get from art.
6.4 The Auralisation of Everyday Rhythm

The short attention spans which listeners demonstrated towards the pieces
Straenmusik and EaRdverts are not particularly surprising if one considers
the constantly switching focus which characterises everyday life. Abowd et al.
(2002:53) notes that everyday activities tend to not have a clear beginning or
end, are prone to interruption, and that several of them can occur concurrently.
These idiosyncrasies of everyday practices seem to challenge the suitability of
everyday environments as a context for the presentation of art. But could it
be that there are artistic strategies which lend themselves to these idiosyn-
crasies just as well as the symphony lends itself to a concert hall performance?
The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the identication of such strategies.
There is a profound relationship between the everyday and aural experience

which extends far beyond the seemingly trivial observation that [e]very mani-
festation of life is accompanied by noise (Russolo 2004:13). Everyday life and
sound share an inherent rhythmicity. Just as sound is essentially a phenomenon
of vibration, our lives are structured by the oscillations between night and day,
periods of work and periods of rest, summer and winter, life and death. Oliveros
(2005:27) observed that natural and urban environments are full of pulses and
patterns, and according to Lefebvre (2004:66), even musical rhythm merely
illustrates everyday life. Everyday rhythms are a social phenomenon:
Each and every day we make ritual gestures, we move to the

rhythm of external and personal cadences, we cultivate our mem-
ories, we plan for the future. And everyone else does likewise.
(Melucci 1996:1)
The rhythmed organisation of everyday time is [...] simultaneously

internal and social. In one day in the modern world, everybody does
more or less the same thing at more or less the same times [...].
(Lefebvre 2004:75)
Figure 6.1: An analysis of a soundscapes annual rhythm (Truax 1999).
6.4.1 Everyday Rhythm and Sound

Intentionally or as a by-product, the rhythms of everyday life manifest them-
selves primarily through sound, whether their cycles are within the range of
human hearing or not. Tonkiss (2004:306) notes how in Sydney, the rst aero-
plane from Singapore woke him every day, sound telling time again, more
reliable than a cheap alarm clock. My former Belfast atmate made a sim-
ilar comment about the daily 7 a.m. machine from London. At my current
accommodation, a moped driver passes the street in front of the house reliably
at 7:50 a.m. each morningan anonymous sonorhythmic element in my daily
routine.
From a ticking clock to a factory siren, an angelus bell, a train

whistling at regular hours, or bird songs heard every morning and
eveningan indenite variety of sounds constantly dene time.
(Augoyard & Torgue 2006:93)
According to Meier-Dallach & Meier (1992:416, quoted in Barthelmes 2002:103),

[t]he sound of a city contains images of the social space and its rhythms.
Truax argues that the cyclic patterns of a communitys daily activities are re-
ected in the soundscape (2001:76), and that nothing is more revealing to
the soundscape analyst (2001:73) than these long-term rhythms, which usually
escape the observer. Chelko (1991:45; translation by the author) distinguishes
between three temporal structures of soundscapes: continuous (not changing
much over time), regularised (repetitive rhythms) and aleatoric. Repetition,
Suprabiological rhythms
Ultrasound >20 kHz
Sound ca. 20 Hz to 20 kHz
Rhythms on a human scale
Bodily rhythms heart, breath, feet, hands, nervous system
Tides ca. 12.5 hours
Circadian rhythms 24-hour interval; work vs. rest periods
Weekly rhythms workdays vs. weekends
Monthly rhythms phases of the moon
Seasonal rhythms spring, summer, autumn, winter
Life cycle of a human being childhood, youth, adulthood, seniority
Infrabiological rhythms
Life cycle of a society
Life cycle of a species
Geological rhythms tectonic plates shifting; climate periods
Rhythms of the stars orbits
Rhythms of the universe contracting, expanding
Table 6.1: Rhythms with decreasing frequency, informed by Schafer (1994:226)

and Truax (1999, 2001:73).
according to Augoyard & Torgue (2006:91f), represents a means of identifying

a specic sound as a familiar part of ones environment. Thibaud (1991) has
analysed rhythmicised vocal communication strategies among construction site
workers. According to Bull (2007:7), owners of mobile music player use their
devices as a means of replacing the oppressive polyrhythms of everyday life with
a monorhythm of their own choice. Despite the non-deterministic nature of the
everyday soundscape, its inherent rhythmicity means that while its sounds are
neither controllable nor repeatable in the way that sounds in a concert hall
performance are, they are not entirely unpredictable either.
Since the rhythms of everyday life present themselves to the willing observer
largely as a sonic phenomenon, it is not surprising that Henri Lefebvre placed
listening at the very core of his concept of rhythmanalysis. According to him,
the rhythmanalyst, equipped with an attentive ear (Lefebvre 2004:27), is
capable of listening to a tea house, a street, a town as one listens to a symphony,
an opera (2004:87). He knows how to listen to a square, a market, an avenue
(2004:89) or to a house, a street, a town (2004:22).
[The rhythmanalyst] will listen to the world, and above all to what
are disdainfully called noises, which are said without meaning, and
to murmurs [...], full of meaningand nally he will listen to si-
lences. (Lefebvre 2004:19)
Several researchers and artists have become rhythmanalysts in the sense of

Lefebvre, although without explicitly referring to him. According to Augoyard
& Torgue (2006:154), the French sociologist Denis Muzet recorded the sound
of the Place Sainte-Catherine in Paris over the course of a year. The members
of the World Soundscape Project conducted twenty-four-hour eld recordings,
from which they extracted the same two minutes of every hour to derive a
compressed sonic representation of a day (Schafer 1994:231; Truax 2001:239).
Schafer (1994:238) proposed an appreciation of the soundscapes rhythms as one
of four principles of acoustic design. He (1994:233) and Truax (2001:182) also
conducted rhythmanalyses of radio programmes.
6.4.2 Everyday Rhythm and Sound Art

Ezra Pound (1951:198) refers to rhythm as form cut into time. Nancy
(2007:17) calls it the vibration of time itself. The rhythms of everyday life are
accessible to aesthetic perception and have in fact been reected on in various
artistic genres. The lms of Jacques Tati, for example, are essentially celebra-
tions of everyday rhythm. This is particularly evident in the sound design of his
lm Playtime (1967), which satirically reects on the modern urban soundscape
and its recurring elements. The rhythmicity of the everyday oers an aesthetic
perspective on time which extends beyond constructed narratives. Form does
not need to be constructed by a composer; it is already present in everyday
life wherever we lookor listen. This reinterpretation of form as something
which is primarily experienced by the listener rather than constructed by an
author perhaps distinguishes sound art from music (Campesato 2009:33). The
resulting musicalisation of everyday sound (Kahn 1999, 2006) largely relies
on the listeners willingness to perceive.11
Several sound artists have addressed the aesthetic perception of everyday rhythm
in their work. Pauline Oliveros (2005:55) Listening Questions ask the audience
to track a rhythmic pattern in their own life and write about it. Her project
Deep Listening through the Millennium from 1998 is concerned with becoming
aware of how ones listening changes over a three-year period (2005:33). Her
textual score Rhythms from 1996 addresses the listeners awareness of bodily
rhythms:
11
Although this is arguably the case in music as well, the strong social conventions by
which at least live performances of music are governed tend to shift the focus from the
listeners perception towards the social event. Sound art, as a relatively young artistic genre,
has the advantage of not (yet?) having developed such a strong set of social codes with
regards to its reception.
What is the meter/tempo of your normal walk?

How often do you blink?
What is the current tempo of your breathing?
What is the current tempo of your heart rate?
What other rhythms do you hear if you listen?
What is your relationship to all of the rhythms that you can
perceive at once? (Oliveros 2005:48)
Some of the eld recordings which form the rst act of Peter Ablingers Stad-
toper Graz from 2003 have been recorded according to rhythmical patterns
(Ablinger 2006b). They include recordings of the same ve minutes of every
hour over a twenty-four hour period, all made in the same location on the
Schloberg, a hill overlooking (and -listening) the city. A series of monthly
recordings, each at the same time of day, was made on a particular bench in
one of the citys parks over an entire year. Ablinger set up an environment for
the audience to listen to these recordings, providing minimal information about
their origin and timing, but refraining from any additional narration.
Lefebvre (2004:30) points out that the essential ingredient for rhythmanalysis
is time. In contemporary Western society, this is exactly the ingredient which
most of us seem to be lacking as we go about our everyday lives. Time
to observe, to listen, is more than ever a luxury which is primarily granted
to artists. In this respect, the sound artist functions as a rhythmanalyst as
portrayed by Lefebvre (2004:19). Sound art can provide a context for reecting
on the everyday itself. According to Lefebvre, the impact of this oering is not
to be underestimated, for the rhythmanalyst implicitly changes that which he
observes (2004:25). Solely through listening, the sound artist becomes part of
the quiet revolution which is hear!.
6.4.3 9/2/5 and 24/7

To conclude this section, I would like to discuss two examples from my own
artistic practice which are concerned with an auralisation of everyday rhythms.
As the title of my portable sound installation 9/2/5 (cf. appendix H) already
suggests, this work extends over the course of an entire day. Sound recorded by
binaural microphones is being processed by a portable computer and replayed
on headphones in real-time, thereby transforming the aural experience of a mo-
bile listener. The processing algorithm reacts to certain features extracted from
the recorded sound (amplitude, peak, pitch, etc.) and adopts itself according
to the current time of day. This awareness of the installation with regards to
time and the sound environment is used to reinforce the rhythmicity of a work-
day. As an example, one sound processing strategy which I have used in 9/2/5
somewhat resembles a church bell: The rst peak detected in the recorded
sound at the rst quarter of every hour triggers a decaying reverberation tail.
At the half hour, the rst two detected peaks are reverberated, and the rst
three peaks at three quarters of an hour. At the full hour, the number of
reverberated peaks corresponds to the current hour of the day; e.g. seven peaks
at 7 oclock. The listener can create additional long-term rhythms: By tapping
the binaural microphones according to a certain pattern, a sound recording is
started, and at the same time the playback of this recording scheduled at the
current minute of every hour for the rest of the day.
My sound installation 24/7 (cf. appendix G), which was installed in a Belfast
gallery in 2009, was also concerned with everyday rhythm. By continuously
recording sound in the gallery and then playing it back at various delays (1.9
seconds; 3 minutes; 2 hours; 3 days and 7 hours; 1 week) on dierent head-
phones in the same room, the dierences between day and night, weekdays
and weekends, closing and opening hours were made audible. The short-term
delay of 1.9 seconds was used by the audience to perform sound for themselves
or their friends. Some visitors of the installations opening returned a week
later to listen to their previous visit. Another visitor of the opening told me
that she only got the whole picture of her visit when, after two hours, she
heard (on the headphones) some of her friends discuss her whereabouts just
before she arrived at the gallery. Yet another visitor of the opening returned
some days later to recite poetry for later audiences. One evening in the empty
gallery, I accompanied my former self on the violin in the manner of Chinese
Whispers: First I tried to replay what I had been playing 1.9 seconds earlier,
then I attempted to replay that three minutes later, etc. I also recited dia-
logues which had occurred in the gallery between myself and others a week
earlier. Based on notes which I had taken, I could make predictions about
who would enter the gallery in the next minute of the recording (cf. portfolio,
24/7, documentation materials, audio documentation, track 2, Recited Visit).
During the setup phase of the installation, I once arrived at the gallery in the
morning and found a note by the curator. As I read it, I listened to a pair
of headphones where I could hear him arrive at the gallery two hours earlier
and write the very note which I was now reading. I remember the three weeks
of this installation as a period of enhanced personal awareness with regards to
the passing of time.
6.5 An Argument for Subtlety

In this chapter, I have argued that the development of sound art is intimately
linked to its concern with the everyday. This concern has originally manifested
itself in an interest in everyday sound material, but was later extended towards
a quest for everyday environments as a background for artistic production and
presentation. With the uncontrollable nature of the everyday soundscape comes
an artistic tendency to let everyday sounds speak for themselves rather than
enforce the will of a composer onto them. One can observe a tendency towards
a seamless, unexcited integration of sound art into the everyday lives of its
audiences. It is precisely by focusing on the aesthetic perception of sounds
which are already present in our everyday lives that sound art can stand out.
Peter Ablinger recommends an approach to sound art which is inspired by
architecture:
Most music performed in concert halls emphasises exclusively its

facade. It says: Look what I can do! Look how I am. It says:
Look! Good architecture, by contrast, says: Be! Ablinger (2004;
translation by the author)
Brian Eno (quoted in Licht 2009:6) argues that ambient music must be as
ignorable as it is interesting. Max Neuhaus deliberately designs his pieces
at the threshold of perception, allowing people to nd them (1994c:2) while
they should be able to be ignored (2006:9). The possibility of his work being
missed by its potential audience becomes an explicit part of his aesthetic, such
as in the untitled installation at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art:
A beautiful thing about the piece [...] is that, although its sounds
are huge and loud, because of the plausibility of these sounds, many
people still after fourteen years deny it exists. (Neuhaus 1994d:2)
In Neuhaus artistic practice, both the work and its author retreat in favour
of letting the listener discover an experience for herself. His 1977 installation
Times Square in New York City was conceived anonymously, and his Drive In
Music from 1967 was merely announced in a newspaper (Neuhaus 1994b). He
points out some pragmatic advantages of his non-intrusive approach:
[My] pieces dont stimulate a negative reaction. There arent people

who are outraged by them. Those who would be [...] never notice
them. (Neuhaus 1994b:4)
Neuhaus approach can be interpreted as an artistic antidote to the increasing

carelessness which is demonstrated towards public acoustic environments. In
a society which has made noise ubiquitous, artistic charm can spring exactly
from not jumping into peoples ears.
If we expect sound art merely to give, or to invade, just like the dig-
ger or the bass drum, then we miss the other side. (Toop 2007:112)
Subtlety as an artistic strategy for sound art in everyday environments demands

longer periods of time than those which audiences are used to from the concert
hall. But it also guides auditory attention away from immediate sensation
towards more lasting eects on perception.
Sound art challenges [traditional musics] conguration, often work-

ing on longer cycles of time, and more open structures. The absorp-
tion of what is going on may be slower, and so this can lead to an
appreciation, or a glimpse, at least, of a slower life in which sensory
impressions and the fullness of the environment are allowed to oc-
cupy new and more signicant spaces in otherwise crowded, rushed
lives. (Toop 2007:114)
Just like a great music concert changes our listening beyond the actual concert
hall visit, the impact of sound art can outlast its immediate experience (Kato
2003), challeng[ing] listeners to continue listening long after they have left a
work behind (Chapman 2009:88).
The Sony Walkman has done more to change human perception
than any virtual reality gadget.
William Gibson (quoted in Bull 2001:180)
Mobile Listening
7
In this thesis I have discussed two recent developments in our aural culture: In
the last chapter I have shown how sound art interprets everyday environments
in terms of an aestheticisation of aural perception. In section 2.3, I have ar-
gued that aestheticised listening is increasingly technologically mediated and I
have identied the mobilisation and individuation of aural experience as two
key aspects of this development. It is worthwhile to investigate the role of
mobility and sociality with regards to the technological mediation of everyday
aural experience in detail. This is the purpose of the following two chapters.
The present chapter will focus on mobility, whereas chapter 8 will be concerned
with the sociality of aestheticised listening.
Five years after the introduction of the Walkman, Hosokawa dened musica
mobilis as
[...] music whose source voluntarily or involuntarily moves from one

point to another, coordinated by the corporal transportation of the
source owner(s). (Hosokawa 1984:166)
The busker, the marching band and the minstrel serve as ancient examples of
mobile musicians. But the true era of mobile music started with the personal
music player, rst introduced in form of the Sony Walkman, which aligned the
movement of music and its audience and encapsulated mobile listening into
130
CHAPTER 7. MOBILE LISTENING 131
an individualised experience. Hosokawa (1984:167f) interpreted the Walkman

as the historical end point in the development of musica mobilis. As I will
show in this chapter, this has turned out not to be the case, and sound art in
particular continues to create fundamentally novel experiences which integrate
mobility and aural perception in yet tighter ways. Behrendt (2005) argues that
the artistic application of mobile technologies will result in a shift as signicant
as the one from concert performances to installation art.
In section 5.3.1, I have distinguished four dierent types of mobile listening

experience. Of these, soundwalking requires no technology besides an ability to
walk and listen. Field recording requires equipment to capture sound, but is still
very much concerned with the immediate listening experience. In this chapter,
I will investigate two more mobile experiences, which explicitly address the
technological mediation of aural perception. Mobile music players serve as the
the starting rather than the end point in this discussion (cf. section 7.1). Audio
walks represent a young genre of sound art, which further extends concepts
of mobile listening and will be discussed in section 7.2. Audio walks can be
regarded as a subset of mobile music, which Gaye et al. (2006) dene as a
new eld concerned with musical interaction in mobile settings, using portable
technology. With its explicit focus on technology, this denition represents a
reduction of Hosokawas more generic musica mobilis. But at the same time, it
accounts for recent developments which Hosokawa had not foreseen in 1984.
7.1 Mobile Music Players

