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Aural Architecture Practice: Creative Approaches for an Ecology of Affect

Thesis · December 2018

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27207.96166

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 1

Aural Architecture Practice

Creative Approaches for an Ecology of Affect

Cláudia Martinho

Goldsmiths, University of London

PhD Music (Sonic Arts)

2018
 2

The work presented in this thesis has been carried out by myself, except as
otherwise specified.

December 15, 2017

 3

Acknowledgments

Thanks to:
my family, Mazatzin and Sitlali, for their support and understanding;
my PhD thesis’ supervisors, Professor John Levack Drever and Dr. Iris Garrelfs,
for their valuable input;
and everyone who has inspired me and that took part in the co-creation of this
thesis practical case studies.

This research has been supported by the Foundation for Science and
Technology fellowship. Funding has also been granted from the Department of
Music and from the Graduate School at Goldsmiths University of London,
the arts organisations Guimarães Capital of Culture 2012, Invisible Places and
Lisboa Soa, to support the creation of the artworks presented in this research
as practical case studies.

This work is dedicated to my father and to my brother Carlos who have always
encouraged me in experimentation and creative innovation.
 4

Abstract
While the acoustic environment and urban soundscapes shape our everyday
life, architecture practice usually neglects the experience of acoustic space in its
design process. My research addressed the challenge of integrating spatial
acoustics and the experience of environmental sound in architecture practice.
Drawing from acoustic ecology, creative approaches embody the aural
experience of the environment into the design process of architecture. The
research was guided by my explorations of a site-oriented aural architecture
practice, to create unusual encounters and connections between human and
non-human beings, for their relationship through the acoustic space. It
experimented with the physical experience of vibrational forces in environmental
sound, enhanced by acoustic resonance.
The research was carried out by the creation of four artworks, employed as
practical case studies, to experiment with concepts such as: resonant
soundscape, space as resonator (Vibrational Fields), space as a dynamic
relation (Radio Sonores), soundscape for attunement (Shores) and space as
energetic geometry (Passage). The artworks were used to develop sets of
design methods to draw an aural architecture intervention. The first set guides
the experience of site through context analysis, participation, soundwalking,
field recording and sensory variation, for a transformation of the ambiance
dynamic, to accentuate differences and multiple relationships. The second set
offers different approaches in designing aural architecture through the
recomposition of urban soundscape and architectural agency based in
resonance, dynamic relation and energetic geometry, for an operation of
translation. The third set concerns the acoustic spatialisation of vibrational
forces, to open communication channels and symbiotic relationships, for an
operation of attunement. My research explored the enhancement of an innate
capacity of attunement (Morton 2014) to self and other beings (human, non-
human). It resulted in the creation of a diversity of experiences of environmental
sound, as a way to foster an ecology of affect.

 contents 5

Contents

Chapter 1 13
Introduction
1. Background 13
2. Research questions 18
3. Research methods 19
Practice specificity 21
4. Contribution to knowledge 22
5. Definition of key terms 23
5.1. Aural architecture 23
5.2. Site-oriented practice 24
5.3. Experience 27
5.4. Ecology 28
5.5. Design 29
6. Chapters outline 30

Chapter 2 33
Overview of concepts and design methods
1. Conceptual framework 33
1.1. Experience of space as energy-matter 33
1.2. Ecology of affect 36
1.3. Ambiance dynamics 38
1.4. Design of affective experiences of sonic 41
environment
Transformation 42
Translation 43
Attunement 44
2. Design methods 47
1. The experience of site 50
 contents 6

1.1. Analysis of context 50

1.2. Dynamics of experience 51
1.2.1. Soundwalking 52
1.2.2. Field recording 52
1.2.3. Workshops 53
1.3. Sensory variation 53
1.3.1. Sensory phenomena 53
1.3.2. Aural elements 54
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic 54
Operation of transformation 55
2. Aural architecture design 55
2.1. Space as resonator 55
2.2. Resonant soundscape 56
2.3. Space as a dynamic relation 57
2.4. Soundscape for attunement 57
2.5. Space as energetic geometry 57
Operation of translation 58
3. Acoustic spatialisation 58
Operation of attunement 59
4. Audience's experience and feedback 59
Affective experience of environmental sound 59

Chapter 3 60
Working concept: The Field of Resonance 61
Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 74
1. The experience of site 74
1.1. Analysis of context 76
1.2. Dynamics of experience: soundwalking
and field recording 78
1.3. Sensory variation 78
 contents 7

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena 79

1.3.2. Aural elements 79
Emergent concept: background listening 79
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic 80
2. Aural architecture design 81
2.1. Space as resonator 81
2.1.1 Architectural acoustics study 81
2.1.2. Reverberation time calculation 83
2.1.3. Resonance frequencies calculation 86
2.2 Resonant soundscape 89
2.2.1. Composition with field recordings 89
2.2.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies 90
2.2.3. Layers 91
3. Acoustic spatialisation 95
Translation: stochastic score 96
4. Audience's experience and feedback 97
Attunement 98
Final thoughts 99

Chapter 4 100
Working concept: Space as Field 101
Practical case study: Radio Sonores 105
1. The experience of site 106
1.1. Analysis of context 106
1.2. Dynamics of experience: workshop of
building together 107
1.3. Sensory variation 110
1.3.1. Sensory phenomena 110
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic 111
2. Aural architecture design 111
 contents 8

2.1. Space as a dynamic relation 112

Relational space 113
2.2. Energetic geometry 114
Diagram as energetic geometry 115
Assemblage 116
2.3. Architectural acoustics study 117
Geometry 118
Materials’ density 119
Spatial volume 120
Spatial agency 121
2.4. Final thoughts 121

Chapter 5 123
Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 124
Practical case study: Shores 137
1. The experience of site 138
1.1. Analysis of context 138
1.2. Dynamics of experience 141
1.2.1 Field recording: sea sources 142
1.2.2. Field recording: shores’ sources 145
Emergent concept: conscious listening 146
1.2.3. Workshop-soundwalk: listening as
a conscious practice 147
1.3. Sensory variation: a soundscape on a boat 149
1.3.1. Sensory phenomena 150
1.3.2. Aural elements 150
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic 151
2. Aural architecture design 152
2.1. Soundscape for attunement 152
2.1.1 Composition with field recordings 152
 contents 9

2.1.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies 155

2.1.3. Layers 155
Emergent concept: listening-in-readiness
and balancing 155
3. Acoustic spatialisation 156
3.1. Installation: the boat conversion 156
3.2. Spatialisation: the boat inclination 157
3.3. Spatialisation: amplification 158
4. Audience's experience and feedback 159
Attunement 161
Continuity 162

