3 & 4 juillet @ CRANE lab linktr.ee/cranelab
https://benfuhrman.com
Re-naturalizing Loudspeaker Listening : Consider the Environment
Growing up, my parents had an extensive music collection, and I was immersed in stereophonic music from birth. For me, it was the default mode of listening, particularly on albums like the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, or on orchestral recordings, with clearly delineated placements of instruments between the left and the right channels. But it was always an imperfect simulacrum of what I was actually hearing in real life.
In the same way that we exist in 3-dimensional space, and that the square is a reduced 2-dimensional form of a cube, stereo listening reduces the sonic information that we normally perceive, condensing it down to a single line on which events are arranged. Expanding to quadraphonic, 5.1, or 7.1 surround systems was an improvement, allowing for sounds to be perceived behind the listener, if only on a single plane. It wasn’t until I was in university taking courses in recording and composition that I was able to hear pieces composed and diffused in 3-dimensions, placing sounds all around the listener in a way that replicates (or at least approximates) the natural sound environment in which we live.
And that idea of the spatial environment has shaped my work.
In my acousmatic compositions, I am working to create a sonic environment that encompasses the listener. Whether composed of naturally occurring or synthetic sounds, my approach is to place the listener at the center of the sonic universe and let the events of the composition unfold around them. At times, this can be an overpowering barrage of sound in all directions, at other times, it can be a single sound being directed around the listener. But in all cases, the impetus is to have the listener consider where the sound is coming from, and where to focus their attention, relying on the nature of the ear and the brain to direct their focus as I weave a tapestry of sonic events that unfold around them, creating an evolving soundscape that hopefully feels organic and natural to the ear.
#cranelab #BenFuhrman #3Daudio #acousmatic #AcousmaticMusic #MultichannelMusic #spatialization #AudioResearch
CRANE lab Research Center Heterotopia, Acousmatic Music, Volumiphony, Action Art & Ethics of Arts