The history of mobile music players does not actually start with the Sony
Walkman. The introduction of jukeboxes at the turn of the twentieth cen-
tury rst allowed listeners to enjoy music on the go (Bull 2007:91). Later,
portable crystal radios became the rst personal mobile listening devices. By
1941, thirty percent of US cars were equipped with a radio (Butsch 2000:206),
and the car became an increasingly popular listening environment (cf. Bull
2004b, 2007:87). With the invention of the transistor in 1947, the mobilisa-
tion of technologically mediated listening accelerated, and concurrently sound
redened public space (Douglas 2004:221). This manifested itself in the de-
velopment of portable radios and sound systems like the ghetto blaster or the
boom box (ODwyer 2009:63). The golden age of mobile listening, however,
started when the mobile music player became a device which was not only
portable, but also personalised.
7.1.1 The Mobile Music Player: a Personalised Device

In 1972, Andreas Pavel assembled his stereobelt, which is generally acknowl-
edged as the rst prototype of a headphone-based mobile tape player. Levy
(2006:203) provides an excellent account of the stereobelts history and of
Pavels initial reaction to the enhanced aural experience which it aorded him.
Although Pavel patented his idea in 1977 (du Gay et al. 1997:42) and tried to
license it to various companies (Levy 2006:204), the stereobelt never became a
commercial success. The personal mobile music player was instead popularised
by the Sony Walkman. The complexity of myths surrounding the Walkmans
invention is somewhat untangled by du Gay et al. (1997:42,51). They portray
the product as the common creation of several individuals within the Sony
corporation rather than as a single stroke of genius, such as in the legend of
Sonys founder Akio Morita inventing the device while walking the streets of
New York (Chambers 1994:49). The original Sony Walkman, the model TPS-
L2, was released in Japan in 1979 (du Gay et al. 1997:8).1 The follow-up
model, the WM-2 introduced in February 1981, was smaller, lighter, required
fewer parts and became the classic Walkman, with more than 2.5 million units
sold worldwide (du Gay et al. 1997:64). The lawsuit which Andreas Pavel later
initiated against Sony (du Gay et al. 1997:42; Levy 2006:204f) could not hinder
the Walkmans global success. Together with the portable computer, the mobile
phone and the credit card, it became an indispensable part of contemporary
nomadism (Chambers 1994:50).
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw only minor adaptations to the original
Walkman concept. The range of storage media was extended from analog tape
to optical digital media (CD and MiniDisc). It was the introduction of digital
players based on ash memory in the late 1990s which further mobilised and
personalised music listening. Oering ever-increasing storage capacities, these
new devices eliminated the need to carry around external storage media. Bull
notes that their owners therefore do not tend to switch them o due to a
lack of suitable music (2007:127f), something which was still common among
Walkman listeners (2001:185f). While the Walkman was typically played during
transition periods, while moving from one location to another, recent mobile
music players are being used continuously throughout the day (2007:128). An-
other recent development is the merging of the portable music player and the
mobile phone2 into a new class of device.
1
Other sources (Hosokawa 1984; Chambers 1994) date the Japan launch of the Walkman
to the spring of 1980.
2
An in-depth discussion of the mobile phone as a mobile (and social) listening technology
Compared to earlier technologies, the personal mobile music player has fur-
ther privatised both listening (through headphones rather than loudspeakers)
as well as what is being listened to (personal music collections rather than
public broadcasts). It has enabled new modes of urban experience (Thibaud
2004:330) and has become an integral part of everyday aural perception. It
is certainly no coincidence that all four individuals shown on the front page of
DeNoras book Music in Everyday Life (2000) are wearing earphones, which are
presumably all connected to portable music players. The personal mobile music
player represents the provisional peak in the mobilisation and individuation of
technologically mediated listening which I have described in section 2.3.
7.1.2 Headphone Listening

It can be argued that headphones have contributed more to the individua-
tion of mediated aural perception than any other single factor. The fact that
the Walkman succeeded in spite of being a technologically simpler object than
the portable stereo (Hosokawa 1984:168) is arguably due to the popularisation
of headphone listening which it initiated. Considering that the vast majority
of mobile music listening experiences is today being mediated through head-
phones, it is surprising how little attention has been attributed to the fact
that headphone listening creates a unique acoustic experience [...], unlike any-
thing else in the history of listening (Stankievech 2007:55f). Even in sound
art, the role of headphones is often reduced to that of a cheap alternative to
multichannel loudspeaker systems or to a means of providing privacy and noise
control (Stankievech 2007:57).3 But headphones provide a distinct quality of
aural experience.4 They reveal previously unnoticed details in pieces of music
familiar from loudspeaker playback. Audio engineers deliberately monitor sound
through headphones for tasks which require detection of minute details. Sounds
which are listened to on headphones often seem to originate from within the
listeners head rather than from the outside world. Maybe this is the reason
why headphone listeners often liken their experience to a concert in their own
head (Schnhammer 1989) and feel that they can almost become one with
the music (Rudman 2006:2).5 Kato (2003) argues that headphone listening
goes beyond the scope of this thesis. Attempts in this direction have been made by Plant
(2001) and Bassett (2004).
3
By contrast, Stankievech (2007) discusses some works of sound art which are explicitly
designed for headphones, like Ryoji Ikedas C7::Continuum and Bernhard Leitners Kopfrume
(headscapes).
4
Wightman & Kistler (1989a,b) describe some characteristics of headphone listening from
a viewpoint of hearing science.
5
For situations where such an in-head localisation is not desirable, Hartmann & Witten-
berg (1996) have evaluated psychoacoustic criteria for a successful externalisation of sound
represents a link between internal and external auditory experience. Similar

opinions have been voiced by other authors:
The dierence between contained and container [in headphone lis-

tening] dissolves (Stankievech 2007:59)
[T]he Walkman creates a space providing both the inner and the
outer world with a pivot overriding both physical as well as psycho-
logical spatial structures. (Thomsen et al. 1990:58)
Headphone listening directs the listener toward a new integrity with

himself. (Schafer 1994:119)
Sterne (2003:158) understands the headsetthe precursor to both, modern

loudspeakers and headphones6 as the primary symbol of the increasing in-
dividuation of technologically mediated listening. He argues that it symbolises
an extension, modication, and renement of one hundred years worth of
techniques of listening (2003:174). These techniques had been developed along
with the stethoscope and hearing tubes (2003:162). By the early 1920s, head-
phones were socially accepted even in the most intimate situations (2003:173),
although not necessarily in the most public, as I will show in section 8.2. Much
of the debate which accompanied the personal mobile music player during the
last thirty yearsand at least three of the eleven functions of portable music
which Williams (2007) identies (environmental control, boundary demarca-
tion and interpersonal mediation)can be attributed to the private listening
space created by headphones. Headphones constitute the main reason why
the personal mobile music player represents the provisional peak regarding the
mobilisation and individuation of technologically mediated listening.
7.2 Audio Walks

Schtzlein (2001; translation by the author) refers to the Walkman as a per-
ception machine, and Chambers (1994:49) argues that its meaning lies in the
extension of perceptive potential. But do mobile music players as we know
them fully exploit this potential? Owners of personal mobile music players
sometimes wonder whether they are missing out on the real world around
images presented on headphones.
6
The rst electroacoustic loudspeaker dates back to around 1921, whereas headsets
were already used earlier (Thompson 2004:239). The invention of stereo headphones in their
modern form is usually attributed to John C. Koss and Martin Lange, Jr., who demonstrated
the SP-3 Stereophone in 1958 (Stankievech 2007:57).
them (Bull 2007:29). Various sound artists have addressed this desire to re-
connect technologically mediated listening to the environment within which it
occurs. In their works, mobility becomes an integral part of the listening ex-
perience rather than a mere by-product of a hectic lifestyle. The term audio
walk (Cardi et al. 2006) adequately describes the listening experience created
by these works. As opposed to a soundwalk, an audio walk relies on technology
as a mediator (cf. section 5.3.1). In this section I will discuss dierent artistic
strategies for the creation of audio walks.
7.2.1 Location and Context

From a technical perspective, the creation of technologically mediated listening
experiences which are specic to their environment has recently been facilitated
by the integration of data retrieved through the Global Positioning System
(GPS) with digital sound processing and synthesis algorithms. This strategy
has been employed in various audio walks, such as later versions of Symons
project Aura, in which sounds are synthesised in real-time based on the users
location and viewing direction (Symons n.d.). Concepts for linking the pre-
sentation of digital audio, video and images to the geospatial location of the
perceiver have been summarised under the term locative media. Tuters & Var-
nelis (2006) provide a history of locative media, and the Headmap Manifesto
by Ben Russell (1999) is often considered an important text in the eld. How-
ever, linking media to specic locations does not guarantee that the perceiver
will experience a compelling relation between the two. Quite contrary, the
use of location as the sole descriptor of an environment has been criticised for
demonstrating a neutralising, egalitarian quality (McCullough 2006:27). Tuters
& Varnelis (2006) note that locative media have faced critique of enslaving us
to a new Cartesianism. With the realisation that the linking of location and
media alone does not necessarily create a situated experience, the concept of
location was widened towards the more generic metaphor of context (Galloway
& Ward 2006).7 Some designers have attempted to capture the context of a
7
It is worth noting that the context metaphor had been developed in the eld of computer
science years before the term locative media was even coined. The concept of context-
awareness was rst formulated by Schilit et al. (1994) and its relevance echoed by Abowd
(1999) and Satyanarayanan (2001). Research in this area rst focused on location as well, but
the limitations of this metaphor were soon realised (Schmidt et al. 1999b; Abowd & Mynatt
2000:36). Rogers (2006) and Chalmers et al. (2006) note that the true challenge of context-
aware computing lies in an understanding and representation of human activities. Abowd
& Mynatt (2000), Abowd et al. (2002) and McCullough (2006) have attempted denitions
of context, Pascoe (1998) of context-awareness and Dey & Abowd (1999), Dey (2001) and
Schmidt et al. (1999a) of both. Models for the representation of context in computing
environments have been proposed in the latter four publications as well as by Schilit et al.
(1994) and Schmidt et al. (1999b). Interestingly, Smith et al. (2006) have suggested to use
listener by throwing yet more technology at the problem. One of the earliest,
most widely published and best reected projects is Sonic City (Gaye et al.
2003; Lern 2003; Maz & Gaye 2003; Maz & Jacobs 2003; Gaye & Holmquist
2004a,b, 2006), in which a microphone, a light intensity sensor, a metal detec-
tor, a linear proximity IR-sensor, a press-button, and an accelerometer collect
data to create a personalised soundtrack in real-time. Tanaka (2004a,b) devel-
oped Malleable Mobile Music, a server-client application in which the handling
of the mobile phone itself shapes the generated media, using data from force-
sensing resistors and accelerometers to measure grip pressure and 3D motion.
The relevance of these projects is not always easy to evaluate, especially if

there is no possibility of experiencing them rst-hand. The publications in
which they are presented often limit themselves to technological discussions,
without much critical reection in terms of perceptual or aesthetic impact.
In my opinion, the mapping of sensor datano matter whether it is of a
geospatial or other natureto sound processing parameters does not guarantee
a transparent relation between the listening experience and the environment
within which it occurs. The integration of site and sound cannot be achieved
through technology itself; it is an artistic rather than a technical problem.
7.2.2 Situating Listening through Narrative

One artistic strategy for situating a technologically mediated listening expe-
rience is to inform the listener about the environment by means of sound.
Since the invention of the audio guide in 1957 (Fisher 2004:50), many museums
and galleries have adopted handheld devices as a means of educating the visitor
about their exhibits, and several artists have reinterpreted the format in a more
poetic manner. Through the creation of site-specic narratives, audio walks can
tell the invisible stories of places and address their collective memory. The
project 34n 118w (Hight 2003) tells a story about the listeners location which
is derived from a mixture of preproduced content and environmental data re-
trieved online in real-time. In Location33 (Carter 2005; Carter & Liu 2005),
three imaginary characters create a narrative about a specic area in Culver
City, California. The audio walk Peninsula Voices (plan b 2006) is based on the
spoken memories and associations of people regarding the site in London where
it was shown. Craving (Garnicnig & Haider 2007) resembles a site-specic radio
drama. David Drury (2008) documented the interface area between protestant
the acoustic environment as an indicator for both social and physical context. Want et al.
(1992), Dey & Abowd (1999) and Schmidt (2002) list examples of context-aware computing
environments.
and catholic communities in West Belfast by means of sound recordings, which

he then mapped onto a dierent part of the city for his sound installation Peace
Lines. Teri Ruebs site-specic installation Drift from 2004 is experienced at
the shore of the Watten Sea (Rueb n.d.). Her 1999 installation Trace was
designed for the hiking trails in Yoho National Park, British Columbia:
Walking through the installation is like wandering through a memo-

rial sculpture garden where, instead of visible monuments, visitors
weave their way through memorial poems, songs and stories that
play in response to their movement through the landscape. (Rueb
1999)
The audio walks of Janet Cardi (Cardi et al. 2006), which she partly pro-
duces in collaboration with George Bures Miller, are often considered master
pieces of site-specic narrative. Instead of tracking the users location by means
of technology, the integration of location and sound in these works is simply
achieved by instructing the listener to play a certain track on a mobile music
player in a specic location. This reduces the required technology to a mini-
mum, which makes for less distractions and certainly contributes to the impact
of Cardis walks.
7.2.3 Situating Listening through Sounds from the En-

vironment
In other works it is the everyday soundscape itself which provides a person-
alised context for the integration of listening and location. By its very nature,
sound oers itself for this purpose. Angus Leech (2006) points out analogies
between getting to know a place and getting to know a soundboth eectively
listening processes which require time and engagement. In Janet Cardis au-
dio walks, studio-recordings of narrating voices are overlaid with binaural eld
recordings from the respective location, thereby contrast[ing] the dierence
between in-head acoustic imaging and exterior [...] soundelds (Stankievech
2007:58). Presumably to achieve the same eect, Teri Rueb (1999) lets the au-
dience listen to her audio walk Trace at low volumes through open headphones,
by which she minimises the acoustic insulation to the outside world.
My own Interroutes series of site-specic electroacoustic miniatures (cf. ap-

pendix E) works in a similar fashion: Short recordings from the target en-
vironment are played between extended periods of silence, during which the
everyday soundscape can be heard almost undisturbedly through the earphones
of a standard portable music player. The pieces aim at making technologically

mediated and immediate listening indistinguishable altogether. This creates the
paradoxical situation that the success of these pieces can be measured by the
degree to which the sounds in them are not being heard as part of them. To
achieve this level of confusion, I developed techniques such as the following
variation of the Neuhaus fade (cf. section 5.2.5): A sound is introduced at a
low volume just before the sudden disappearance of a louder, masking sound.
When the louder sound suddenly stops, this clearly reveals it as electronically
produced. At the same time, however, the listener will more likely accept
the remaining softer sound as part of the natural soundscape (cf. portfolio,
Interroutes, performance materials, From SARC to the Peter Froggatt Centre,
532554).
7.2.4 Auralising the Inaudible