Chapter 6 163
Working concept: Ecology of vibrational affects 164
Practical case study: Passage 172
1. The experience of site 173
1.1. Analysis of context 173
1.2. Dynamics of experience:
soundwalking and field recording 174
1.3. Sensory variation 175
1.3.1. Sensory phenomena 175
1.3.2. Aural elements 176
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic 176
Emergent concept: the language
of water as vibration 177
2. Aural architecture design 178
Operation of translation 178
2.1. The tunnel 181
2.1.1. Space as resonator (tunnel) 181
2.1.2. Resonance frequencies calculation 182
 contents 10

Archaeoacoustics and mind-body

experiences 183
2.1.3. Resonant soundscape (tunnel) 185
Emergent concept: corporeality of
environmental sound 185
2.1.4. Composition with field recordings 186
2.1.5. Layers 187
2.2. The zome 188
2.2.1. Space as a dynamic relation (zome) 188
2.2.2. Energetic geometry - synergetics 189
Materials’ performance 189
Spatial volume 190
2.2.4. Soundscape for attunement 191
2.2.5. Composition with field recordings 192
3. Acoustic spatialisation 193
3.1. The tunnel acoustic spatialisation 193
3.2. The zome acoustic spatialisation 194
4. Audience's experience and feedback 195
4.1. The tunnel - audience’s feedback 195
4.2. The zome - audience’s feedback 196
Affective experience of environmental sound 197
Final thoughts 197

Chapter 7 198
Conclusion
1. Research proposal, questions and methods 198
2. Learning points 202
3. Contribution to knowledge 208
4. Future projects 210
 contents 11

Appendices 212
1: Practice developed during the PhD research 212
2: Previous practice that has informed the PhD research 213
3: The World Soundscape Project (WSP) 214
4: Sound waves’ propagation and frequency perception 215
5: Vibrating systems 216

Bibliography 219

Guide to the artworks’ digital documentation 225

Note on the audio documentation 225
Contents of the artworks’ digital documentation 226
1. Primary audio-visual materials 226
2. Secondary audio-visual materials 226

Artworks digital documentation - USB drive Sleeve

Illustrations list
Fig. 1.01 diagram 19
Fig. 1.02 summary 20
Fig. 2.01 diagram 46
Fig. 2.02 table 49
Fig. 3.01 to 3.06 Vibrational Fields 75
Fig. 3.07 Vibrational Fields 76
Fig. 3.08 to 3.13 Vibrational Fields 77
Fig. 3.14 Vibrational Fields 81
Fig. 3.15 Vibrational Fields 88
Fig. 3.16 Vibrational Fields 94
Fig. 3.17 to 3.19 Vibrational Fields 95
 contents 12

Fig. 4.01 Radio Sonores 105

Fig. 4.02 to 4.04 Radio Sonores 110
Fig. 4.05 to 4.07 Radio Sonores 116
Fig. 4.08 to 4.12 Radio Sonores 119
Fig. 4.13 to 4.18 Radio Sonores 120
Fig. 4.19 to 4.21 Radio Sonores 120
Fig. 5.01 Shores 137
Fig. 5.02 to 5.04 Shores 140
Fig. 5.05 to 5.13 Shores 142
Fig. 5.14 Shores 146
Fig. 5.15 to 5.26 Shores 149
Fig. 5.27 to 5.29 Shores 151
Fig. 5.30 Shores 155
Fig. 5.31 to 5.39 Shores 158
Fig. 6.01 Passage 172
Fig. 6.02 to 6.04 Passage 173
Fig. 6.05 to 6.10 Passage 174
Fig. 6.11, 6.12 Passage 180
Fig. 6.13 Passage 182
Fig. 6.14 Passage 187
Fig. 6.15 to 6.17 Passage 189
Fig. 6.18 to 6.20 Passage 190
Fig. 6.21 to 6.29 Passage 191
Fig. 6.30 Passage 193
Fig. 6.31 to 6.33 Passage 194
Fig. 6.34 to 6.36 Passage 195

 Chapter 1: Introduction 13

Chapter 1

Introduction

This chapter starts with a brief presentation of my personal background,

following a contextual analysis to address the topic of my research. I will draw
from the work of architects that have been concerned for the role that the
auditory experience plays in the production of space (Bernhard Leitner and
Juhani Pallasmaa). I will then present my research questions, explain the
research methods that have guided the investigation and will outline my
research’s contribution to knowledge. I will also introduce a definition of key
terms which I will be using throughout the research: aural architecture, site-
specificity, experience, design, ecology. This chapter finishes with an outline of
this thesis’ structure.

1. Background

An aural architect, acting as both an artist and a social engineer, is …

someone who selects aural attributes of a space based on what is
desirable in a particular cultural framework. (Blesser and Salter 2007, 6)

This practice-based PhD research has emerged from my own experimental

practice as an aural architect and sound artist. My practice 1 is site-oriented and
merges field recording and soundscape composition into the design of aural
architecture experiments. The term aural refers to the human experience of a
sonic process, and aural architecture refers to the properties of space that can
be experienced by listening, with a focus on the way that listeners experience
space (Blesser and Salter 2007, 2-5). These terms will be further explained on

1 See appendix 1 for an overview of my practice developed during my PhD research.

 Chapter 1: Introduction 14

pages 23-24. Trained as an architect 2 and an acoustician 3, my previous

practice that has informed this PhD research includes collaborations with
collectives of architects, artists and musicians, public space installations,
scenographies, and performance projects, in which I have explored the relation
between acoustic space and the experience of sound 4. From 2008 to 2010,
during the research process for the co-edition of the publication Site of Sound,
of Architecture and the Ear, Volume 2 (LaBelle and Martinho 2011), I have
realised the lack of architecture practices that experimented with acoustics,
urban soundscape and the experience of sound in space.

In the theory of modern architecture we find very little about the relationship
between sound, space and body, and this is reflected in architectural practice.
While the acoustic features of the built environment shape our experience of the
world, architecture practice usually neglects the auditory experience and
acoustic space in its design process. Since the advent of the industrialisation in
the 19th century, architecture and acoustical engineering got separated into
different disciplines and specialisations. Until that time, architecture integrated
the knowledge of acoustics. Architects knew how to integrate the relations
between geometry, materials’ density, spatial proportions, acoustic effects and
the human experience of sound in the design process 5. But since the 19th
century, architecture and acoustical engineering got separated into different
disciplines. One of today’s challenges is to integrate the knowledge of acoustics
and the human experience of sound in architecture’s design process. This is the
gap in knowledge that my research addressed. With the exception of concert
halls acoustic simulation and prediction, acoustics usually comes in after

2 Graduated in 2000 by Faculdade de Arquitectura, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

3 Master of Science and Technology in Architectural Acoustics, Université Pierre et
Marie Currie, co-program with IRCAM and Ecole d’Architecture Paris La Seine, Paris,
2006.
4 See appendix 2 for an overview of my practice previous to this PhD research.
5 See Chapter 6, p. 183, for a description of some historical examples, from pre-history
to the 18th century.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 15

architectural design, as an acoustic correction, mainly concerning noise control

and acoustic insulation techniques. Besides, the science of acoustics is
constrained to investigate sensation and perception in a laboratory context.
The lack of quality and diversity in acoustic space experiences in the everyday
produced by a generic architecture is also a problematic issue, as it contributes
to turn our sensorial interplay into a dormant state. A few architects have been
concerned for the role that the auditory experience plays in the production of
space since the 80s, such as Bernhard Leitner 6 and Juhani Pallasmaa 7.

