Greetings All, I have made more than one attempt at recording (Ambisonically, of course!) a steam whistle and its resulting echo in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Wind has been the foe, but it is interesting to hear first-hand how atmospheric conditions affect sound. In addition to wind noise masking the echo, sound appears to travel up-hill (attenuation) when traveling opposite to wind direction. Furthermore, isotherms (layers of cold and warm in the canyons) appear to change the way sound travels.
Although yesterday's attempt at sound recording weren’t successful, I took time to visit the Boyce Thompson Arboretum (also in the Superstition Mountain Range). Despite high winds, the arboretum was somewhat isolated from an ongoing desert dust storm. The arboretum's many flowers and plants attract a lot of birds, so it’s a potentially great place to record bird sounds. (Side: Why am I the only person in the mountains with a mic? Normal people have cameras.) While I was enjoying the scent of roses and honeysuckle blossoms during my visit, the thought of electronically “recording” scents and odors came to mind (not exactly a new idea). After all, we have multiple methods of electronically recording images and sounds. It then made me think about sensation, perception, and how “reality” travels across/thru various medium. The amusing thought of an older Warner Bros/Bugs Bunny cartoon that referred to “smell-a-vision” also surfaced. Although I don’t believe scents and odors would enhance movie-goers experiences (didn’t director John Waters already try this?), it does elicit thoughts of vials of elements and compounds being electronically mixed to produce odorants. Or, as with other implantable prostheses, what (and how) would be “recorded” to produce the sensations of olfaction and gestation via their respective cranial nerves? Sound travels on a medium (typically air for audition), as does light on an aether (ok, Michelson and Morley proved light doesn’t travel on such a medium). This could elicit discussion regarding the various schools of psychology and perception (Gestalt theorists, etc.) and how the sensation-evoking stimuli reach us (not to be confused with how they’re detected). Ecological psychology, for example, addresses vision and hearing, but these are sensations evoked by events that disturb or propagate through a medium. Touch, taste, and smell have no such medium, though many animals rely heavily on olfaction for survival and can determine the direction of a scent’s source (air current direction?). Certain schools of thought lean heavily on just a couple of sensations, not sensation as a whole. This is why I don't ascribe to any single school of thought regarding perception. As I digress (and meander in my thoughts), the definitions of media and medium come to mind. Just one week ago, a Sursound reader/contributor, Mark, kindly asked whether I had heard of Marshall McLuhan. I have since downloaded a couple of books by (and about) McLuhan. As I understood (via Mark’s email), McLuhan received funding from IBM to launch a research project on various types and combinations of sensory inputs. Because of differences among scientists, McLuhan's research ran into problems. McLuhan is also the person who coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” Depending on our definition, we could say “the medium (e.g. air) carries the message.” I guess that’s being a bit too pedantic, but then touch carries a strong message without need for a medium or media. And regardless of the best audio-video recording gear in the world, I wouldn’t be able to capture or convey my experience at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum without the elusive smellavision. As the title of this post indicates, I’m meandering. But the medium, message, and enjoyment of music and other sounds change in the presence of other stimuli. Surround sound also changes (and generally enhances) our listening experience, at least compared to mono or stereo. As humankind strives to move forward, I’m curious what the next “medium” may be, and how surround sound will be shaped by paradigm shifts. For now, I'm just meandering about the message... Best, Eric C. PS--I understand that a nibble (capital N or lower-case n?) consist of 4 bites (or half a byte). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20130409/8f756dfa/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