Another strategy for embedding a mobile listening experience into its context
by means of technology is to translate an otherwise inaudible phenomenon to
sound. Again, sensors are being used to extract information from the environ-
ment, but this time with the purpose of making this data audible as such. In
Toshio Iwais Sound Lens from 2001 (Anonymous 2006; Vawter 2006:54) and
Morgan Barnards Connect from 2004 (Barnard 2005) portable devices pick
up light from the environment and convert the resulting voltages to sound,
which is listened to through headphones. A similar approach was taken in the
project ask02 by Yui Miki, Felix Hahn and Ralf Schreiber from 2000, except
that in their case the sound was played through loudspeakers integrated into a
wearable interface (Kato 2003).
An auralisation not of light, but of electromagnetic waves beyond the visi-

ble spectrum has been conducted by Usman Haque in his project Sky Ear
(Behrendt 2005). Christina Kubisch has also become well-known for auralis-
ing electromagnetic phenomena (Cox & Kubisch 2006; Kubisch 2007). Since
the 1970s, she has produced both indoor and outdoor installations in which
listeners equipped with custom-built headphones extended by magnetic coils
can listen to electromagnetic elds by means of induction. In her earlier works,
Kubisch created these elds herself by feeding sound signals through long wires.
However, the increasing ubiquity of electrical devices in the 1980s and 1990s
meant that the electromagnetic elds which they invariably generate started
to interfere with Kubischs sound material. After a period of trying to sup-
press the sounds induced by these devices, Kubisch turned them into the actual
sound material of her Electrical Walks in 2003 (Cox & Kubisch 2006). Their
musicality is often striking (cf. Kubisch 2006).
The beauty of Kubischs walks lies in the fact that the phenomenon which they
auralise is not only inaudible but also invisible. While the translation of light
to sound merely creates a subtext to our visual perception, the Electrical Walks
provide a window into a world which is otherwise completely inaccessible to us.8
They truly connect the listener with the environment in a way that can not be
easily achieved without technology. This represents an example of self-education
through art as a creative act, where the artist provides a tool for the audience
to educate themselves, by which the audience then completes the creative act
(Kato 2003). Conceptually, this represents a clear step beyond the synthesis
of a soundtrack some parameters of which are controlled by environmental or
geospatial data.
7.2.5 Transforming the Audible

Another form of audio walk is not concerned with translating an inaudible
phenomenon to sound, but with transforming sound itselfand thereby the
auditory impression of a mobile listenerin real-time. The setup with which
this is achieved consists of a pair of headphones and a microphone and often
includes a portable computer for digital signal processing. Sound from the
microphone is continuously recorded, processed by the computer and played
back on the headphones. Audio walks working according to this principle
appeared only a bit more than a decade ago. They alter the listeners auditory
experience on-the-y, which, as I will show, can have quite drastic eects. The
sound processing techniques used, and the degree to which sounds are being
altered, vary from project to project.
Akitsugu Maebayashis Sonic Interface
Akitsugu Maebayashis Sonic Interface from 1999 probably represents the ear-
liest example of a sound art project which is concerned with a real-time trans-
formation of everyday aural experience. According to Katos (2003) description
of the project, the hardware consisted of a laptop computer in a backpack,
with headphones and microphones connected to it. The computer ran a pro-
gramme that featured three dierent presets through which the listener stepped
8
Kubisch notes, however, that the visual dimension and its re-contextualisation through
the alternative soundtrack created by the Electrical Walks does play an important role
especially in outdoor versions of the installation (Kubisch 2007:71).
in consecutive order. In the rst preset, sound recorded from the microphones
was increasingly delayed before being played back on the headphones. In the
second preset, the recorded sound was cut up and the slices remixed in a non-
chronological order. In the third preset, recorded junks of sound were gradually
piled on top of each other.
For safety reasons, listeners trying the system were escorted by a guide. One
listener reported a thin sense of reality, like being a participant of a game in
virtual reality space (Kato 2003). This listener also described an impression
of body and ears having separated. One of the guides described how many
listeners turned inwards and did very strange acts because they were absorbed
in their sound world (Kato 2003). Other participants were more externally
oriented and displayed playful behaviour, such as actively seeking sound sources
to hear what the interface would do to them, or creating sounds themselves by
singing or clapping.
Florian Muellers and Matthew Karaus Transparent Hearing
As part of an interaction design study at MIT Media Lab Europe, Mueller

& Karau (2002) built a system consisting of a pair of binaural microphones
mounted on top of a pair of headphones, a microphone amplier and various
sensors. Noise-cancellation headphones were used to minimise the bleeding of
external sounds through the earcups. A laptop computer was responsible for
the sound processing (Mueller 2009). This rendered the setup not very mobile,
but the project was primarily intended as a design study rather than for use in
an everyday context.
Mueller & Karau (2002) used their prototype to propose and test several sce-
narios with regards to the real-time transformation of everyday listening. In
the rst setup, people in the listeners proximity were detected by a distance
sensor mounted on top of the headphones.9 On detection of a person, the
device switched from music playback to the sound from the microphone input,
allowing the user to hear the other person speak. A green and a red LED
on top of the headphones signied to bystanders whether or not the listener
was currently available for conversation. Mueller & Karau also used their de-
vice as a pseudophone, which allowed the listener to hear on the left ear those
sounds which normally arrive at the right ear and vice versa. This technique
will be discussed in more detail in section 7.3.2. In another application, two
9
The authors do not comment on the problem of how to distinguish people from other
objects by means of a distance sensor.
sets of the device were used and their microphones and headphones connected
in a crosswise fashion, so that each of the two listeners received the sound
from the other listeners microphones. They coupled this setup with wireless
infrared transceivers in order to evaluate when the listeners were looking into
each others directions. The authors proposed the use of such a setup in sit-
uations where two people want to lead a conversation across a crowded, noisy
room.
Peter Ablingers Weiss/weisslich 36
Mueller & Karau (2002:730) claim that in transparent mode, i.e. when the
sound from the microphones is merely amplied but not otherwise processed,
the auditory impression of their system is as if you are not wearing headphones
at all. While this claim might hold conceptually for engineering purposes, it is
certainly not correct from a phenomenological viewpoint. An aural experience
mediated through even a neutral microphone-headphone chain is very dierent
from immediate everyday listening. This dierence constitutes Peter Ablingers
piece Weiss/weisslich 36 from 1999. Of all the works presented in this sec-
tion, this is the conceptually simplest, but perhaps also the artistically most
profound. Its setup consists again of a pair of headphones with a microphone
attached to each of its two earcups.10 In Ablingers piece, however, no portable
computer additionally transforms the recorded sound. As the listener explores
the environment, the sound recorded by the microphones is immediately played
back by the headphones. All processing is limited to the amplication of the
microphone signals, whose level the listener can adjust with a volume knob.
Although in this piece we are just listening to what we would otherwise hear
as well, there is an audible dierence, which itself is the piece (Ablinger
2008c:71).
Everything is wrong [when listening through the microphone-headphone

chain of Ablingers piece]: the scraping of ones own shoes, hitherto
unnoticed, becomes unbearably loud; and what that interesting per-
son over there is saying just now is utterly incomprehensible because
dozens of voices suddenly have approximately the same volume.
(Scheib 2008:110)
This blurred distinction between auditory foreground and background can even
be observed when listening to sound recordings after the fact:
10
The latest version of the hardware for Weiss/weisslich 36 was designed by Winfried
Ritsch and built by Reinhold Schinwald at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics
in Graz, Austria.
I go to the auditorium, and, without apparent eort, I hear the

speaker while I barely notice the scuing of feet, the coughing, the
scraping noises. My tape recorder, not having the same intentional-
ity as I, records all these auditory stimuli without distinction, and
so when I return to it to hear the speech re-presented I nd I cannot
even hear the words due to the presence of what for me had been
fringe phenomena. (Ihde 1976:74)
When listening through a microphone-headphone chain, we are listening to

technology itself and experience a feeling of being removed from our environ-
ment. Ablingers piece represents an excellent environment for investigating
these dierences between immediate and mediated listening. As in other of his
works (cf. section 5.2.3), Ablinger turns our hearing into a listening by changing
the conditions under which it operates.
Noah Vawters Ambient Addition
A hardware setup similar to the ones used in the above projects provides
the base for Noah Vawters Ambient Addition (2006). Again, binaural micro-
phones are mounted on top of a pair of headphones, and both are connected
to a portable computing device. The latter was miniaturised by basing it on a
VicCORE-OEM53x developing board rather than a laptop computer (2006:65f).
An old pair of headphones was adopted and its earcups made visually trans-
parent. The visibility of the ears is supposed to suggest the listeners aural
connection with the environment to bystanders (2006:69f). The sound picked
up by the microphones was transformed by means of a phase vocoder, which
detects and amplies pitched sounds in the environment. Rhythm was gener-
ated by letting an attack detector trigger the recording of small junks of sound,
which are then replayed by a preprogrammed sequencer. The software was
implemented by means of standard FFT routines for the Blackn processor of
the embedded device (2006:81).
Vawter proposes his device as a means of transforming everyday soundscapes

into more musical form (2006:22). His strategy for doing so is characterised by
traditional conceptions of melody, harmony and rhythm. It contrasts Ablingers
approach of letting everyday sounds speak for themselves and leaving their
musicalisation up to the listeners perception. Vawter sees his project also as a
means of overcoming the social isolation of mobile music listeners (2006:22). He
conducted a user study which according to himself suggested that the wearing
of the device encourages an increased engagement with ones environment. The
question remains whether this engagement would persist beyond the thirty
minutes which the subjects in his study were granted with the device. With
regards to social aspects it would also be interesting to evaluate the experience
from the viewpoint of bystanders.
Duncan Speakmans Sounds from Above the Ground
For his project Sounds from Above the Ground from 2006/07, Duncan Speakman
designed a series of audio walks which he describes as follows:
In the performance the audience are given stereo wireless receivers

and follow me through the city streets. I have a microphone on my
chest and my backpack contains a laptop computer and stereo UHF
audio transmitter. As we walk the audience listens through my ears
as I speak memories and place marks in the city, while the laptop
processes and remixes the surrounding ambience. (Speakman 2007)
The audio processing software was originally implemented in Max/MSP (Cy-

cling 74 2009) and controlled through Bluetooth over a mobile phone. In a
more recent version of the system, the laptop computer was replaced by a design
based on a gumstix developing board (Gumstix 2010), and the audio processing
software was written in Pure Data (Puckette 1996). The audio transmitter was
powered by a motorcycle battery, and the audience wore their receivers on a
beltpack (Speakman 2009). Sounds from Above the Ground is of artistic interest
in so far as it combines real-time transformations of environmental sounds with
narrative elements such as those known from Janet Cardis work. The the-
atrical character of Speakmans narration, which he performs live, distinguishes
his approach from those of other artists.
The RjDj Application
RjDj represents the rst commercial project which makes music out of the
world around us (RjDj 2008f). At the time of writing, it is available as a soft-
ware application for two popular mobile devices by Apple Inc. Ports to other
hardware platforms are planned. RjDj represents not a specic artwork but
a generic platform for the creation of audio walks. Using a specially adapted
version of the Pure Data programming language, artists from around the world
contribute new scenes, in which data recorded from the devices built-in sen-
sors (e.g. microphone, accelerometer) can be used to synthesise a real-time
soundtrack. These scenes are distributed to the audience through various chan-
nels. An online library, which only registered users have access to, provides
a selection of them free of charge. Some scenes are also sold as standalone
software applications through Apples online software store. Audio recordings
of specic scenes in action are also made accessible as teasers on the RjDj
website.
RjDj is, however, neither limited to the real-time processing of recorded sound
nor to the concept of the audio walk itself. Roman Haefelis amenshake scene
(RjDj 2008b) uses only data from the phones built-in accelerometer. Georg
Holzmanns Pingpong (RjDj 2008e) is an auditory computer game. In Frank
Barknechts Gridwalker (RjDj 2008d), a synthesised soundtracks activity varies
with the sound level of the environment. Scenes that are concerned with
recording, transforming and replaying the live input from a microphone are Ro-
man Haefelis WorldQuantizer (RjDj 2008g), Damian Stewarts Eargasm (RjDj
2008c) and Drowning Streets by Kids on DSP (RjDj 2009a).
RjDjs creators Michael Breidenbrcker and Stefan Glnzer propose their plat-
form as the rst exponent of a new genre which they term reactive music
(RjDj 2008f). They claim that their application has had 280,000 users as of
November 2009 and creates a new market in the music business (RjDj 2009b).
No matter whether this will actually turn out to be the case, RjDj indicates
that audio walks are turning from a niche genre of sound art into a format
which enjoys a wider popularity.
Music for Lovers
In my wearable sound installation Music for Lovers (cf. appendix F), two sets
of binaural microphones are attached to the earcups of two pairs of headphones.
The microphones and headphones are connected in a cross-wise fashion, allowing
the rst listener to hear the world from the second listeners aural perspective
and vice versa (cf. gure 7.1). This setup resembles one which Mueller & Karau
have used in their Transparent Hearing project, which I have discussed earlier.
But whereas they envisioned their system as a device for communicating in
situations where this might otherwise be impossible or aggravated, Music for
Lovers interprets sound technology as a means of transcending the personal
aural perspective experienced through ones own body. As in Peter Ablingers
Weiss/weisslich 36, which I also have discussed earlier, no sound processing
occurs besides an amplication of the microphone signals. But as opposed to
Ablingers piece, Music for Lovers is not primarily concerned with the dier-
ence between immediate and mediated listening. It merely needs to accept the
peculiarities of technologically mediated listening in order to achieve its goal of
Figure 7.1: The technical setup of Music for Lovers.
letting two listeners swap ears.
The reinterpretation of sound technology as a means not of telecommunication,

but of putting oneself into someone elses aural shoes seems to work best
when two listeners nd themselves in a shared physical space, where verbal
communication would be possible also in the absence of any technology. To
experience the dierences between their own and their partners perspective, it
is important for the two listeners to dynamically change their spatial relation
to each other. For these reasons Music for Lovers was designed to be portable,
but not wireless. The two listeners are connected through the cables of their
headphones. When the installation was rst exhibited at a technologically
oriented conference on electronic art, virtually all visitors who tried it suggested
to build a wireless version. In fact, the very rst prototype streamed audio
among two laptop computers over an ad-hoc wireless network. When I tested
this prototype with Robert Damphousse, who I developed it with at the Ban
New Media Institute, we noticed that whenever we lost sight of each other,
we immediately started using our system as a communication device rather
than focusing on its eect on our perception. Basically we had reinvented the
mobile phone, except that the latency of our prototype would be considered
intolerable in a phone conversation. However, the point of Music for Lovers is
not to enable verbal communication (although this can and usually is part of
the experience) but to adopt another persons view on the world. Listeners
who tried the installation discovered the eects of abruptly turning their heads,
immersing themselves in a dierent acoustic environment than their partner
(e.g. indoors vs. outdoors), covering their ears (and hence microphones) with
their hands, etc. The social interactions which the installation initiated as part
of this process are described in section 8.4.1.
9/2/5
As opposed to Music for Lovers, my audio walk 9/2/5 (cf. appendix H) is