Modern building technology as well as building economics have indeed

shown an almost total disregard for the fact that human beings need
rooms with good, ‘live’ acoustic qualities. (Leitner 1998, 293)

Architect and sound artist Bernhard Leitner has been arguing for a sensuous
architecture, or the physical sensation of space, specially the acoustic
perception. In his view, the world has become a saturated amount of poor
quality experiences (Leitner 1998, 293). On a conversation 8 between architects
Bernhard Leitner and Ulrich Conrad, they uncovered this problematic issue. A
growing concern towards outside loud sounds and cacophony has been caused
by modern buildings' architecture use of progressively thiner walls made of
concrete and glass, with its reverberating echoes and their irritating effects.
These problems are combatted through the use of modern sound-proofing
materials. But it results as a contradictory solution to line concrete walls with
intolerable acoustic properties, and then add insulating materials to make them

6 Bernhard Leitner is a precursor in sound and architecture practice and theory, with
works such as Le Cylindre Sonore, Paris, 1987. He is also considered a pioneer of
sound installation. See [Link] - accessed November 23 2017
7 Juhani Pallasmaa is the author of several architectural theory books on the role that
architecture plays in defining the human experience, such as The Eyes of the Skin,
Architecture and the Senses, John Wiley: New York, 1996.
8 Leitner Bernhard and Ulrich Conrads, 1985, Acoustic space: experiences and
conjectures, a conversation between Bernhard Leitner and Ulrich Conrads, p. 294-304,
in Leitner, 1998.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 16

soft, sound-absorbing and noise-proof (Leitner 1998, 299). Even with all the
technological advances they argue that it is not getting any better, as the
following solutions are typically associated with a comfortable way of living:

People are buried in rooms built out of concrete, and at the same time
we are developing highly sophisticated stereo and quadro hifi
technologies to allow some sounds to come alive in these spaces.
(Leitner 1998, 293)

This is architecture’s current generic solution to escape from the real world
which has become acoustically saturated. Headphones’ music and muzak 9

effects played in elevators, restrooms, hallways etc. are not to be

underestimated, as it is “an acoustical but entirely non-spatial conditioning of
human beings” (Leitner 1998, 301). The sound quality of our everyday
experiences has serious consequences for our well-being, as it directly affects
our nervous system.

Heart, breathing and blood pressure which are largely beyond conscious
control are affected. And psychomatic implications should also not be
underestimated. In other words our entire physical and mental well-being
is affected by the sound of a room. Because modern architecture has
underestimated if not completely ignored these phenomena, it certainly
has caused substantial damage. (Leitner 1998, 293)

Therefore Leitner calls for the need to engage people in acoustic sensibilisation,
which involves not only the way a room sounds, its acoustic experience, but
also “a knowledge of how sounds and noises can influence, dominate or
destroy a particular space” (Leitner 1998, 301).

9 Muzak is a corporation of background music to stimulate consumption. It is also often

used as a generic term to refer to all forms of background music, also known as
“elevator music”.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 17

The modern tradition regards architecture and environments primarily as

aestheticised objects designed for focused vision. However, it has
become evident that we experience the world in a simultaneous and
multi-sensory manner. (Pallasmaa 2017)

Architect Juhani Pallasmaa has been raising awareness on the concept of

atmospheric perception and the importance of experiencing the world in a
simultaneous and multi-sensory manner. He claims for a sensory architecture in
opposition to the prevailing visual understanding of the art of building, which
reduces our experience of the world into the sphere of vision (Pallasmaa 1996:
39-43). Pallasmaa points out that sound and unfocused, omni-directional
experiences make us insiders and participants. And in this way we get to
perceive atmospheres, ambiances and moods, through peripheral and diffuse
perception (Pallasmaa 2017). He argues that “the acoustic percept usually
remains as an unconscious background experience” (Pallasmaa 1996, 50). We
do not often identify consciously the essential role acoustics plays in our
everyday experiences. But indeed, the acoustic environment shapes our
experience of the world. Pallasmaa therefore points toward the importance of
architecture to create atmospheric experiences, and how acoustic qualities are
an essential aspect of it (Pallasmaa 2017).

In this context, I have questioned the role of architectural design in the quality of
our acoustic environment. As discussed previously, architecture practice usually
neglects acoustic space in its design process. There is a need to re-integrate
this knowledge in innovative ways. Therefore I became interested in exploring
architectural design based on urban soundscape and acoustics as a way to
transform the everyday experience.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 18

We often disregard experience, even our own, perhaps because

experience cannot be seen and measured, and frequently not even
communicated properly. (Leitner 1998, 302)

I identified the need for alternative approaches to understand and explore the
sensuous or affective experience of space, which acoustical engineering could
not explain nor predict; and moreover, to transcend an anthropocentric view of
experience towards an ecological understanding of space as not empty, as a
field of relations, a dynamic system of vibrant matter (Bennett 2010), a
symbiotic real (Morton 2016), as it will be unfolded throughout this thesis.
Therefore I have engaged in this practice-based research on aural architecture,
to explore modes of designing affective experiences of environmental sound.
My aim was to create aural architecture experiments, in which environmental
sound would become a channel of communication between humans and the
non-human forces of a site.

2. Research question
In this context my research question was:

What kind of design methods could integrate the experience of urban

soundscape and acoustic space, to create a site-oriented aural
architecture, towards an ecology of affect?

In the conclusion of this thesis (Chapter 7), I will summarise the results of my
investigation in relation to this question. I have explored this research question
through the following research methods.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 19

3. Research methods
In this thesis, there are methods that conducted my research process, which I
have named research methods. Additionally, there are also design methods
that I have developed throughout my practice. As it will be explained on p. 22,
this set of design methods is my thesis contribution to knowledge. In this
section, I will present my research methods.
My research is situated in the multidisciplinary field of aural architecture. This
field mainly concerns the disciplines of architecture, acoustics and sound
studies. During the research, I have looked to extend methods from the field of
acoustic ecology, and from within explorations of sound art, field recording and
soundscape design.

background to research PhD research

architecture acoustic ecology

aural architecture
architectural acoustics field recording
practice
sonic art soundscape design

working concept: space as a field of matter-energy

four practical case studies

design methods

Fig. 1.01 - diagram of aural architecture practice

My research is practice-based. A major thread running through the thesis

consists in the experimentation of working concepts through practical case
studies, to develop design methods. As it will be seen in the chapters outline (p.
30), there are four chapters which correspond to four practical case studies,
four modes of practicing aural architecture. I have started each chapter with an
exploration of particular concepts to explore in my practice. Therefore each
 Chapter 1: Introduction 20

chapter has a theoretical investigation of a working concept 10 and its practical

experimentation. A table is used next to clarify this articulation.

Chapter Working concept Practical case study Design method

Field of Vibrational Fields • Resonant soundscape
3
resonance (2011) • Space as resonator
Radio Sonores
4 Space as field • Space as a dynamic relation
(2012)

Space as field of Shores

5 • Soundscape for attunement
attunement (2017)

• Resonant soundscape
• Space as resonator
Ecology of Passage
6 • Space as a dynamic relation
vibrational affects (2017)
• Soundscape for attunement
• Space as energetic geometry

Fig. 1.02 - summary of working concepts, practical case studies and design methods

I have looked into developments of the genre and associated debates,

theoretical positions and critical fields. Developments of the genre include the
works of architects, acousticians, sound artists and composers. Concepts and
works have been reviewed in a direct relation to each of my practical case
studies, as a way to understand what has been done, what is missing, and what
my research extends and contributes to.

From within my practical experimentation in each case study, concepts and

design methods have emerged. And these were extended further in the
following practical case study. Therefore the scope of my practice was the
experimentation but also the process of unfolding theoretical concepts, for the

10 I have used the term working concept to address an idea of space that has evolved
through my research process, in a direct relation with my practice. Each practical case
study added new perspectives to it.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 21

advancement of innovative design methods 11. It resulted in the design of four

practical case studies and the development of a set of design methods.

Practice specificity
On a broad view, my practice is site-oriented 12 and converges field recording
and soundscape composition into the design of aural architecture experiences.
The main specificity of my approach is acting as an architect on sound matter,
due to my background in architecture and acoustics. This means that my
practical case studies were engaged as architectural projects, involving field
work and studio activities. On the one hand, the focus was on the experience of
the site specificities, by gathering impressions, following artistic intuition,
analysing social, cultural or political contexts. And with an acoustic ecology
approach, I have creatively explored environmental sound through field
recording. On the other hand, the focus was on the use of scientific methods,
such as acoustic accurate analysis (room modes calculation, spectrograms).
This practice approach also articulated moments of working individually, and
dynamics of collective work. Each of these processual movements
corresponded to a specific phase of the practical case study. My background in
architecture has also drawn my soundscape composition work into an
exploration of spatial sound in multidimensions, switching back and forth from
micro to macro scale. My process of composing sound was oriented towards
the relational and the ensemble of operations, switching between micro to
macroscopic scale, as in architecture. A micro-material approach was useful to
look into the design of a specific aspect of the materials and its geometric
organisation. And a macro-effect perspective allowed to study the movements,

11 This methodology involved a complex and careful process of thought and

experimentation. New degrees of comprehension of the same concept have emerged
only after experimenting its articulation and cross fertilisation with different fields, going
back and forth from practical work to theoretical enquiries. I am aware that there are
moments that this might seem a repetition. I make this note to inform the reader that
these apparent repetitions will subtly unfold and integrate new perspectives. At the end,
it extends new degrees of comprehension.
12 See pages 24 and 49 for my approach on site-oriented practice.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 22

proportions and dynamics of groups of elements, and its acoustic effects. I

became interested in environmental sound as dynamic sonic beings, and in
acoustic phenomena as models in its internal processes. The resulting aural
architecture installations aimed to connect the audience and site to an acoustic
ecology awareness of the interconnectedness with the surroundings.

4. Contribution to knowledge
This thesis contribution to knowledge consists in an advancement in the field of
aural architecture design and practical experimentation. A site-oriented aural
architecture practice methodology has been developed and formalised as a set
of design methods (see p. 47). These methods were elaborated in an open way
to facilitate its further development. These design methods will be explained in
detail on the next chapter.
Furthermore, my research contributed to integrate the knowledge of acoustics
(the relations between geometry, materials’ density, spatial proportions, acoustic
effects) and the experience of environmental sound in the design process of
architecture.
My practice also contributed to an ecology of affect, by creating a diversity of
affective experiences of environmental sound, in which sound matter was
accounted as a vibrational force.

5. Definition of key terms

In what follows, I will explain the key terms of my thesis. I will start by a
clarification of the term aural architecture and how it relates to what I am
investigating. I will then outline my approach to terms that are interrelated and
recurrent throughout my research: site-oriented, place, space, experience,
ecology and design.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 23

5.1. Key term: aural architecture

Physical acoustics and aural architecture, while directly related, have

profoundly different emphases. The former uses a scientific language to
describe the way in which spatial acoustics changes attributes of sound
waves, while the latter considers the experiences and behaviour of
inhabitants in a space. One emphasises discrete measurement and
modelling, while the other explores a complex interactive phenomenon.
(Blesser and Salter 2007)

We may find different terms to define a practice of sound and architecture such
as sonic architecture, acoustic architecture, and aural architecture. I have
chosen to employ the term aural architecture, as aural parallels visual and as
my practice addresses the affective experience of sound in space. According to
acoustician Barry Blesser and environmental psychologist Ruth-Linda Salter,
aural refers to the human experience of a sonic process, and aural architecture
refers to the properties of space that can be experienced by listening, and focus
on the way that listeners experience space (Blesser and Salter 2007, 2-5). Any
environment, natural or built, generates an aural architecture. Every space has
an aural architecture. It is the attributes of a space, such as surfaces, objects,
materials and geometries, that will determine its specific acoustic aspects. And
it is the human experience of that space that determinates its aural qualities 13.

The acoustic cues orientate our navigation but provide also sensory stimulus
which define the space’s aural specificity and influence our associations and
moods (such as feelings of cold or warm, public or intimate, freedom or
insecurity). Aural architecture can be defined in social, navigational, aesthetic
and musical aspects. This means that our auditory spatial awareness manifests

13The aural qualities of a space are recognised by the human being since pre-history.
Several European prehistoric chambers, especially in those that have megalithic art on
the walls, have particular resonance qualities (Coimbra 2017, 128). See pages
182-183 for more on archaeoacoustics.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 24

itself in at least four different ways: influences social behaviour; allows

orientation and navigation through a space; affects our aesthetic sense of place;
enhances our experience of music and voice. Moreover the aural experience
can be described in terms of abilities: sensation as detectability; recognition as
perceptibility; affect as desirability (Blesser and Salter 2007, 11-13). Throughout
this thesis, I have explored modes of practicing and designing aural
architecture. As it will be explained, there was a particular interest in
understanding the aural experience of space as matter-energy and vibrational
forces, to design affective experiences of environmental sound.