designed for a solo listener whose aural experience is extensively transformed
by means of digital sound processing techniquessimilar to Noah Vawters
Ambient Addition. As in that project, the technical setup consists of a pair of
binaural microphones mounted on the earcups of a pair of headphones and a
portable computer which processes the recorded sound in real-time (cf. portfolio,
Music for Lovers, performance materials, technical diagram). The processing
techniques include delays, echoes, the recording and later playback of sounds,
reverb, lters and operations on the stereo balance of the binaural input signal.
The sound processing algorithm is not static and adopts itself according to four
dierent factors:
The input signal is analysed in order to extract features from the acoustic
environment. Besides a simple envelope follower, a peak and a pitch
detector, the overall busyness of the sound environment is determined
by observing short-term level changes. Transitions from one acoustic
environment to anothera situation which Augoyard & Torgue (2006:29)
refer to as a cut out (cf. section 4.5)are discovered by tracking the
average sound pressure level over longer periods of time. This indicates
occasions such as when the listener walks from a quiet room onto a busy
street. All features detected in the input signal are then used to control
its transformation. The detection of a peak, for example, might trigger
a series of echoes, or a dominant pitch in the environment might control
the centre frequency of a lter.
The current daytime is retrieved from the computers system clock. As the
title of 9/2/5 suggests, the work extends over the course of an entire
day, i.e. its sound processing algorithm changes according to twenty-four-
hour cycles. This distinguishes the piece from all other projects discussed
in this section. A scheduler determines periods during which certain
sound processing units become active. For example, the reverberation
of the input signal can be scheduled to gradually increase from zero to

its maximum value between 3 and 4 p.m. Another strategy is to dene
periods during which certain features extracted from the input signal
control specic sound processing parameters. For instance, a change from
a soft to a loud acoustic environment might result in the left and right
channels being swapped, but only between 11:23 and 11:27 a.m.
User interaction is achieved by tapping the binaural microphones accord-

ing to three-element patterns (left-left-right, right-left-right, etc.); an idea
originally suggested by Pedro Rebelo. A peak detector recognises these
events and triggers according actions. Misinterpretations of percussive
events which occur naturally in the environment are avoided by setting
the threshold for the detector to a very high level and ignoring all peaks
which occur almost simultaneously on both input channels. This method
is quite reliable as long as there are no strong gusts of wind. The param-
eters which are controlled by the user include the master volume level,
the recording of junks of sound for later playback and the playback of
preprogrammed scenes (see below).
Preprogrammed scenes are text-le scores which describe xed temporal de-
velopments of certain sound processing parameters; typically for a period
of one to three minutes. They are triggered by the user whenever de-
sired; for example because the current state of the processing algorithm
is considered to not be exciting enough.
A major part of the development was devoted to the question which of these
four entities should control which sound processing parameters. Certain param-
eters lend themselves to specic entities. For example, letting the user herself
trigger recordings of short junks of sound ensures that these will be recognised
when they are played back at a later stage. But the major design challenge was
given by the fact that events triggered by the scheduler or by a preprogrammed
scene are deterministic, whereas the input signal and intervention by the user
can in no way be predicted. Situations needed to be avoided in which dierent
entities try to simultaneously control the same parameter. It was decided, for
instance, that for the duration of a preprogrammed scene, the scheduler and
the feature extractor should have no inuence on the sound processing algo-
rithm. A complete representation of which parameters are being controlled by
which entities is given through the Pure Data programme by which the sound
processing algorithm was implemented (cf. portfolio, 9/2/5, performance mate-
rials).
Another important aspect of 9/2/5 s development was that the works extended
time frame required a dierent approach to interaction design than a twenty-
minute piece presented in the context of an exhibition. It had to be possible
to hand out the device to novice users for an entire day without burdening
them with too many details regarding its handling. Automated startup and
shutdown procedures as well as detection of low battery levels and other con-
straints specic to portable hardware represented the major challenges in this
respect. The pieces extended timeframe also demanded the application of dis-
tinct compositional strategies, such as the auralisation of everyday rhythms (cf.
section 6.4.3), in order to ll the large empty canvas of a twenty-four hour day.
7.3 Design Considerations for Audio Walks with

Microphone Input
As I have shown in the last section, my own artistic practice in the eld of
audio walks has focused on the transformation of everyday aural experience
by processing a microphone signal in real-time. My research in this direction
started with numerous informal experiments and was later intensied through
the development of Music for Lovers and 9/2/5. In this concluding section,
I would like to present some insights from these investigations, which concern
both the technical setup of microphone-based audio walks and the perceptual
impact of sound processing techniques applied to everyday aural experience.
7.3.1 The Microphone-Headphone Chain

I have noted in section 7.1.2 that the peculiarities of headphone listening are
still insuciently understood. This is even more true for situations where head-
phones mediate aural experience in real-time, i.e. where they play back sound
recorded by a microphone. As Peter Ablinger has shown (cf. section 7.2.5), even
a neutral microphone-headphone chain, i.e. one where the recorded sound is
just amplied but not otherwise processed before being played back, creates
an experience which is substantially dierent from immediate listening. Sound
technology as we know it represents a great tool for transforming sound, but
it does a much worse job at not transforming sound. During the development
of Music for Lovers, I realised how dicult it is even to just set the play-
back volume of a microphone-headphone chain to a level which convincingly
resembles the loudness of the environment. The correct value seems to heavily
depend on the respective environment and also varies from listener to listener.
An aural experience mediated through microphones and headphones requires
an increased eort on behalf of the listener and is sometimes described as hav-

ing a tiring eect. This is partly due to artefacts which can be explained in
technological terms:
Background noise is created by transducers, ampliers and converters and

represents a problem particularly in the case of mobile hardware, which
typically features lower-quality (and thus noisier) parts. Although listen-
ers tend to get used to a constant noise oor, it can still be disturbing
especially in quiet environments. By design, audio technology requires a
signal to operate on. It is much less successful at recreating the silences
which constitute an important aspect of everyday aural experience.
Latency is introduced by the block-wise audio processing of software and

drivers, which results in a small delay between the input signal from the
microphones and the output signal to the headphones. The challenge of
achieving latencies suciently low to be considered acceptable is further
complicated by constraints regarding the CPU power of portable hard-
ware. Latency is usually discussed in a context of music performance. It
might, however, be even more critical for real-time processing of everyday
sound environments, due to the habituation of the listener to everyday
perception and the immediacy of the experience. Participants in an infor-
mal user study conducted during the development of 9/2/5 were easily
able to detect latencies on the order of twenty milliseconds.
Binaural artefacts Many of the projects discussed in this section make use
of binaural recording techniques, which provide an excellent means of
maintaining the spatiality of auditory experience on a standard pair of
stereo headphones. However, the concurrent presence of headphones and
binaural microphones always translates to a tradeo with regards to the
microphone positions. Ideally, a binaural stereo microphone should be em-
bedded inside the ears of a real or articial head. Its membranes should
be located close to the two eardrums, which they resemble. Mounting
the capsules on the earcups of bulky headphones results in major dis-
tortions of the spatial hearing cues which we use to judge the location
of a sound source. Interaural time and level dierences, which we use
to localise sound on a left-right axis (Blauert 1997), are exaggerated by
the greater distance between the membranes and their increased expo-
sure. The ltering eects of the pinna, which provide an important cue
for front-back discrimination, are lost as well. Silicon ear models, which
are in fact used for binaural recordings with articial heads, could be
mounted on the headphones earcups to recreate the shape of the pinna,

but this would further increase the distance between the microphones.
By using not headphones but earphones, which are embedded into the
ear of the listener, the microphones can be brought much closer to their
ideal positions. On the other hand, earphones are more complicated to
t, especially in exhibition situations where multiple listeners take turns
in relatively quick succession.
Bleeding of external sounds is another aspect to consider with regards to

the choice of head- or earphones.11 Insucient acoustic isolation from
the outside world eectively represents a loss of control with regards to
what the listener is hearing. Mueller & Karau (2002) have used noise-
cancellation headphones to minimise this artefact. But while closed-back
circum-aural or supra-aural headphones, or earphones which are inserted
directly into the ear canal, provide better isolation than open-back head-
phones or the standard intra-concha earphones known from many portable
music players, they are also less comfortable to wear and create a less
natural listening experience.12 From an artistic point of view, the nat-
uralness of a microphone-headphone chain will often be more important
than having total control over what the listener is hearing.
7.3.2 Sound Processing Techniques

Besides the diculty of neutrally mediating aural experience through a chain
of microphones and headphones, several of the audio walks discussed in section
7.2.5 are concerned with deliberately transforming the aural perception of a
listener by processing the microphone signal before its playback. Over the last
fty years, a wide range of sound processing techniques has been developed and
applied in a concert hall and music production context. Their application to
everyday listening, however, has only been demonstrated over the last ten years.
It turns out that electroacoustic techniques well known from concert hall per-
formances can yield very dierent reactions when they are applied to everyday
aural perception. In this section I will demonstrate these dierences, drawing
from experiences made through informal studies during the development of my
project 9/2/5. As part of these studies, I asked listeners to verbalise their aural
experience as their aural perception was being subjected to dierent processing
techniques in an everyday environment. The unprocessed microphone signal
11
Hirvonen (2002:26) provides an excellent overview of dierent types of head- and ear-
phones.
12
In a private conversation Peter Plessas compared listening through a chain of microphones
and closed-back headphones to having ones head under a cheese cover.
as well as the processed headphone signal were recorded for documentation

purposes.
The Delay Effect
The by far strongest response was caused by delaying the input signal from
the microphones by several seconds before its playback. Kato (2003) already
observed that listeners subjected to such a delay become unable to talk because
of the temporal gap between the act of speaking and hearing their own words.
Many participants in my studies compared this situation to being under the
inuence of drugs. This might also be the reason why the creators of RjDj
(cf. section 7.2.5) refer to their application as a digital drug (RjDj 2008a,
2009c).13 The body language of listeners in 9/2/5 often became slower and
more cautious with respect to potential hazards in the environment. These
diculties to navigate might have been due to the fact that it is not only
the sound itself which is being delayed, but also the spatial relation between
sound eld and listener, e.g. when turning ones head. Quite a few listeners
started giggling in an uncontrolled manner as a reaction to the delay eect,
especially when they tried to conduct conversations with others (cf. portfo-
lio, 9/2/5, documentation materials, audio documentation, track 4, Lunch).
These reactions could also be observed with listeners in the 24/7 installation
(cf. portfolio, 24/7, documentation materials, audio documentation, track 6,
3 Art Students) and in the 2004 installation echo by Franz Xaver, Peter Plessas
and Sebastian Benser, which was exhibited at a tram stop in Graz, Austria and
consisted of a microphone whose signal was delayed by one second before being
replayed through a loudspeaker.
The delay eect demonstrates the coherence of visual and auditory perception.
When it is introduced gradually by slowly increasing the delay time from zero,
listeners often do not notice its presence for quite some time. Its sudden
detection often coincides with a percussive event whose source is within the
listeners visual eld. In other words, the delay is noticed only when there is
visual information to support it. Its impact can range from zero to rendering
a listener unable to navigate and communicate. When the environment of
the listener is relatively silent or features only ambient sounds, or when the
listener has her eyes closed, a delay has virtually no perceptual signicance.
When conducting conversations, on the other hand, even small delays result
in a signicant transformation of the listeners experience. The felt delay is
13
Similarly, Andreas Pavel (quoted in Levy 2006:204) likened his 1972 prototype of a
portable music player (cf. section 7.1.1) to an electronic drug.
eectively a function of vision. One listener expressed this as follows:
If you close your eyes, you are actually on a totally dierent time
scale.
The delay eect is a good example of an electroacoustic technique which has

been well-studied in a performance context, but acquires an entirely dierent
meaning when applied to everyday auditory experience. The assumption that
changing a sound processing parameter will always initiate a corresponding
perceptual eect might to a certain degree hold in the controlled environment
of the concert hall, but it certainly does not apply to the real-time transfor-
mation of everyday listening. This necessitates an entirely new approach to
electroacoustic studio techniques.
Recording and Later Playback of Sound Junks
Although conceptually similar to a delay, the eect of recording a junk of sound

and replaying it (minutes or hours) later yields very dierent results. Auditory
information on this time scale seems to be processed in a dierent manner
than sounds from our short-term acoustic memory. If the replayed material is
recognised at allwhich can be facilitated by letting the listener herself or a
peak detector trigger the recordingit often initiates a humorous reaction (cf.
portfolio, 9/2/5, documentation materials, audio documentation, tracks 3, 4
and 6).
Transformations of the Stereo Balance
The perceptual impact of swapping the left and right input channels before
playbackeectively creating a pseudophoneis less signicant than might be
assumed. Many listeners are not able to detect the eect at all, even in situa-
tions where the left and right channel are quite decorrelated. The simultaneous
presence of visual cues seems to override the listeners aural impression. This is
another example of a well-known sound processing technique which yields very
dierent eects when applied to everyday auditory perception. Mueller & Ka-
rau (2002) report a more dramatic impact of this eect, but their observations
were conducted in a more controlled indoor environment (Mueller 2009).
Filters
Spectral lter eects are generally dicult to perceive; especially when head-
phones are used which do not isolate the listener from the outside sound envi-
ronment. Even when ltering is detected, its perceptual impact is comparably
small. In 9/2/5, I was most successful with sharply tuned bandpass lters.
Contrary to my expectations, coupling their centre frequency directly to a
pitch detector did not yield signicant reactions. It seems that an amplication
of dominant pitches in the environment provides the ear with redundant infor-
mation. The perceptual impact was much greater when the detected pitch was
rst multiplied by an oset factor, so that the lters centre frequency deviates
from pitches in the environment by a constant interval.
Reverb and Echoes
The function of reverbs and echoes applied to everyday aural perception does
not dier signicantly from classic applications of these eects in electroacous-
tically produced music. The articial reverberation of the listeners everyday
environment proves particularly eective, as it transforms the spatiality of au-
ditory experience in a very immediate manner (cf. portfolio, 9/2/5, documenta-
tion materials, audio documentation, track 2, Hide and Seek). Series of echoes
triggered by peak detectors can initiate performative behaviour on behalf of the
listener (cf. track 9, Kicked It?).
The nature of our social world is changing right in front of our
ears!
Michael Bull (2007:10)
[T]he acoustical event is also a social one: [...] sound is never a

private affair.
Brandon LaBelle (2007:x)
8
Social Listening
In chapter 2, I have argued that technologically mediated listening can be char-

acterised in terms of an increasing mobilisation and individuation. After having
discussed mobile listening in the previous chapter, this chapter is devoted to
the social aspect of aestheticised aural experience which is mediated through
technology. The inherent sociality of auditory perception is frequently noted.
According to Chelko (1991:36), the sound environment produces public space.
Schnhammer (1989) and other authors have pointed out that the deaf tend
to feel socially more isolated than the blind. The role of listening in human
communication has been illuminated by Truax (2001). Barthelmes (2002:103)
has referred to the soundscape as a social and cultural organism mediated
by sound. DeNora (2000:121) has shown that music is used as a resource
of social agency; a means of fostering or also undermining social relationships.
She speaks of listeners as actors [who] produce the aesthetic textures of social
occasions (2000:111) by means of music, which she refers to as a resource for
producing social life (2000:129).
However, DeNoras discussion is entirely centred around music in the sense of

consumable media artefacts. An aestheticisation of the everyday sound envi-
ronment as such is not her concern, but has been actively proposed in the eld
of acoustic ecology. The acoustic-ecological concept of the acoustic community
will serve us as a basis for the discussion in this chapter on how technological
154
CHAPTER 8. SOCIAL LISTENING 155
mediacy aects the sociality of aestheticised listening.
8.1 The Acoustic Community

The term acoustic community was originally coined by Schafer (1994:215) and
further rened by Truax, who denes it as
[...] any soundscape in which acoustic information plays a pervasive

role in the lives of the inhabitants [...]. In short, [...] any system
within which acoustic information is exchanged. (Truax 2001:66)
The acoustic community has frequently been described in spatial terms. Schafer
(1994:33) points out that a community used to be dened as those people
who lived within the audible range of the local church bell. Blesser & Salter
(2006:26) refer to the acoustic community as the social consequence of an
acoustic arena, i.e. the area within which a sound can be heard. They distin-
guish between natural, public and private acoustic arenas (2006:25). Chelko
(1991) has further investigated the relationship between acoustic and social
space and denes three forms of sonic distance.
But although these viewpoints emphasise the fact that spatiality and sociality
constitute two key aspects of aural experience (LaBelle 2007:x), a denition
of the acoustic community in spatial terms does not necessarily accommodate
the peculiarities of technologically mediated listening. Truax, who explicitly
includes electroacoustic systems into his denition of the acoustic community
(2001:66), has pointed out that the acoustic prole of an electroacoustically
transmitted sound is essentially boundless. The dening criterion of acoustic
communality today is therefore given by access to equipment rather than by
physical proximity (2001:205f). The aim of this chapter is to investigate the
role of technological mediation with regards to listening as a social experience.
8.2 Social Listening and Technological Mediacy

In section 7.1.1, I have argued that the personal mobile music player represents
the provisional peak not only of the mobilisation, but also of the individuation
of technologically mediated listening. The relationship between electroacoustic
technology and the acoustic community can therefore be particularly well stud-
ied at its example.
The Walkmans ambiguous position [...] between autism and autonomy (Cham-
bers 1994:51) initiated an intense public reaction. A potential breach of social
codes was already recognised before the commercial introduction of personal
mobile music players. The very rst Sony Walkman, the TPS-L2, featured
two headphone jacks and a so-called hot-line feature. By pressing an or-
ange button, the two listeners could communicate over a built-in microphone
(Levy 2006:209). The second headphone jack was allegedly added after Morita,
Sonys founder, noted that his wife got annoyed when he listened to a Walk-
man prototype at home (Williams 2007:56). However, Sony soon went back
to a single-headphone design after discovering that people got very attached
to their devices as personal items (du Gay et al. 1997:59). But even the two
headphone jacks could probably not have avoided the moral panic (du Gay
et al. 1997:116) which the Walkman eventually initiated. Sound leaking from
the headphones of Walkman listeners into the outside world forced bystanders
to listen to the garbage of someone elses private acoustic world (Schnham-
mer 1989) and became the subject of a London Underground poster campaign
as well as a UK court case (du Gay et al. 1997:117). But leakage alone can
hardly justify the extent to which the publicand several academicscame to
see Walkman listening as an anti-social practice.
Chambers (1994:51), Bull (2001:181) and du Gay et al. (1997:113) realised

that this irritation originated in the public display of headphone listening,
which was hitherto considered a private experience. The Walkman thereby con-
fused traditional boundaries between the public and private spheres.1 Hosokawa
(1984:177), Chambers (1994:51) and Chow (1997:140) argue that it is the pub-
licly displayed secret of what the mobile music players owner is listening to,
which irritates bystanders.
The autism of the Walkman listener irritates onlookers precisely

because the onlookers nd themselves reduced to the activity of
looking alone. For once, voyeurism yields no secrets: one can look
all one wants and still nothing is to be seen. (Chow 1997:140)
Others have put it more drastically:
Play your Walkman and you might as well shout Everybody just
piss o! (Jackson 1997:144)
1
Williams (2007:109) speculates that mobile phones were initially criticised for the same
reason, i.e. because telephone conversations had originally been considered a private aair.
Schnhammer (1989) argues that headphone listening in public violates an

unwritten law of interpersonal reciprocity: the certainty of common sensual
presence in shared situations. Chambers (1994:50) and Bull (2008:176) com-
pare this eect to the wearing of dark sunglasses. According to Hosokawa
(1984:179), the only way for the onlooker to restore the equilibrium is to also
become a Walkman listener and thereby establish a mutual secrecy. Either way,
the onlooker becomes a part of the Walkmans secret theatre (1984:177). The
irritation between beholders and spectators in this theatre is sometimes bilat-
eral: Jackson (1997:143) complains about the evil looks which bystanders give
him when he is wearing his Walkman in publiceven when he is not actually
playing any music.
Bull (2008:176) has shown that the violation of interpersonal reciprocity through
the mobile music player is sometimes performed deliberately, as it allows the lis-
tener to control her environment and create privatised spaces at will. However,
this is only one of several functions which portable music fulls for its listeners.
People listen to portable music to have company, to relive special moments of
their lives, to learn about music, to manage their moods and time, to activate
themselves, or simply for pleasure (Williams 2007). Du Gay et al. (1997:94)
argue that despite the privacy of Walkman listening, it still constitutes a social
practice. Thibaud (2004:330) is of the opinion that Walkman listeners are not
entirely cut o from their environment, and according to Steve Connor (cited
in Oliver 1999:308) this constitutes precisely the appeal of the mobile music
player. Chambers notes that the personal mobile music player represents not
only a piece of technology but also a cultural activity and as such rearms
participation in a shared environment (1994:50).
Williams argues that portable music listeners sometimes use headphones out of
consideration of people in their proximity (2007:60) and that their music listen-
ing serves as a valve for frustration and anger in situations where they might
otherwise resort to antisocial behaviour (2007:97). Mobile music listeners some-
times wish others could share special moments of their aesthetically enhanced
experience (Bull 2007:42). An example for this are humorous coincidences be-
tween the lyrics of the music playing and events occurring in the environment
(Williams 2007:24). Bull (2004c:184) argues that Walkman listeners experience
a mediated form of we-ness through an imaginary bond with their music. He
refers to sound reproduction devices as technologies of accompanied solitude
(2004c:177). Williams (2007:36,78f) also notes that mobile listeners feel links
to the performers of the music they listen to as well as among themselves.
ODwyer (2009:91) discusses mobile music listening as a social, and Chow

(1997) as a political act.
Eighteen years after the introduction of the Walkman, du Gay et al. (1997:120)
noted that although the Walkman [i]s now rmly established as part of the
modern soundscape, its ambivalence ha[s] not completely disappeared. An-
other thirteen years later, the social dimension of technologically mediated
listening is still insuciently understood. This is reected in Bulls seemingly
self-contradictory statement that mobile music listeners attempt to transcend
the social precisely by immersing themselves in it (2007:6). According to
him, sound technology questions the very constitution and meaning of pri-
vate realms of experience (2001:181). Only a consideration of these new
congurations of the public and private spheres will allow us to understand
technologically mediated listening as an integral part of everyday aural experi-
ence.
8.3 Design Strategies

Several artists and designers have attempted to reinterpret technologically me-
diated listening as a shared activity, opposing the traditional image of the
isolated Walkman listener. By using sound as a vehicle for social interaction,
and network technologies as a means of connecting individual listeners, several
projects have aimed at re-socialising mediated aural experience. In this section
I will critically evaluate several strategies which have been developed in this
direction.
8.3.1 Sharing Sound

Some designs and artworks are concerned with the sharing of music; either
as an artefact (e.g. a soundle) or simply as a reection of individual choice.
While the aural experience created by these projects is still an individualised
one, they build on the observation that social interaction in music consumption
extends beyond the process of listening itself (Voida et al. 2006). A number
of designs are concerned with the sharing of sound among nearby mobile lis-
teners through wireless networks. The Sotto Voce project (Aoki et al. 2002)
allowed pairs of museum visitors equipped with audio guides to eavesdrop on
each others audio. Since all visitors had local copies of the same content, no
audio data needed to be exchanged. Later projects focused on the possibil-
ity of sharing asymmetrical content. This is done by means of le sharing in
Push!Music (Hkansson et al. 2005; Jacobsson et al. 2005), whereas in Folk-

Music (Wiberg 2004), Bubble (Bach et al. 2003), tunA (Bassoli et al. 2003,
2004a,b; Moore 2004) and SoundPryer (Axelsson & stergren 2002; stergren
2003, 2004; stergren & Juhlin 2004) pedestrian or car-driving listeners are con-
nected through real-time audio streams. The authors of the BluetunA project
(Bassoli & Baumann 2006; Baumann et al. 2007), on the other hand, suggested
to exchange metadata about music rather than audio data itself. Bassoli et al.
(2006, 2008) also envisioned the undersound project, which aimed at letting
listeners share music through publicly accessible servers in the stations of the
London Underground.
While the authors of the above projects emphasise the possibilities which their
prototypes allegedly oer for connecting strangers which otherwise would not
engage in social interaction, they are far less concerned with situations where
this might be undesirable. Scenarios of systematic misuse, such as eavesdrop-
ping or surveillance by governments, large corporations or criminal organisa-
tions and individuals, are not even mentioned. The only exception is Moore
(2004:86), who mentions the possibility of abuse by advanced users. The
option of enhanced privacy through encrypted data transfer is not addressed
either. Although the authors of tunA explicitly mention that testers of their
system were concerned about revealing personal data, they seem to assume
that their musical choice simply represents suciently anonymous data (Bas-
soli et al. 2004a; Moore 2004:84). Wibergs (2004) system at least provides
dierent anonymity modes for users to choose from. stergren & Juhlin
(2004) satisfy themselves with the statement that their system does not seem
to invade privacy, based on the claim that test subjects did not seem to be
concerned about revealing personal data. However, Solove (2007) has demon-
strated that this widespread argument is based on a misconception of privacys
social values.
Many authors (stergren 2003; Hkansson et al. 2005; Jacobsson et al. 2005;
OHara et al. 2006) limit critical reection of their projects to issues of copy-
right infringement. Discussions on the sharing of music in recent years have
focused on le sharing through peer-to-peer networks (e.g. Brown & Sellen
2006; ODwyer 2009:96; Sedmak & Androsch 2009:89). Unfortunately these
discussions restricts themselves to a view of the listener as a consumer and of
music as a commodity. By sharing their music, however, listeners share not
only something they own but also part of their musical identity (DeNora 2000).
The social dimension of music sharing is too complex to be understood merely
in terms of an exchange of goods. This is reected in the practices of jacking,

where strangers plug their headphones into each others mobile music players,2
and mobile clubbing, where listeners gather spontaneously in a location to listen
and dance to music on their personal mobile music players (Kahney 2005:103f).
8.3.2 Sharing Place

Another strategy for emphasising the social dimension of technologically me-
diated listening is given through the relationship between sound and place.
Several projects allow contributors to collectively annotate geospatial locations
with sounds (and sometimes also other media). This information is then made
available in situ to all listeners who have access to the required mobile hard-
ware. Examples are the projects Hear&There (Rozier et al. 2000), Tactical
Sound Garden (Shepard 2006, n.d.), Urban Tapestries (Lane et al. 2006), Folk-
Music (Wiberg 2004) and Surface Patterns (Southern 2004).
In other projects, which are based on a web interface, the collectively generated
geospatial data is not necessarily accessed directly on site. This includes the
Montral Soundmap (CESSA 2010) or its New York equivalent Soundseeker
(NYSAE 2007). With the Sound Database (Cusack 2009) listeners can create
geospatial mixes of their own and other peoples recordings. The SoundTransit
website (Holzer et al. n.d.) resembles an airlines online booking system and
allows its visitors to book a transit (essentially a crossfade) between eld
recordings from dierent locations, which have been contributed by various
artists. The LocusSonus project (Sinclair 2007) provides its contributors with
standardised hardware to collect live audio streams from around the world.
8.3.3 Sharing Choice

In all the projects discussed in this section so far, both the acts of selecting
and of listening to sound still represent individual processes, which are not
necessarily experienced together. Their social dimension is restricted to the
process of sharing itself. Several projects have aimed at a more immediate
sharing of aural experience by letting listeners collectively choose the sounds to
be played back in a public environment. They eectively resemble the concept
of the jukebox, which dates back to rst two decades of the twentieth century
2
Gideon DArcangelo has used the same strategy in his radio documentary series Walkman
Busting, where he breaks down the barrier between beholders and spectators by spontaneously
asking portable music listeners whether they would let him listen to their music (Kirisits et al.
2008:113).
(Sterne 2003:201), but replace the jukeboxes linear sequence of personal selec-
tions with a more immediate process of collective musical choice. The Jukola
system allows the visitors of a bar to assemble a playlist by nominating and
voting for certain songs (OHara et al. 2006). A similar strategy was applied
in a preliminary experiment for the Undersound project (Bassoli et al. 2008).
In the Silver Sounds exhibition, which I co-designed with Chris Murphy at

the Naughton Gallery (2008) of Queens University Belfast, gallery visitors can
control the playback of ten electroacoustic compositions, each of which was
commissioned to reect on a particular exhibit from a collection of silverware.
These compositions are triggered through the user interfaces of several hand-
held computers and appear through loudspeakers integrated into the exhibition
cabinets; each from the direction of the corresponding exhibit. Visitors can
simultaneously play multiple of these pieces and thereby create a collective mix
in the gallery, for which we adopted the following design strategy: By choosing
to play a piece, the listener adopts that piece, which means that no other
person can control its playback until it is stopped by its owner or simply
ends by itself. The displays of the handheld computers show which pieces are
currently playing and which are still available.
8.3.4 Sharing Soundmaking

In the above projects, it is arguably not only the process of choosing, but also
of making sound which is being shared, albeit in a highly mediated manner.
OHara et al. (2006) have noted that while listeners feeding a jukebox or mak-
ing requests to a DJ are not engaged in the immediate physical action of sound
production, they eectively become co-performers of that music. The shared
performance of sound is another strategy which has been used to interpret tech-
nologically mediated listening as a social experience. In MobiLenin (Scheible &
Ojala 2005), Simpletext (Brucker-Cohen et al. 2003), Intelligent Streets (Lrstad
et al. 2004) and Sequencer404 (Jimison & Thatcher 2006; Thatcher et al. 2006),
the audience can control purely sound-based or audiovisual scenes displayed in
a public environment. Malleable Mobile Music (Tanaka 2004a) allows a number
of mobile, physically separated players to collectively control a sound synthesis
algorithm on a remote server, which then streams the sonic result back to its
clients. In Net_Drive (Tanaka 2006; Tanaka & Gemeinboeck 2006), the site
of the remote server becomes a performance space in itself. The same prin-
ciple is applied in the IMPROVe project (Widerberg & Hasan 2006), which
additionally allows listeners to contribute sounds recorded with their phones
built-in microphone. Collective musical games are controlled through handheld

devices in phoneplay# (Knowles 2009) and Schminky (Reid et al. 2004). Bull
et al. (2006) describe their project Cellphonia: In the News as an open source
location-based karaoke cell phone opera, whose libretto and music is partly
precomposed, partly generated algorithmically and partly assembled through
vocal contributions by the remote audience. The mobile phone has been in-
terpreted as a musical instrument in itself for collective performances by The
Handydandy (Bauch et al. 2009) and the Mobile Phone Orchestra (Wang et al.
2008). In rahmenbedingung (dieb13 et al. 2010) bicycles become the instrument
of choice for controlling a sound synthesis algorithm, whereas the performing
audience of TGarden (Ryan & Salter 2003) can control the creation of audio-
visual content through movement and gestures in specically designed costumes.
The above projects are concerned with soundmaking as a means of sharing

aural experience. They point towards an understanding of soundmaking as an
integral part of aural awarenessa thought which I will discuss in more detail
in the concluding chapter. At the same time, these projects cross the border
towards musical performance as a specialist activity. This is a subject clearly
beyond of the scope of this thesis, but it has been investigated by other authors,
for example Gabrielsson (1999) and Rink (2002). In particular, Small (1998)
discusses the relationship between musical performance and listening as two
aspects of a common social activity, which he refers to as musicking. Human
performance has also been discussed as a social ritual by Turner (1987).
8.4 Music for Lovers and 24/7

Through my own artistic practice I became increasingly interested in the social
dimension of aestheticised listening. This is reected in my installations Music
for Lovers and 24/7, a discussion of which will conclude this chapter. Both
pieces are concerned with the sharing of listening, soundmaking and place;
although in a more implicit manner than the works discussed earlier. The pieces
demonstrate that headphones do not necessarily imply a solitary experience.
8.4.1 Music for Lovers