5.2. Key terms: site-oriented practice

The aural architecture practice that supports this research is site-oriented. This
means that the practice is contextually orientated and relates to the conditions
of specific spaces at specific moments. It involved research of the site prior to
the design process and installation. The site-specificity was not approached as
a fixed relation. Instead, site-specificity was engaged as a dynamic process of
exchange between artworks and sites, with unpredictable events, ephemeral
situations and transformation. I will unfold the difference between site, space
and place in a broader context to clarify the meaning of my approach.
Philosopher Michel De Certeau made a clear distinction between the terms
space and place. He explained that “a place is the order (of whatever kind) in
accord with which elements are distributed in relationships of coexistence … an
instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies an indication of stability” (De
Certeau 1980, 117). Contrary to place, De Certeau explained that a “space is
composed of intersections of mobile elements” and in this sense, he claimed
that “space is a practiced place" (De Certeau 1980, 117). Edward W. Soja
argued that "the organisation, and meaning of space is a product of social
translations, transformations, and experience" (Soja 2010, 80). For Soja,
spatiality is a dynamic that affects our life experiences. He pointed out for “an
essential connection between spatiality and being” (Soja 2010, 119).
 Chapter 1: Introduction 25

There is an extensive literature regarding site-specific and site-oriented

practices, which have been enquired by authors such as Miwon Kwon (2002),
Nick Kaye (2000) or Brandon LaBelle (2006). According to Kwon, site specificity
in art has dealt with the conflict between mobility and the place-identity bond,
which led the genre to multiply itself in different forms of action in a possible
search to find its own terrain. Kwon claims that it is the “differential function
associated with places, which earlier forms of site-specific art tried to exploit”,
that current site-oriented works seek to reimagine (Kwon 2002, 157). And as
Nick Kaye has also explained, to move the site-specific work is to re-place it, to
make it something else (Kaye 2000, 2). Kwon argues that this mobilisation of
site-specific art and the nomadism of recent site-oriented practices are efforts to
retrieve lost differences due to the deterritorialisation of the ever-expanding
capitalist order, which tends towards homogeneity and elimination of existing
differences (Kwon 2002, 157). To the space resulting from this homogenisation
Henri Lefebvre called abstract space, the tool of domination (Lefebvre 1991,
370). Lefebvre remarked that “a new space cannot be born (produced) unless it
accentuates differences” (Lefebvre 1991, 52). To this new kind of space he
called differential space, and this would mean the “diversification of space”, with
a need for “the restoration of the sensory-sensual” (Lefebvre 1991, 363).
In this critical context and in my architectural practice, I have been aware of the
deterritorialisation of place within the flux of globalised techno-capitalism and its
spatiotemporal controls, and also concerned for how these controls homogenise
affective sonic ecologies (Lacey 2014, appendix 1). As an architecture
practitioner, I eventually got interested in the production of space beyond a
structured, controlled or pre-formatted order of space. Therefore, I have been
experimenting how architectural design can open up spaces for multiple
appropriations by its users. My approach lies in accentuating site-specific
differences and multiple relationships, for a diversity of sensory-sensual
experiences to be produced. My site-oriented practice seeks to produce a kind
of spatial experience that Michel Foucault has described as a heterotopia,
 Chapter 1: Introduction 26

which is something that has the capacity of “juxtaposing in a single real place
several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible” (Foucalt
1967). Foucault got interested in certain sites that had “the curious property of
being in relation with all the other sites, but in such a way as to suspect,
neutralize, or invert the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror, or
reflect”. He called them “heterotopias”, “counter-sites”, “different spaces”, “of
other places”. And described it as “a sort of simultaneously mythic and real
contestation of the space in which we live … (it) could be called heterotopology”
(Foucault 1967). This is the kind of spaces that my site-oriented practice seeks
to create and that will also be discussed further in this thesis as heterogeneous
space (see p. 102). Therefore, I could say that my aural architecture
interventions create some kind of heterotopias that transform “places” into
“different spaces” or “counter-sites”, by accentuating its differences. In the
context of these reflections, I am interested in moving from an object to an
environment and the very relational, spatial, and temporal nature of sound itself
(LaBelle 2006, xii). Still, the focus of my practice is not merely perceptive, and
not limited to “appropriate and create architecture for a renewed sense of
listening” (LaBelle 2006, xiv). Instead, my interest is to create site-responsive
aural architecture experiments that deal with “moving sound installation to
public space”, and take into account an “enlarged environmental
potential” (LaBelle 2006, xiv). Therefore my field work is related to field
recording (see p. 52) and acoustic ecology (see p. 29), towards an ecology of
affect (see p. 37).
As it will be seen, in all of the case studies presented in this thesis, a
transformation occurs: places that had particular orders and functions are
rearranged and opened up for appropriation, for other kinds of practices,
relationships and sensory variations to arise. I got particularly interested in the
experience of spaces as unusual encounters and connections between human
beings, non-humans and things. Although places are planned and designed for
specific practices, there is always an open possibility or potencial which can
 Chapter 1: Introduction 27

never be determined by the place’s material order. Space is dynamic, relational,

and variable. Spaces are temporally specific relations between specific subjects
and their environment. Space is alive, full of vital materialities, vibrant matter
(Bennett 2010), vibrational forces. In my approach, I have engaged space as a
field (p. 101), as relational (p. 116), and energetic (p. 112). So in my practice, I
have developed aural architecture design methods to connect unusual or
imperceptible relationships between the elements of a specific site (human,
non-human), to accentuate differences and produce a new space, with multiple
identities and meanings. Architecture was engaged as a dynamic assemblage
(p. 115) to open up potentials of a site and its contingencies. In my approach,
these potentials lie in the encounters and relationships between human and
non-human beings. My interventions address the potential of site-specific
vibrational forces, enhanced by spatial acoustics, to accentuate differences and
to open up experience and communication channels towards more ecological
relationships between human and non-human beings. Therefore, with the
projects developed for this thesis, my aim was to open up the experience,
transformation and translation of vibrational forces of specific sites to move
spatial practices beyond an anthropocentric perspective, and towards an
ecology of symbiotic relations.

5.3. Key term: experience

This research addressed experience as a fundamental process in the
development of the human being that is shaped by space and architecture. My
interest lied in the experience of everyday spaces: how we experience everyday
sounds in acoustic space, and how, as an aural architect, I could contribute with
the design of forms of experience. My aural architecture explorations valued our
own direct experience above all. My practice sought to value the process of
experience as a way to unify life sensations: visual, acoustic, tactile, kinetic. My
approach emphasised the experience of acoustic space and environmental
sound, to create, communicate and understand the affective experience of
 Chapter 1: Introduction 28

environmental sound. In this sense, I have sought to explore forms of

experience of environmental sound, to incite sensory responses, and as a way
to engage an ecological re-wiring of the senses interplay. My stance was that
affective responses could be achieved through the experience of space as
matter-energy, in which sound is accounted as a vibrational force for
transformation and connection between humans and non-humans beings, as it
will be explained on pages 33-34.