If you could hear what I hear, then you too would be transformed.
Michael Bull (2007:42)
The scenario of two people listening together arguably represents the most basic
form of social listening, and the idea behind the portable sound installation
Music for Lovers (cf. appendix F) was to investigate this situation in depth.
The piece allows two people to swap ears, i.e. to exchange their acoustic per-
spective in real-time. This is done by means of two pairs of headphones which
are extended by binaural microphones on their earcups, with microphones and
headphones connected crosswise among the two listeners.
When Music for Lovers was exhibited at the launch night of the Ad Hoc artists
initiative in Belfast, various gallery visitors spontaneously incorporated the mo-
bile installation into their experience of the other artworks in this group show.3
Two male visitors spent about twenty minutes walking around the gallery, dis-
cussing the various works on display as they were wearing Music for Lovers.
After a while, they seemed to integrate the somewhat prosthetic technology
of the piece quite naturally into their experience. A female pair of listen-
ers spontaneously positioned themselves back-to-back and verbally described
to each other the artworks in their respective viewing angles. Another visitor
suggested that it would be interesting to wear the device for an entire day. As
can be seen in the picture gallery included with the portfolio, many visitors
displayed performative behaviour during their experience of Music for Lovers.
One couplean instance of actual loversstarted to stroke each others micro-
phones, resulting in an instant acoustic reward on their own respective pair of
headphones. Two children also investigated the eects of touching each others
microphones. Moreover, they discovered how to produce beats for each other
by rhythmically tapping their own microphones with their ngertips.
The listening couples seemed to share an intimate space, which I could observe
from a distance but was clearly not a part of. All of them conducted their con-
versations at rather quiet levels. This was surprising, since many people tend
to raise their voice when they address bystanders while wearing headphones. In
Music for Lovers, however, the instant reassurance of being understood by ones
partner seemed to make it clear that there was no need to speak louder than
usual; despite hearing ones own voice from a distance. Many listeners clearly
enjoyed the mutual secrecy of their conversation. Some made explicit references
to the sociality of their experience. As a female pair of listeners were playing
hide-and-seek, with a brick pillar between them serving as a visual barrier, one
of them joked to the other that [s]ometimes talking to you is like talking to
3
The piece gained some popularity during the well-attended event and was passed on
among friends, which helped visitors to overcome the instinctive resistance to taking a piece
of art from a gallerys wall. I initially had to encourage visitors to actually try the piece,
which they would otherwise most likely have appreciated exclusively as a visual work of art;
particularly as it was the only interactive exhibit in the show.
a brick wall. Another listener described his experience as private and public
at the same time. However, not all visitors were able to enjoy the intimacy of
the situation. Some who did not happen to know their listening partner very
well appeared to be uncomfortable. Others refused to try the work altogether;
according to themselves because they were worried that the out-of-the-norm
sensory experience created by the installation might cause them discomfort.
Several visitors provided detailed descriptions of their aural experience. By

making sound in the proximity of the microphones, one listener discovered that
the acoustic impressions of two people facing each other are exactly mirrored.
For some listeners, the aural impression of the installation seemed to outlast the
actual experience. Five minutes after putting o the headphones, one listener
remarked:
I still feel like my hearing has been altered.
Another visitor suggested that he was still more aware of his acoustic environ-
ment ten minutes after trying the piece. This corresponds to Truax (1996:61)
observation that technologically mediated listening can inuence perception
later under more normal circumstances. Yet another listener described similar
eects:
[When I was trying the piece,] I had the impression that I [was] in
[my listening partners] head, and now[, some minutes after removing
the headphones,] I have the same feeling; like Im in my head.
This listener could imagine himself being in his own head after wearing the
headphonesjust like he seemed to be in his listening partners head while
wearing them. This suggests that his experience of Music for Lovers somewhat
relativised his personal aural perspective; as if he was now able to perceive his
auditory perception itself. A similar eect was observed by listeners hearing
their own voice delayed by a couple of seconds in 9/2/5 (cf. section 7.3.2 and
appendix H), which one listener described in terms of a social experience:
Is this an anti-loneliness device?
Another listener literally referred to the same situation as an out-of-body

experience. The reaction of one Music for Lovers listener also addresses this
seeming separation of body and auditory perception:
It sort of puts you out of space.

For another listener, the bodily connement of her own perspective was so
strong that she perceptually reversed the experience of listening to the world
through somebody elses ears in Music for Lovers. She addressed her listening
partner:
Its like youre in my head!
While she also refers to the intimacy of hearing her partners voice from a close
distance, she did not understand this as a shift of her own perspective, but as
somebody else hijacking hers.
8.4.2 24/7
In my installation 24/7 (cf. appendix G), sound was continuously recorded by
a dummy head in Belfasts PS2 gallery and replayed on ve pairs of headphones
after applying a dierent time delay to each pair. The layout of the installation
(cf. gure 8.1) invited visitors to rst pick up the headphone closest to the
entrance, which featured the shortest delay with 1.9 seconds. At this timescale,
any audible action on behalf of the visitor is experienced as an immediate
echo; a mirror-like situation, which invites performative action. Pairs and small
groups of visitors frequently tried to challenge each others perception by per-
forming sounds in the immediate proximity of the microphones while another
member of their group was wearing the headphones. Visitors sometimes covered
the microphones with their hands (cf. portfolio, 24/7, documentation materials,
image gallery) and exploited the dummy heads preservation of directional at-
tributes by moving quickly around the head while making sound (cf. portfolio,
24/7, documentation materials, audio documentation, track 5, At the Open-
ing). The 1.9 seconds delay yielded quite dramatic eects on many listeners
spatial and temporal experience, similar to those observed in the project 9/2/5
(cf. section 7.3.2).
If visitors followed the white line on the oor suggesting a route through the
installation, they next encountered a pair of headphones with a delay of two
hours. In this case, performative action on behalf of the listener does not
result in an immediate reward. A chair was therefore provided, to support
an aural experience which shifts from soundmaking towards listening. With a
delay of two hours, visitors are listening to a point in time at which they have
probably not yet been in the gallery. Sounds created by themselves or other
people currently present are not relevant for their experience. But at this stage
they might already have realised the performative potential of the installation
Figure 8.1: The layout of the installation 24/7.

and make sounds or leave messages for later audiences. An actual instance of
such behaviour occurred when one listener, who had visited the opening of the
exhibition, returned some days later to recite some poetry.
The next pair of headphones played sound recorded three days and seven hours
earlier. To support the increased eort required on behalf of the listener to
relate to these sounds, the comfort of the seating arrangement has again in-
creased. This pair of headphones always features sounds from outside the
gallerys opening hours. Any voices heard are likely to be those of strangers
(e.g. those of gallery sta and myself) rather than ones own or those of other
visitors. The gallery might also have been entirely abandoned at the time of
recording, which means that sounds from the street outside receive greater sig-
nicance. The PS2 gallery features a large window front, which is acoustically
quite transparent. Sounds from the passing street become an essential part of
the acoustic experience, especially since road construction work was conducted
outside the gallery during the exhibition.
The next pair of headphones could be enjoyed by the listener on a sofa; the
most comfortable seating facility in the gallery. Although the sound material is
temporally the most distant (1 week ago), it is semantically closer than that of
the previous headphones. The current time of day matches that of the record-
ing. This might be the listeners second visit, encouraged by the possibility of
listening to her rst visit a week earlier. Some visitors from the opening night
actually took the opportunity to return to the gallery one week later to revisit
the experience.
Before exiting the gallery, the last pair of headphones confronts the visitor with
a delay of three minutes. As with the rst pair of headphones, one is standing
while listening. Hopefully, the visitor will have spent the last three minutes in
the gallery and is therefore again faced with an acoustic mirror, but this time
one which cannot immediately be addressed through performative action. The
people currently present in the gallery become again the social reference point
of ones aural experience.
24/7 employs several of the strategies which I have discussed earlier in this
chapter with regards to social listening by means of technological mediation. A
relationship between sound and place is established as the basis for a shared
sonic experience. Soundmaking on behalf of the listener represents an essential
part of the installation. While this is obvious when listening to the headphones
with the 1.9 seconds delay, the installation also turns its audience into per-
formers for later audiences. In fact, Peter Mutschler, the curator of the PS2
gallery, suggested to set up a small stage in front of the dummy head for vis-
itors to perform on. While I was setting up the installation (and sound was
already being recorded in the gallery), I noticed how I turned into a performer
myself and started to address potential future audiences (cf. portfolio, 24/7,
documentation materials, audio documentation, tracks 2, 4 and 7). At the
same time, 24/7 touches on the same privacy issues which any technological
mediation of social experience ought to be concerned with. This starts with
privacy from oneself: Many people react very strongly to hearing their own
recorded voice. More severely, the fact that gallery visitors are being continu-
ously recorded implicitly thematises the (mis)use of technology for the purpose
of public surveillance. I myself became very self-aware during this three-week
period, knowing that every word of mine might later be heard by others. Even
though visitors were being informed that they were being recorded, they had
obvious diculties to remain aware of the impact which their experience would
have beyond their actual visit. It is an interesting problem in itself how to tell
people that they are being recorded immediately after they enter an exhibition
in which they ought to be active participants.
With regards to privacy issues, it is however important to note that 24/7

was designed as a self-contained, out-of-the-ordinary art experience and not
as a prototype for future ubiquitous technologies, like many of the projects
discussed in section 8.3. The installation aimed at providing its audience with
an opportunity to critically reect on the technological mediation of listening
as a social experience.
9
Conclusion
The revolution is hear! Or is it? In this thesis, I have critically evaluated dif-
ferent views on the state of aural awareness in our culture. I have argued that
an increasing interest in everyday aural experience can indeed be observed, but
that this constitutes a long-term development without much revolutionary ten-
dencies. I have suggested that the very development of sound art as an artistic
discipline can be regarded as a symptom of this interest. I have investigated
artistic strategies for the aestheticisation of everyday aural experience through
a methodological feedback loop of artistic practice, which is documented in the
portfolio (cf. appendix), and theoretical reection. In this concluding chapter
I will summarise the issues which I have discussed in this thesis in a non-
chronological manner and show how these are reected in my own practice. I
will then provide some concluding thoughts on the creation of sound art within
a context of everyday aural awareness and suggest further points of study.
9.1 Summary
The Everyday and Aural Awareness: In this thesis, I have argued that
an increasing interest in the everyday can be observed across various artistic
and scientic disciplines (cf. chapter 0). With regards to sound art, this inter-
est manifests itself in terms of a musicalisation of everyday sounds as artistic
source material on the one hand, and in terms of an interpretation of everyday
169
CHAPTER 9. CONCLUSION 170
environments as a context for aestheticised listening on the other (cf. chapter

6). I have discussed sound art as a means of stimulating aural awareness and
investigated artistic strategies for aestheticised listening in an everyday context
(cf. chapters 58). In my own artistic practice (cf. appendix) I have suggested
ways of aesthetically reecting on everyday aural experience within the conven-
tional contexts of the concert hall and art gallery (Alexanderplatz, 24/7 ), by
oering alternative uses of listening technologies (Interroutes, Music for Lovers,
9/2/5 ), through visual intervention in everyday life (Straenmusik, EaRdverts)
and by means of graphical scores directing aural attention (Ohrenli(e)der). I
have proposed the inherent rhythmicity of everyday life as a subject of aes-
thetic aural reection and have exemplied this idea in my own works 24/7
and 9/2/5 (cf. section 6.4.3). In section 6.5, I have argued in favour of subtlety
as an aesthetic category for sound art addressing everyday listening.
Aural Culture: In chapter 1, I have outlined various challenges with regards

to the current state of our aural culture and ways in which these can beand
already are beingaddressed. I have critically evaluated the widespread claim
that we are living in a deeply visualised culture, which is often accompanied by
desires for a future society which orients itself more towards aural paradigms.
Considering the cross-sensual coherence of human perception, I have claimed
that aural culture will benet more from a generally enhanced sensory awareness
than from an explicit focus on auditory experience. I have positioned sound
art as a means of contributing to this process by oering environments for
the aesthetic experience of everyday sound environments and have developed
according strategies throughout my own artistic practice.
Aural Experience: I have discussed various modes of auditory perception,

which demonstrate that aural experience simultaneously depends on a personal
and cultural context (cf. chapter 3). From this observation I have derived six
dierent perspectives on sound in chapter 4, which reect dierent cultural at-
titudes towards the process of listening. In particular, the inherent spatiality of
sound has been emphasised in recent years. I have attempted a contribution to-
wards the understanding of sound as space (cf. sections 4.6, 5.6) and developed
according ideas and practices during my work on the piece Alexanderplatz.
Technologically Mediated Listening: Based on the observation that most

aestheticised listening is today mediated by technology, I have investigated
technologys role with regards to everyday aural awareness. A critical evaluation
of the relationship between technological and cultural development has provided
the basis for this discussion (cf. chapter 2). I have proposed an understanding
of technologically mediated listening as an integral part of rather than a threat
to everyday aural awareness and suggested that sound art can provide valuable
alternative views on sound technology. In chapters 7 and 8 I have presented
various artistic approaches to the technological mediation of aural experience.
Mobility and Sociality: I have identied a continuous mobilisation and

individuation as two characteristics of technologically mediated listening (cf.
section 2.3). These two themes have been developed in depth throughout this
thesis. In section 5.3.1, I have categorised dierent mobile listening experiences,
and in chapter 7, I have focused on the mediation of mobile listening experiences
through sound technology. In particular, I have proposed design strategies for
the realisation of real-time audio walks with microphone input, based on the
experience from the development of my works Music for Lovers and 9/2/5 (cf.
section 7.3). The sociality of everyday aural experience has been discussed in
chapter 8. Various artistic strategies for interpreting technologically mediated
listening as a social experience have been discussed, including my own artistic
contributions, which are represented by the works Music for Lovers and 24/7
(cf. section 8.4).
9.2 Implications for Artistic Creation

Everyday aural experience might largely occur on a subconscious level and be
driven by survival skills, such as spatial navigation and the retrieval of impor-
tant information from the environment. But beyond these functional concerns,
the everyday sound environment also oers a rich aesthetic experience, whose
active development can last for a listeners lifetime. Sound art can emphasise
this aspect of aural perception by listening to the undertones of everyday en-
vironments; by listening between the lines. It reminds us of the importance
of aesthetic experience in an everyday life which is never reducible to function
alone.
By moving out of the concert hall and the gallery into everyday environments,
sound art enters a context which is not primarily concerned with artistic pre-
sentation. Everyday life has always been a place for aesthetic perception, but
it is not an art gallery. The creation of sound art which operates in an ev-
eryday context requires an in situ approach to artistic production, which is
often unfamiliar to artists working in sound. Instrumental and electroacoustic
composition as well as classic sound art are studio-based disciplines. In the
course of my own artistic practice, however, the limitations of the studio as a

working environment became quite obvious. Pieces like Interroutes or 9/2/5
must be developed in the context which they are written for; their eect can-
not be evaluated in the studio alone. In these works, electronically preproduced
sounds need to be balanced with the unpredictable sounds of everyday life,
which seems to be a self-contradiction. From an artistic point of view, however,
the indeterminacy of everyday sounds need not be a disadvantage. The instant
reproducibility of electroacoustic sounds is as tempting an artistic tool as it is
aesthetically challenging. The unpredictability of sounds in their everyday con-
text introduces a dynamic element and serves the artists as a constant reminder
to listen. This creates an interesting alternative to the design of immersive ex-
periences in the regulated environments of the electroacoustic music studio and
concert hall.
The creation of sound art targeted at everyday environments requires a loop-like

production process, where work in the studio and in the real world constantly
take turns and ideally perhaps even blur. In my own artistic practice I found
it challenging to remind myself to get out of the studio. The studio is unfor-
tunately also a good place to hide from ones artistic responsibilities. In this
respect I beneted from the realisation of works which did not rely on elec-
troacoustic technology, and for which it was thus obvious that the electronic
music studio would not represent a suitable working environment. Pieces like
Straenmusik and EaRdverts made me get used to everyday environments as
my eld of action. This allowed me to develop my personal aural awareness
and to learn how to take time to listen. Even where the studio does serve as
a useful tool, it sometimes needs to be used in unusual ways. For example,
monitoring on headphonestraditionally regarded as a second-best alternative
or restricted to special occasionsbecomes indispensable in the design of pieces
such as 9/2/5, which use binaural methods of sound reproduction.
9.3 Directions for Future Research

The inherent irony of research is that it tends to bring up at least as many
questions as it helps to answer. This allows me to propose several directions for
further study, with which I will conclude this thesis. I will rst suggest direct
extensions to the research presented in this thesis and then propose to extend
the discussion on everyday aural awareness from listening to soundmaking.
9.3.1 Extensions to the Work Presented in this Thesis

The artistic goal of my research was to propose a variety of strategies for encour-
aging aural awareness in an everyday context. The developed concepts could
however only be addressed in limited detail, and each of them deserves further
study. The form of public interventions which I have developed in Straenmusik
and EaRdverts could nd many more variations on its theme, as could sound-
scape studies such as Alexanderplatz. However, further research might especially
be required to identify the idiosyncrasies of technologically mediated listening
in more detail. This concerns primarily aural experience mediated through a
microphone-headphone chain, such as in the real-time audio walks presented in
section 7.2.5. Possible improvements on a technical level include optimisations
with regards to background noise, audio latency, choice of headphone types,
microphone positioning, and hardware miniaturisation. Feature extraction and
sound processing algorithms could be added and technically improved, but their
evaluation in perceptual terms is even more important. I have noted in section
7.3.2 that sound processing techniques known from a concert hall and studio
context can acquire very dierent perceptual meanings when applied to every-
day aural experience. These processing techniques should therefore be much
more thoroughly tested in an everyday context, and their successful combina-
tion in composed structures be put at the forefront of further artistic research.
The deliberate confusion of immediate and technologically mediated listening,
as exemplied in the work Interroutes, represents another interesting area for
further investigation. This principle might be applicable to real-time audio
walks in a much more convincing manner than has been achieved so far.
My investigation of social listening environments (cf. chapter 8) could only

scratch the surface of understanding technologically mediated listening as a
shared aesthetic experience. Many applications of technology which go artisti-
cally deeper than the sharing of playlists can be imagined in this area. The
study of sound art as a means of auralising everyday rhythm also deserves fur-
ther attention. Installations in the spirit of 24/7 could be permanently installed
in gallery or outdoor spaces for much longer periods of time (months or years).
Besides the interesting technical problems which this would bring with itfor
example, the design of reliable, self-sucient and remotely maintainable sound
serverssuch works could further extend presentation forms for the aesthetic
reception of sound.
Figure 9.1: The duality of listening and soundmaking according to Truax (1998).
9.3.2 Soundmaking: The Other Half of Aural Awareness

My investigation of everyday aural awareness has deliberately restricted itself
to the perceiving rather than the articulating end of aural experience. Whereas
the performance of sound has traditionally formed the foundation for most the-
ories and practices in the sonic arts, its aesthetic perception has been much less
thoroughly addressed. The focus on aural perception allowed me to liberate my
own practice from conventional modes of musical production and consumption.
For example, no sounds whatsoever were created in the development of the
pieces Ohrenli(e)der, Straenmusik and EaRdverts, and the sounds created in
Music for Lovers, 24/7 and 9/2/5 depend entirely on the presence of sounds
outside the works themselves. Nevertheless, these works hopefully have the
ability to initiate a listening experience.
In the long run, however, any discussion of aural awareness would remain in-
complete if it restricted itself to the reception of sound. Soundmaking represents
a natural part of our everyday activities for the exchange of information, enter-
tainment, or simply as an incidental by-product of other activities. To create
sound is literally the only way to make oneself heard (Truax 2001:23). It is
also essential to our experience of space (Neuhaus 1994b:9; Blesser & Salter
2006:15f). Soundmaking in groups always reects the underlying social struc-
ture of that group (Truax 2001:42). As Chelko (1991:37) has noted, public
space is not only a space of aural co-presence but also of co-production.
Listening and soundmaking do not represent independent processes; they com-

plement each other in a symbiotic relationship and form the duality of aural
perception (Schafer 1994:153; Oliveros 2005:40). Truax (1998) denes the rela-
tionship between the listener and the soundscape as a continuous loop between
listening and soundmaking (cf. gure 9.1). The two processes mutually benet
from each other:
As we become active soundmakers we will also become more active

listeners. (Westerkamp 1988:124)
According to Westerkamp (1988:146) a balance between listening and sound-

making is essential for the transition from mere awareness towards an actual
engagement of listeners in their everyday sound environment. In many of the

artworks which I have discussed in this thesis, the audience is encouraged to
create sound in order to initiate a listening experience. This includes my own
works Music for Lovers, 24/7 and 9/2/5, which encourage the listener to es-
tablish a feedback loop between sound creation and reception.
With regards to soundmaking, technological mediacy becomes once again a

critical issue. The special role of non-mediated soundmaking through ones
own voice has been pointed out by Westerkamp (1988:139, 2007) and Truax
(2001:34). The creation of sound through ones voice or through a conven-
tional musical instrument represents a deeply embodied experience, as opposed
to the pressing of a play button. Westerkamp (1988:27,130f) therefore argues
that sound technology separates the process of soundmaking from the process
of listening and nurtures an imbalance between the two. In this thesis, I have
proposed that we do not satisfy ourselves with such an understanding of tech-
nology as a threat to an idealised equilibrium of everyday aural experience.
Analogous to the discussion of technologically mediated listening in this thesis,
it would be worthwhile to investigate the mediation of sonic expression through
sound technology as an integral part of everyday aural experience.
It can be speculated that an investigation of soundmaking would further con-

tribute to our understanding of everyday aural awareness. Maybe the revolution
that was meant to be hear! needs to actually be heard.
Appendix
176
This appendix provides an overview of the eight artworks which constitute the
portfolio submitted on DVD as part of this PhD. The eight artworks in this
portfolio are presented here in the chronological order of their creation. The
nature of these pieces is manifold, ranging from graphical scores, site-specic
electroacoustic pieces and public interventions to sound installations and mobile
hardware projects. As varied as their presentation formats are the means by
which these works have been documented. For each work, there is a short
descriptive text and a list of links to additional documentation on the DVD,
which includes photographs, videos, technical diagrams, yers, gallery diaries,
maps, audio documentation and other media. A unique documentation strategy
has been adopted for each piece.
Ohrenli(e)der
A
Directed listening scores (2007)
A.1 Description
The title of the Ohrenli(e)der series of directed listening scores can either be
read as Ohrenlider (earlids) or Ohrenlieder (ear songs). The pieces are re-
alised in postcard format, with a graphical score on the front and textual
instructions on the back page. The notation instructs the performer, who is
identical with the audience, to open and close her left and right ears by
the means of her ngers, hands or any other suitable instrument, following the
notated temporal structure. This creates a two-part counterpoint of ltering
eects between the two extremes of silenceor, to be more precise, the sounds
which we hear with stued earsand the undisturbed soundscape. No addi-
tional sounds are created during the performance. The pieces can be performed
in everyday situations like on the train, while waiting for the dentist, etc.
Their intention is to oer an engaging way of increasing ones own awareness
and appreciation towards the acoustic environment.
178
APPENDIX A. OHRENLI(E)DER 179
Figure A.1: Examples from the Ohrenli(e)der scores.
A.2 Notation
The scores are read from top to bottom. The left/right symbols suggest some
sort of stereo experience at rst sight. The triangle symbols dene what is si-
lence (white) and what is sound (black). The listener may freely determine the
speed at which to step through the piece. Some of the scores aim at a literal
interpretation (e.g. songs 1, 4, 9), while others suggest a certain quality
of the gestures to be performed (e.g. song 5). Others again refer to familiar
experiences, such as Ohrenli(e)d 10, which most of us have performed for
themselves at some stage as a child. This makes it easier for listeners to relate
to the scores; especially for those who are not trained in reading or performing
music.
The postcard format encourages the performance of the pieces in dierent

acoustic environments. The scores are small enough to be carried on ones
own body, and postcards travel to dierent places by denition. Mailing them
to friends makes it possible to share the pieces despite the almost autistic
listening experience which they help to create. Postcards are also frequently
handed out in public places (e.g. bars, venues) or placed there for people to
pick them up. The visual appeal of the scores might generate enough curiosity
in the viewers to support such an interpretation of the postcards as yers.
The Ohrenli(e)der nd themselves in the tradition of the postcard version of

Max Neuhaus piece Listen (1978) and of Fluxus event scores such as George
APPENDIX A. OHRENLI(E)DER 180
Brechts Water Yam.
A.3 Public Presentation

Institute of Acoustics Spring Conference 2008: Paper presentation at
the University of Reading, England, 10 April 2008.
New Noise 2008: Public performance at the National University of Ireland

Maynooth as part of an event hosted by the Contemporary Music Centre Ire-
land, 19 April 2008. Copies of the scores were distributed around the building
in which the event took place, and the audience was invited to nd and try
them.
A.4 Performance Materials on DVD

Score gallery
Scores in PDF format
A.5 Documentation Materials on DVD

Video from the performance at NUI Maynooth
Photographs from the performance at NUI Maynooth

Straenmusik
B
Unguided soundwalks in chalk (2008)
B.1 Description
Straenmusik can literally be translated as street music, but it is also the Ger-
man term for busking and the title of a series of silent sound interventions. At
two occasions, an in situ score for an unguided soundwalk was created around
buildings in South Belfast. A trail of white chalk invited random passers-by
to follow a path through an area of their everyday environment which they
were likely to be unfamiliar with. Along the way, acoustic features character-
istic to the respective environment were marked and described. The audience
would also encounter textual instructions, such as to wait in front of a ven-
tilation system until it comes on, to slowly turn around ten times, or more
metaphorical references such as Hearing the grass grow. The pieces aim at
encouraging pedestrians to rediscover the uninteresting sites of their everyday
lives, which do not usually make it to the foreground of their acoustic attention.
After the completion of these interventions, I noted some interesting paral-

lels to other artworks, such as Walter De Marias Two Parallel Lines (1968),
which featured two mile-long lines of chalk in the Nevada Desert and La Monte
Youngs Composition 1960 #10 to Bob Morris, whose score reads Draw a
straight line and follow it. Olafur Eliasson also uses white lines of chalk to at-
181
APPENDIX B. STRAENMUSIK 182
tract the attention of passers-by to his public interventions. I also learnt about
a German-Austrian tradition called Maistrich, where a line of lime is drawn
between the houses of two lovers by considerate neighbours on the night before
1 May. Several cafes and a cinema in South Belfast started advertising in chalk
on public pavements a couple of months after I had realised my intervention,
but I do not think that there is a relation to my work.
Figure B.1: straenmusik around the Sonic Arts Research Centre.
B.2 Public Presentation

Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast: Public intervention around the
building, 11 to 13 June 2008.
Sir William Whitla Concert Hall, Belfast: Public intervention around

the building during the International Computer Music Conference 2008, 29
August 2008
B.3 Documentation Materials on DVD

Video from the walk around the Sir William Whitla Hall in Belfast
Photographs from the walk around the Sir William Whitla Hall in Belfast
Photographs from the walk around the Sonic Arts Research Centre in
Belfast
APPENDIX B. STRAENMUSIK 183
Audience instructions posted on a lamppost at the beginning of the walk

around the Sonic Arts Research Centre
C
EaRdverts
Public listening interventions (2008)
C.1 Description
EaRdverts is a public intervention in which any ears visible on advertising
billboards in a certain urban area are marked with big coloured arrows. The
arrows feature textual references to the process of listening and use the same
ear iconography (one could speak of an earconography) which has also been
employed in the Straenmusik project (cf. appendix B). EaRdverts aims at
gradually increasing its audiences aural awareness rather than at an immediate,
spectacular eect. Seeing one arrow is probably not enough to make one listen.
After encountering several of them over an extended period of time, their
presence might slowly start to stimulate a reaction. Coming across one hundred
of them over the course of a week (as would have been possible in Belfasts
Queens quarter at the time of the projects realisation) might encourage some
people to start listening to their environment more consciously. I see these
interventions as my contribution to the diversity of Belfast city life. Almost as
interesting as to convey the pieces was to watch their gradual decline due to
natural erosion and a surprising amount of deliberate vandalism.
184
APPENDIX C. EARDVERTS 185
C.2 Public Presentation

Queens Quarter, South Belfast: Public intervention, 23 to 25 June 2008.
C.3 Documentation Materials on DVD

Photographs from the intervention in South Belfast
Figure C.1: Examples from EaRdverts.

Alexanderplatz
D
Two electroacoustic installation pieces (2008)
D.1 Description
Alexanderplatz is an attempt to recreate the multifaceted acoustic environment
of this central Berlin square in the context of a sound installation. Two short
pieces were realised in the course of a eld recording workshop conducted by
Chris Watson at the Tuned City festival 2008. They originated in a study
of the squares soundscape which Sam Auinger had encouraged me to pursue.
Alexanderplatz (the square, not the piece) is huge. The recorded area covers
about 700400 metres. The acoustics of the square are determined by a number
of landmark buildings, such as the famous TV broadcasting tower, the Galeria
Kaufhof shopping centre and a major train station. The squares architecture
accommodates a vast variety of acoustic niches, ranging from Mediterranean-
plaza-like acoustics to areas of heavy trac and surprisingly intimate sceneries.
D.2 Implementation
D.2.1 Recording
Twelve binaural recordings, each between one and ve minutes long, were made
in dierent locations on Alexanderplatz between 2:45 and 4:45 p.m. on 3 July
186
APPENDIX D. ALEXANDERPLATZ 187
2008. (I later heard that Berlin was apparently the hottest place in the Europe
that day, and Alexanderplatzwith its vast amounts of concretewas probably
the hottest place in Berlin.) In the course of these recordings, I developed a
practice of orally annotated recordings, including a verbal description of the
scenery at the beginning and an analysis at the end of most recordings. In
these (German) comments, I aimed at a description of the squares acoustics
in terms of the contrasting and often overlaying acoustic spaces (Klangorte)
which it accommodates. The beginning of this process can be pinned down to
recording 10, 538.
Figure D.1: Recording and loudspeaker positions for the sound installation Alexan-
derplatz. Recordings not used in the nal pieces are greyed out.
D.2.2 Editing Concept

The artistic goal of the piece was to recreate the acoustic imagery of Alexan-
derplatz on the four-channel speaker layout which was available for the public
presentation concluding the workshop. The main challenge was to transpose a
large, heterogeneous space onto a much smaller and acoustically homogeneous
one. This was achieved by overlaying recordings from contrasting acoustic
spaces within the square. I analysed all twelve recordings and extracted contin-
uous parts from seven of them for further use. I divided these into two groups,
one corresponding to the north and the other to the south part of the square
(cf. gure D.1). From each group, I created a short four-channel piece. In
each piece, all sound snippets which appear in it start concurrently, and the
piece ends when the longest one of them has nished. The shorter snippets
break away earlier in the piece, and these transition points allow the listener
to distinguish the elements from which the acoustic scene has been composed.
D.2.3 Sound Spatialisation Concept

The four-channel system was interpreted as a superposition of four overlapping
stereo pairs representing the four edges of the square, with each speaker cor-
responding to a point of the compass (cf. gure D.1). The mapping of the
recordings onto the four-channel layout roughly corresponds to my own geo-
graphic position and orientation during each recording. For example, recording
1 represents the northeast side of the square, whereas recording 2 represents
the southwest side. The former was hence mapped to the speakers representing
the north and east direction (with the east speaker playing the left and the
north speaker playing the right channel), and the latter to the south and
west speakers.
D.2.4 Automation and Binaural Mixdown

After the performance, I wrote a shell script and a Gnu Octave script to au-
tomate the creation of the two pieces from the original recordings and thereby
document the creative and technical process in detail. In addition, these scripts
generate a binaural mixdown of both pieces, which can be listened to in sit-
uations where no four-channel loudspeaker setup is available. These binaural
mixdowns implement a virtual loudspeaker layout by means of a set of head-
related impulse responses made available by Bill Gardner and Keith Martin at
the MIT Media Lab website. Each loudspeaker signal is convolved with the
impulse responses for the direction of the respective loudspeaker, resulting in
a signal whichwhen listened to through headphonesappears as if it was
coming from that direction.
D.3 Public Presentation