5.4. Key term: ecology

Trivially speaking, ecological awareness means realising that beings are
interconnected in some way, but then we have to figure out what this
interconnection actually means. At the moment, the phrase I’m using for
the thing that ecological awareness names is “the symbiotic real”. What
do I mean by that? I mean that ecological relationships are best
described in terms of symbiosis, and symbiosis is a very interesting thing
because it’s always a sort of fragile, contingent, uneasy relationship in
which it’s impossible to determine which entity is the top entity. …
There’s a sort of dynamic system there. (Morton 2016)
This research addressed ecology to explore a symbiotic real (Morton 2006), the
potential relationships between human and non-human beings and their
interconnection in space. The purpose of the case studies was to raise an
ecological awareness through the experience of environmental sound and the
dynamic systems (or symbiotic relations) acting in specific sites, usually
neglected by humans. More specifically, the field of acoustic ecology has
informed my ecological approach to aural architecture. I have found common
ground with The World Soundscape Project’s 14 approach in the use of
environmental sounds as a pedagogical intent to foster soundscape awareness.

14The World Soundscape Project is an educational and research group dedicated to

acoustic ecology, established by Raymond Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University
during the late 1960s and early 1970. See appendix 3 for further details.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 29

My practice involved field recording 15 and soundscape composition 16 as a way

to enhance environmental listening awareness. I became interested in how
soundscape composition could be engaged on an activist and political level, as
a way to create a strong oppositional place of conscious listening (Westerkamp
2002), to create balanced aural architecture experiences in built environments.
In other words, I became interested in exploring modes of creating affective
experiences of environmental sound (p. 41). Therefore, I have extended
relationships between ecology and affect, as it will be explained on page 36.

5.5. Key term: design

The approach to design was based in the idea of space as not empty, as a field
of relations, of matter-energy (as it will be explained through this thesis). This
research developed a set of aural architecture design methods based in
acoustic resonance, dynamic relation and energetic geometry (explained on p.
56-57). As it will be unfolded throughout this thesis, aural architecture design is
a mode of practice to be engaged in, to create relationships between humans
and non-humans, more than to design and build a formal object. This will be
discussed further on the section Space as Field, page 101.
A relevant aspect in my approach to design was that site-specific aural
elements (such as background sounds or imperceptible sounds) were used as a
material to design aural architecture. In some case studies, field recordings
were used as sound matter. In other case studies the aural architecture design
was focused on how the natural acoustics of the site could activate spatial
potentials and interconnections.

15My practice of field recording refers to audio recording of environmental sound, both
natural or human-produced. I will explain my approach on page 52.
16 Soundscape composition is a practice of audio composition using field recordings. I
will explain my approach to soundscape composition on page 56 and 57.
 Chapter 1: Introduction 30

6. Chapters outline
In this section, I will describe the contents of the chapters of the thesis. The
thesis is structured into seven chapters.
Chapter 1 is this introductory chapter. Chapter 2 will address an outline of this
research’s concepts and design methods. The conceptual framework will unfold
an ontology on the experience of space as matter-energy (Jane Bennett), the
design of ambiance dynamics which is central to my practice (Jean Paul
Thibaud), a critical theory overview on the ecology of affect (Alfred North
Whitehead, Brian Massumi, Marie-Louise Angerer), and the design of affective
experience of environmental sound in relation with three operations of the
affective, which are: transformation, translation and attunement.
Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 are structured similarly. Each of these chapters
addresses working concepts and practical case studies, Therefore each chapter
is divided into two parts:
- the first part of the chapter addresses the working concept of my theoretical
enquiry;
- the second part of the chapter describes a practical case study, which
concerns the practical experimentation of the working concept in a practical
case study (see table 1.02, p. 20).
In this sense, Chapter 3 opens up my theoretical enquiry on the working
concept of space as a field of resonance. I have started this exploration drawing
from the domain of physical acoustics, and of space and body as musical
instruments. I have looked into other practices such as Randy Yao and Scott
Arford's performance project Infrasound (the experience of space and self as
vibration), Edwin van der Heide (the audience inside the instrument), Mark Bain
(space and body as connective tissue) and Iannis Xenakis (spatial sound and
dynamic sonic beings). I have then extended the ideas of resonant soundscape
and space as resonator into the practical experimentation of Vibrational Fields
(2011). This practical case study explored a site-oriented soundscape
 Chapter 1: Introduction 31

composition and spatialisation to resonate an existing building, and unfolded an

auditory experience based in the idea of background listening (Barry Truax).
Chapter 4 extends my theoretical investigation on the working concept of space
as field towards a design based in space as dynamic relation. I have unfolded
the concept of space as field from architectural theory and media studies (Stan
Allen, Marshall McLuhan and Ted Carpenter, Michael Hensel and Achim
Mengues). I have looked into practices of spatial agency, participation, relation
and performance. I have then experimented with these ideas in the practical
case study Radio Sonores (2012), an aural micro-architecture, mobile and
modular, built collectively. It addressed a paradigmatic shift in the design: from
an object of analysis to a field (Stan Allen), a milieu of relations and dynamic
events. The practical case study engaged a dynamic of co-creation to build
collectively an aural architecture.
Chapter 5 unfolds this thesis theoretical enquiry into the idea of attunement, as
a phenomena based in sympathetic resonance that affects the quality of an
experience. Attunement can be described in different ways by various
disciplines. I have looked up for an understanding in the fields of physics,
music, philosophy and psychology, and authors such as Timothy Morton, Martin
Heidegger, Pauline Oliveros, Jane Bennett, Alfred North Whitehead, Brian
Massumi, Daniel Stern, Kathleen Stewart, Juhani Pallasmaa. In turn, this
discussion extended other ideas, such as sympathetic vibration, resonance,
entrainment. I have then researched for links between attunement, ambiance
and ecology, and enquired these ideas in relation to acoustic ecology and
environmental sound awareness. I have looked into the work of composer
Hildegard Westerkamp to explore soundscape composition as a tool for change
and listening as conscious practice. Additionally I have looked into Barry Truax’s
research on listening-in-readiness and composition with environmental sound.
These ideas were experimented in the practical case study Shores (2017), in
the design of a soundscape for attunement, and its installation in an acoustic
boat shell. As a result, other ideas were unfolded, such as experience as
 Chapter 1: Introduction 32

embodied knowledge. From this practical case study emerged another auditory
experience based in the idea of balance.
Chapter 6 wraps up my enquiry to link the working concept of space as a field of
matter-energy towards an ecology of vibrational affects. I have explored the
idea of translation of vibrant matter and the translation of the language of
vibration into aural architecture. These ideas were experimented in the last
practical case study of this thesis, Passage (2017), a soundscape installation in
resonance with the acoustic space of a tunnel and the creation of an aural
architecture based in a zome 17 geometry. This practical case study converged
the four aural architecture design methods produced by the previous case
studies, into one single experiment, as a microcosmos with multiple
experiences, an ecology of affect (concept explained on p. 36). Passage
explored a further articulation of modes of activating the sensorial interplay
through the inciting of responses and diversifying affects. Concepts have
emerged from within this practical experiment such as: the affective experience
of environmental sound, and the inner and outer dynamic of the auditory
experience towards meditative states.
Chapter 7 is the conclusion of this thesis, drawing an overview over the
research process, its learning points and contribution to knowledge. I have then
extended further ideas on how this PhD research will continue to evolve in
practice.