Tuned City Festival 2008: Installation at the Rundfunkhaus Nalepastrae,
Berlin, 5 July 2008. The pieces ran in a loop with those by the other workshop
participants for the duration of an afternoon.
D.4 Performance Materials on DVD

Four-channel versions of both pieces in .wav format
D.5 Documentation Materials on DVD

Binaural mixdown of piece A; to be listened to through headphones
Binaural mixdown of piece B; to be listened to through headphones
Map showing the recording locations and sound spatialisation concept for
the installation
Binaural eld recordings which served as the source material. To be

listened to through headphones.
Shell script for generating the four-channel and binaural mixdowns from
the eld recordings
Gnu Octave script called by the above shell script
Photograph from the workshop with Chris Watson; by courtesy of Kim

Laugs
Photograph of the performance space in Berlin; by courtesy of Pablo Sanz

E
Interroutes
Site-specic electroacoustic miniatures (2008)
E.1 Description
Interroutes is a series of site-specic electroacoustic compositions which have
been published online in MP3 format. Their titles indicate the locations in
South Belfast where they are to be played. The pieces should be listened to
through a standard portable digital music player, at a playback volume typically
used for music listening. Since it is important to remain acoustically connected
to the environment, standard open earphones should be used rather than closed-
back headphones or earphones which are inserted into the ear canal. The sound
material in each piece consists of earlier recordings from the respective playback
location. Rather short extracts of these recordings are placed between extended
periods of silence. During the latter, the everyday soundscape can be listened to
almost undisturbedly. Interroutes aims at challenging the listeners perception
with regards to what is real and what is part of the pieces. The sounds in
the pieces are designed such that they could be interpreted as an actual part
of the environment.
190
APPENDIX E. INTERROUTES 191
Figure E.1: Interroutes playback locations.
E.2 Public Presentation

ICMC 2008: The pieces were published online and advertised during the
International Computer Music Conference at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in
Belfast in August 2008. They remain available for download at http://flo.
mur.at/interroutes/.
E.3 Performance Materials on DVD

These are the actual pieces, which are to be listened to in the locations indi-
cated by their title, using a portable digital music player with standard ear-
phones. Where this is not possible, I recommend to listen to the pieces through
headphones nevertheless, since all sound material in them has been binaurally
recorded.
From SARC to the Peter Froggatt Centre
5 Minutes in the Black & White Hall
Botanic Gardens
APPENDIX E. INTERROUTES 192
E.4 Documentation Materials on DVD

Audio documentation: To document the experience of Interroutes, I have
overlaid each piece with a binaural recording from its intended playback
location. To be listened to through headphones.
Liner notes
Documentation recording From SARC to the Peter Froggatt Centre
Documentation recording 5 Minutes in the Black & White Hall
Documentation recording Botanic Gardens
Map indicating playback locations of all pieces
Flyer from the International Computer Music Conference 2008

Music for Lovers
F
Mobile sound installation (2009)
F.1 Description
The mobile sound installation Music for Lovers touches on the listening expe-
rience shared by two people who are closeeither in the emotional or in the
spatial sense of the word, or both. This experience is personal but not exclu-
sive, private but shared, intimate but not solitary. To love is to put oneself in
somebody elses shoes. Or ears. Music for Lovers facilitates this process by
allowing two people to exchange what they are hearing. It lets them exchange
their everyday auditory impressions in real-time.
The installations setup consists of two pairs of headphones, each extended by

a pair of binaural microphones mounted on their earcups. The headphones and
microphones are connected in a cross-wise fashion, so that each listener hears
the world through the other persons ears. The pieces original inspiration
was an anecdote by Dave Drury, who recounted an experience he and Una
Monaghan had had while they were conducting binaural eld recordings: Dave
was wearing a pair of in-ear microphones, whose signal Una was concurrently
monitoring on headphones. He remembered her astonishment at listening to
the resulting shift of her own acoustic perspective. The vigorousness of her
reaction demanded a more detailed artistic investigation.
193
APPENDIX F. MUSIC FOR LOVERS 194
Figure F.1: Left: Music for Lovers (detail). Right: Two young listeners during the
exhibition of Music or Lovers at Ad Hoc Belfast.
Sound technology is almost exclusively used for communication in the absence

of a common physical space. Phones allow people to communicate over dis-
tances, concert recordings allow them to experience events outside of their
original location. Where space is sharedat a dinner table or in a one-on-one
conversation during a walkthere seems to be no need for a technological me-
diation of listening. But two people occupying the same space do by no means
have identical auditory experiences. For example, the acoustic impressions of
space experienced by two people in a face-to-face conversation are exactly mir-
rored. Understanding the other persons point of view (or whatever the acoustic
equivalent of that would be) becomes a matter of extrapolating from ones own,
which opens the door for misinterpretations. Music for Lovers tries to reverse
the usual role of sound technology by putting it in the service of the receiving
rather than the transmitting end of communication.
F.2 Implementation
Of all pieces in this portfolio, the available development time for Music or
Lovers was by far the shortest, which is why it was based on o-the-shelf
hardware. The nal design consisted of two pairs of Sennheiser HD 25-SP II
headphones, each extended by a pair of Soundman OKM II Klassik binaural
microphones. Some additional audio electronics were required to provide the
electret condenser microphones with a voltage supply and to amplify the mi-
crophone signal before playback. For the former purpose, two Soundman A3
adaptors were used; for the latter two battery-powered Fiio E5 headphone am-
pliers. The sound pressure levels created by this chain turned out to provide
APPENDIX F. MUSIC FOR LOVERS 195
an adequate playback volume. These parts are placed inside two transparent
heart-shaped boxes, one of which each listener wears around the neck. The
headphone cables connect the two heart-shaped boxesand thereby the listen-
ers, in accordance with the installations title. At three metres, the wire is just
short enough to not become an obstacle. Music for Lovers was deliberately de-
signed not to be wireless, after experiments with a wireless prototype revealed
that people tended to use it much like a mobile phone.
F.3 Public Presentation

ISEA 2009: Exhibition at the Broadcast Gallery, Dublin Institute of Tech-
nology at the Symposium of the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA),
28 to 31 August 2009.
Irish Culture Night 2009: Launch night of the Ad Hoc artists initiative in
Belfast, 18 Kent Street, 25 September 2009.
F.4 Performance Materials on DVD

Technical diagram
Gallery sta instruction sheet
F.5 Documentation Materials on DVD

Photographs of the hardware and from the exhibitions
G 24/7
Sound installation (2009)
Figure G.1: At the opening of 24/7.
G.1 Description
The sound installation 24/7 was created during a three-week residency at the
PS2 gallery in Belfast in October 2009. For the duration of the residency,
sound was continuously recorded in the gallery, processed with delays of dif-
ferent lengths and played back through ve pairs of headphones. On each of
these, the audience could listen to a dierent moment in the gallerys acoustic
past: 1.9 seconds ago; 2 hours ago; 3 days and 7 hours ago; 1 week ago; 3
196
APPENDIX G. 24/7 197
minutes ago. A white trail on the gallery oor guided the audience through
the exhibition in the above order. The headphone cables were arranged such as
to form a timeline on the gallery wall, with the delay time for each headphone
clearly labelled. The dierent delays were also reected in the spatial layout of
the exhibition. Both the distance of a pair of headphones to the dummy head
and the comfort of the available seating increased with the delay time. This
setup corresponded to the more performative nature of the shorter delays
which visitors would often use to play with their own echoes in the dummy
heads immediate proximityas well as to the increased reection times de-
manded by the long-term delays.
24/7 echoes the polyrhythms of everyday life as they manifest themselves in the
sound environment. The absence of any preproduced sounds in the installation
challenges its audience to adopt not only a perceiving but also a performing at-
titude. At the same time, the work addresses issues of privacy and surveillance.
In a way 24/7 resembles an acoustic equivalent of Dan Grahams Opposing
Mirrors (1974).
G.2 Implementation
The sound in the gallery was recorded by a Neumann KU 100 dummy head.
The use of a binaural recording technique in combination with headphone play-
back created a spatial acoustic experience which was often convincing enough
for listeners to confuse the headphone signals with the real sound environment.
The recorded signals were captured by a sound server running Pure Data. The
short-term delays (1.9 seconds; 3 minutes) were implemented through RAM-
based delay lines, whereas the longer delays were achieved by continuously
writing and reading soundles to and from disk. This necessitated a synchroni-
sation of the sound servers system and sample clocks, which was achieved by
splitting the recording into one-hour junks and letting the system clock trigger
the playback of each junk. To avoid gaps or discontinuities at the transition
points, the recorded les overlapped by several seconds and were crossfaded
during playback. The sound servers system time was kept accurate by syn-
chronising it over the internet using the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
G.3 Public Presentation

PS2 gallery, Belfast: Development and exhibition during a three-week resi-
dency, 5 to 24 October 2009.
APPENDIX G. 24/7 198
G.4 Performance Materials on DVD

Information on how to run the Pure Data patch
Pure Data patch startup scripts for Linux, Mac and Windows
Pure Data patch les
Technical diagram
G.5 Documentation Materials on DVD

Photographs of the installation
Gallery diary
Audio documentation (to be listened to through headphones):
Liner notes
Track 1: Echo whistling
Track 2: Recited visit
Track 3: The curious worker
Track 4: Recited phone call
Track 5: At the opening
Track 6: 3 art students
Track 7: Double recital
Track 8: Peters kids
Gallery blurb
Flyer
H 9/2/5
Audio walk (200810)
H.1 Description
9/2/5 is an audio walk during which a solo listener wears a pair of headphones,
whose earcups are extended by a pair of binaural microphones. Both micro-
phones and headphones are connected to a portable computer, which transforms
the recorded sound in real-time. Dierent electroacoustic processing techniques
are applied, such as echoes, delays, reverb, panning, etc. What distinguishes
9/2/5 from similar projects is that the processing algorithm adopts itself ac-
cording to the current daytime and reacts not only to features extracted from
the recorded signal (peaks, pitch, volume, etc.) but also to commands from
the listener, who can tap the microphones according to certain patterns (e.g.
left-right-left) in order to change the playback volume, record sounds for later
playback or play preprogrammed scenes. As the installations title suggests,
9/2/5 aims at its integration into an everyday listening context and addresses
the theme of everyday rhythmicity. The installation extends over the course of
an entire day, with the listener being able to tune in and out of the piece at
will.
199
APPENDIX H. 9/2/5 200
Figure H.1: Antoni Abad with an early prototype of 9/2/5.
H.2 Implementation
A rst prototype of the installation was developed during a residency at the
Ban New Media Institute in Alberta, Canada in November 2008. It consisted
of a pair of binaural Soundman OKM II Klassik microphones mounted on a
pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO headphones, both connected to an Asus
Eee PC 701 portable computer running Pure Data for sound processing. A pre-
programmed ten-minute score was realised in the form of a text le describing
the temporal development of various audio processing parameters.
After a second development phase, the nal version of the installation was
completed in spring 2010. The headphones had been exchanged for a pair
of Sennheiser HD 25-1 II, and the portable computer had received a custom-
designed carrier bag designed by Una Hickey. The Pure Data patch had been
substantially extended as to include feature extraction, user interaction through
microphone tapping, and dynamic behaviour of the sound processing algorithm
depending on the current daytime. The underlying Linux operating system had
been optimised towards low-latency audio processing, low-power consumption,
short boot time and automated startup and shutdown procedures. The operat-
ing system communicates with Pure Data over to exchange information about
battery status, system time, power button presses by the user, etc.
Additional experiments were conducted with earphones which are inserted di-
rectly into the ear canal. Further miniaturisation of the portable computing
hardware was attempted by experimenting with a design based on the Texas

Instruments Beagle Board. However, these developments were not integrated
into the nal design.
H.3 Public Presentation

Banff New Media Institute: Open Studio Day, 27 November 2008. This
event concluded the residency during which the rst prototype of the installa-
tion was developed. Members of the public were invited to try the ten-minute
piece created during the residency.
Private distribution: The nal version of 9/2/5 was presented to a number

of selected listeners in April 2010, each of whom was invited to keep the device
for an entire day and try it at dierent occasions. The results were documented
by recording both the unprocessed microphone signal as well as the processed
headphone signal. These recordings form the basis for the audio documentation
on the portfolio DVD.
H.4 Performance Materials on DVD

Information on how to run the Pure Data patch
Pure Data patch startup scripts for Linux and Mac
Pure Data patch les
ACPI scripts for the Asus Eee PC 701
Audience instruction sheet
Audience cheat sheet; to be mounted on the portable computer
Technical diagram
H.5 Documentation Materials on DVD

Audio documentation Two Days with Robyn and Dionysis (to be listened
to through headphones):
Liner notes
Track 1: Robyns breakfast
Track 2: Hide and seek

Track 3: Robyn at Tescos
Track 4: Lunch
Track 5: At Starbucks
Track 6: Walking home
Track 7: Dinner
Track 8: A beautiful day
Track 9: Kicked it?
Photographs of hardware and listeners

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School of Music and Sonic Arts

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Queens University Belfast

The Revolution is Hear!

Submitted in partial requirement for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Keywords: Aural culture, technologically mediated listening, modes of listen-

PhD candidates tend to have every reason to be thankful, and I am certainly

they are) pointed me towards reading material or other sources of inspiration.

This thesis is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial

Hollerweger, Florian (2008): Three Strategies for the Design of Social

Hollerweger, Florian (2008): Ohrenli(e)der: Compositions for Listener.

Rebelo, Pedro, Matt Green & Florian Hollerweger (2008): A Typology

Hollerweger, Florian (2010): Music for Lovers: Shared Binaurality in a

1.2.1 The Noise Pollution Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4 Six Perspectives on Sound 64

4.6 Sound as Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

III Art 108

6 Sound Art and the Everyday 109

6.3.3 The City as a Canvas for Sound Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

7 Mobile Listening 130

8 Social Listening 154

F Music for Lovers 193

F.5 Documentation Materials on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

The revolution is hear! What originated as a misspelt political slogan on a

0.1 Aestheticised Listening, Aural Awareness

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it,

The aestheticisation of aural experience through works of sound art is often

How can everyday life be dened? It surrounds us, it besieges us,

transformed variation of an otherwise familiar listening experience, it is pos-

0.2 A Guide to this Research Project

0.2.1 Artistic Practise (Portfolio of Artworks)

In the second phase of my artistic practice, I conducted a series of soundscape

tended periods of silence. While conceiving these works, I developed a method

0.2.2 Theoretical Reflection (Thesis)

Chapter 2 is concerned with the role of technology with regards to listening

Chapter 3 portrays aural awareness as a multifaceted phenomenon. I will

Chapter 4 oers six dierent perspectives on sound. Besides bearing further

Chapter 5 discusses listening as an artistic practice as exemplied in the

Chapter 7 will be concerned with the technological mediation of mobile lis-

Chapter 8 is dedicated to the social dimension of everyday listening. I will

Chapter 9 provides a summary of the thesis, some concluding remarks and

A contribution towards a better understanding of the idiosyncrasies of

A discussion of dierent listening modes and perspectives on sound, which

A contribution towards a better understanding of sound as space, includ-

A contribution towards an understanding of listening as an artistic prac-

The formulation of artistic strategies for the aestheticisation of everyday

The use of silent public interventions as an art form for encouraging

The identication of subtlety as an aesthetic category for sound art in an

A contribution towards a better understanding of sound art as a distinct

1.1.1 Mechanisation and Electrification

use of mobile phones on public transport (Radaelli 2008). Schafer (1994:214)

1.1.2 Lack of Awareness

1.1.3 Commercialisation of Public Space

Not always, however, does advertising bother to dress up as music. Vending

1.1.4 The Sounds of Health and Safety

We dont dress policemen as monsters. Why then do we think they

Every time I hear a truck back up I have [...] an image of an

Another mis-design concerns the frequent repetitiveness of acoustic announce-

ocers themselves, who by now must be reciting these announcements in their

Ironically the over-design of acoustic warnings might compromise their actual

1.1.5 Private Property

Sound is used to enforce private property in yet more aggressive ways. A