17The term zome was coined in 1968 by thinker Nooruddeen Durkee, combining the
words dome and zonohedron, a convex polyhedron with point symmetry.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 33

Chapter 2

Overview of concepts and design methods

This chapter outlines the conceptual framework from which the working
concepts of this research have emerged, and describes the design methods
that have guided the practical case studies.

1. Conceptual framework

This section draws an overview of the following concepts: an ontology of the

experience of space as matter-energy (Jane Bennett) 18, the notion of ambiance
dynamics, which is central to my practice (Jean Paul Thibaud), and a critical
theory on ecology of affect (Alfred North Whitehead, Brian Massumi, Marie-
Louise Angerer). I will then extend my idea on design of affective experiences of
environmental sound, in relation with three operations of the affective, which
are: transformation, translation and attunement.

1.1. Experience of space as matter-energy

The figure of an intrinsically inanimate matter may be one of the

impediments to the emergence of more ecological and more materially
sustainable modes of production and consumption. My claims here are
motivated by a self-interested or conative concern for human survival
and happiness: I want to promote greener forms of human culture and
more attentive encounters between people-materialities and thing-
materialities. (Bennett 2010, ix)

18Although I am aware of the link of my work with object oriented ontology, I preferred
to address it as an ontology of space as matter-energy. To consider space as matter-
energy has allowed me to expand an aural architecture practice based in energetic
geometry, as it will be described on chapter 4.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 34

In Vibrant Matter, a political ecology of things (2010), political theorist and

philosopher Jane Bennett claims that an image of dead or thoroughly
instrumentalised matter feeds human hubris and earth-destroying fantasies of
conquest and consumption. She argues that this is done so by preventing
people from detecting (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling) a fuller range
of the non-human powers circulating around and within human bodies (Bennett
2010, ix). Bennett calls up for the experience of space, objects and things as
vivid, vibratory entities (Bennett 2010, 4). She describes this reality of non-
human powers as vibrant matter, a vibrational force, an active becoming 19 of
vibrant bodies, “a creative not-quite-human force capable of producing the new”
(Bennett 2010, 118). This idea has been explored as material vitalism by Gilles
Deleuze and Félix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaux (1993). In the chapter Of
the Refrain the authors explain how milieux and rhythms are born from chaos
and that these forces of chaos, terrestrial forces, cosmic forces confront each
other and converge in the territorial refrain (Deleuze and Guattari 1993,
312-313). These forces of chaos or matter-energy have also been addressed by
other thinkers. For example, Michel Serres describes it as “a turbulent,
immanent field in which various and variable materialities collide, congeal,
morph, evolve, and disintegrate” (Serres 2000). Earlier philosophers, such as
Lucretius, have also claimed that everything is made of the same matter, he
called this primorrua; today this might be called atoms, quarks, particle streams
or matter-energy (Bennett, 2011, ix). Bennett claims that everything is
connected and irreducible to a simple substrate, resonating with an ecological
sensibility. In this sense, Bennett calls up for humans “to tune into the strange
logic of turbulence” (Bennett 2010, xi). Deleuze argues that material vitalism’s
formula is “ontologically one, formally diverse” (Deleuze 1992, 67). I have found

19 Becoming is a term explored by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and
refers to a process of change within an assemblage. It serves to account for
relationships between the "discrete" elements of the assemblage (in http://
[Link]/issue5/poke/[Link] accessed March 24 2017). The term has
been used in processual and generative design practices.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 35

common ground with Benett’s approach on space as a field of vibrant matter,

matter-energy and non-human powers, by Deleuze and Guattari’s material
vitalism and Serres’ turbulent, immanent field. My practical case studies have
explored this idea of vibrational vitalism of space to which I will be referring to
as matter-energy. My aim was to create an aural architecture of encounters
between organisms and things 20 for their detection and relationship through the
auditory sphere. The purpose was to create an aural architecture of affective
experiences of environmental sound, as a way to foster an ecology of affect.

Encounters generate affects. Encounters between organisms and things

external to them, or groups of things, further generate affects that may
engage the singular and the multiple. This results in changes in situation
or conditions, productive of new bodies; different in their attributes and
constitution. New bodies generate different affects, and so on. (Colman
in Angerer 2017, 8)

My practice-based research addresses encounters that generate modes of

experience of a space that is not empty, it is a vital materiality, a vibrational
force, as a continuous process of transformation, in different rhythms and
cycles. We, as human beings, are part of this vital materiality or vibrational
force. With these ideas, my proposal was to design alternative forms of
architecture that accentuate differences to generate encounters of vital or
dynamic materialities and sensory experiences of spacetime, as part of it. My
research aim was to experiment with environmental sound through a spatial
approach, into the architectural design of ambiances, as encounters between
humans, non-humans and things.

20 I will use the term thing to address objects, phenomena or entities indistinctively.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 36

1.2. Ecology of affect

In my practice, I have unfolded an approach to the experience of space as

matter-energy in relation to affect, as a sensation of the here and now. In the
process philosophy of mathematician Alfred North Whitehead we find such
approach. He accounts for a rhythmic flow of timespace which he refers to as
extensive continuum. He has explored affect related to the concepts of “blind
feeling” (Whitehead 1978, 105), “prehension” or “occasion of experience”
(Whitehead 1938, 150). For Whitehead, “actual entities”, “prehension”, and
“nexus” are the basic facts of experience. Prehension is a simple physical
feeling and a nexus is when actual entities feel one another (Goodman 2010,
92). According to Whitehead “the basis of experience is emotional” (Whitehead
1967, 176). He suggests that entities interact by feeling one another, even in the
absence of knowledge and power. Things encounter one another aesthetically,
and not just cognitively. Whitehead claims that we always feel more of a thing
that we actually know of it (Shaviro 2010, 9). For Whitehead, one encounters
the very being of a thing, its integrity, beyond the human understanding and
grasp, in another level of apprehension, what he called a novelty, a new entity,
an event. This level of apprehension before cognition builds up as an aesthetic
experience of affect, the mode in which Whitehead calls “causal efficacy”,
where experience is being. Whitehead used the terms “emotion”, “feeling” and
“affect” inter-changeably to describe the same phenomenon. The way
Whitehead used these terms has been argued by social theorist and
philosopher Brian Massumi as being distinct. He has claimed for the difference
between affect and emotion, describing affect as primary, non-conscious and
intensive (Massumi 2002, 27). This is the mode of experience of affect that my
aural architecture projects have explored. In this mode, “the inflow into
ourselves of feelings from enveloping nature overwhelms us; in the dim
consciousness of half-sleep, the presentations of sense fade away, and we are
left with the vague feeling of influences from vague things around
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 37

us” (Whitehead 1978, 176). As Whitehead claims, all entities experience

something like an “influx of feeling”, in the form of energy (Whitehead 1978,
177). For Whitehead, affect emerges in the intervals of the brain, a dimension of
lost time, as “life… in the interstices of each living cell, and in the interstices of
the brain” (Whitehead 1978, 105-106). In my view, this idea relates to
Massumi's description on the electrical impulses of the brain as micro-shocks,
what precedes the event. “In the instant of the affective hit, there is no content
yet”, as it is the “onset of the activation” (Massumi 2008, 4). He calls it “small
perception”, drawing from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Gilles Deleuze and Felix
Guattari call this phenomenon “microperception”. They describe that when one
attains a visual or sonorous microperception it reveals spaces and voids, like
holes (Deleuze and Guattari 1993, 251). Massumi describes this phenomenon
as “something that is felt without registering consciously. It registers only its
effects” (Massumi 2008, 4). For Massumi microperception is bodily and is “a
purely affective rebeginning of the world” (Massumi 2008, 5). It is this kind of
affective experience of environmental sound that my practice aimed to create.
For musician and theorist Steve Goodman, “affect is the vibration - the good or
bad vibes - prior to organisation into organised feeling (prior to what
phenomenology would call intentionality)” 21. Goodman extends Whitehead’s
perspective into the physicality of vibrational force and the modulation of
affective tonality. I also became interested in experimenting in my practice the
physicality of vibrational force, but linked to the corporeality of environmental
sound enhanced by space’s acoustics. I found common points as well with
sound artist Jordan Lacey’s research on affective sonic ecologies, particularly
on the importance given to “the role of sound(scape) installations in diversifying
affects on human experience” (Lacey 2014, appendix 1). He has developed
conceptual tools to discover spatiotemporal controls and understand how these
controls homogenise affective sonic ecologies (Lacey 2014, appendix 1). As it

21 In [Link] - accessed
October 16, 2017
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 38

will be seen, I have explored a diversification of affect, as ontologically one,

formally diverse; meaning that from the physical experience of space as matter-
energy, multiple modes of attunement have emerged. And this is how my
practice contributes to an ecology of affect. I have found in Marie-Louise
Angerer book Ecology of Affect: Intensive Milieus and Contingent Encounters
(2017) some topics that I have addressed in my work too. Angerer revises
relationships between environment, technology and humans based in sensation
or affect. She explores the motions of connecting, disrupting and translating as
new parameters of affect. In this sense, she describes three operations of the
affective - connective, disruptive and translation - as “the temporally barred
momentum of a relation, a blank, a gaping opening, into which and from which
affect arises” (Angerer 2017, 11). I have drawn on her approach, moving
forward and unfolding three operations of the affective in a direct relation to my
practice. I will explain this approach on p. 41-44. My aural architecture practice
intended to create an experience of spacetime as this gap opening - the design
of an affective experience of environmental sound - towards an ecology of
affect.
Next, I will unfold the notion of ambiance dynamics and its relation with my
design practice of affective experiences of environmental sound.

1.3. Ambiance dynamics

With architecture we cannot radically separate the material world from

the immaterial one, the spatial forms from the temporal dynamics.
Instead of speaking in terms of the beauty of an architectural object, I
prefer to focus on the capacity of a built environment to intensify
everyday experience and be responsive to its inhabitants. (Thibaud in
LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 53)
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 39

At CRESSON 22, a research centre at the Architecture School of Grenoble,

dedicated to the study of ambiances and the design of innovative qualitative
methodologies, architect Jean-Paul Thibaud investigated the notion of
responsive environment to define different kinds of dynamics in ambiances and
modes to account for its sensory variations. In his article The three dynamics of
urban ambiances (LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 43-54) Jean-Paul Thibaud
explores the notion of ambiance as a possibility to conceptualise how the built
environment and social practice get mutually determined. Thibaud defines an
ambiance as “a synergy between the senses that involves the emotional aspect
of a situation. A quality of sound, light or fragrance is sensed in a single
movement that confers unity on the sensory world” (Thibaud in LaBelle and
Martinho 2011, 45). An ambiance involves not only the built environment of the
place but also the lived experience of people. It is a time-space that can be
qualified from a sensory point of view, relating to the sensing and feeling of a
place. Therefore the way we relate to a place is based on the sensory
experience it involves. And urban space provides numerous ambiances with
particular properties and qualities, that engage passers-by physically,
connecting them to the site. It shapes practices, which in turn affect it (Thibaud
in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 43). To take account on the sensory variations of
a public space, Thibaud distinguishes three main dynamics involved in the
creation of an ambiance. In his view, “an ambiance emerges from a triple
process: acclimatisation, variation and alteration. These processes are always
at work simultaneously in an ambiance but their respective power nevertheless
varies from one atmosphere to another” (Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011,
53). Some ambiances change more than others, and are more flexible to
variation and improvisation. This means that an ambiance may more or less
have the capacity to integrate, exacerbate or neutralise social activities. By

22CRESSON is a research centre founded in 1979 based in the School of Architecture

of Grenoble, France. Initially dedicated to investigate sound environment and urban
space, it extends its interests today to the study of ambiances and the design of
innovative qualitative methodologies.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 40

making this distinction, Thibaud aims to clarify three basic ecological processes
that constitute an ambiance and that involve tuning, modulating and formatting.
He argues that each process involves specific domains of thought and
conceptual tools (Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 45). In this sense, in
the first dynamic, a tuned ambiance “emerges as the place is brought into tune
with the conduct it supports.” Therefore there is some close affinity between
what is felt and what is produced, between the subject and the world. In his
perspective, it is “an ecology of the lived world”. The second dynamic, a
modulated ambiance, involves slight variations of the sensory context of the
place. Therefore what is felt fluctuates over time and varies in line with
activities. This ambiance engages “an ecology of situated perception”. In the
third dynamic, a framed ambiance emerges through the conditioning of the
place by the social practice itself. Therefore it gives shape to social situations
and enfolds an “ecology of relations in public”. Another aspect that Thibaud
mentions is that in the same place we may identify different ambiances. For
example, a place saturated with stimuli and people walking fast may be
perceived as tense, alarming, stressful; at a different time of the day or of the
year, the same place may be sensed as relaxing, peaceful, restful (Thibaud in
LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 44). I have found Thibaud’s work useful as a
starting point to understand at which levels (physical, mental, social, ecological)
phenomena may affect sensory variations of an ambiance. As it will be
explained on the overview of the design methods (p. 47), I have extended this
study into different methods to design aural architecture based in sensory
variation. My stance was that this variation generated distinct ambiances and
affected the auditory experience of a space.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 41

1.4. Design of affective experiences of environmental sound

The question of affect emerges in the daily realm of routine, and survival;
of our physical and existential existence. …all systems are subject to
affects as much as they are affective, and generative of positive and
negative affects within and of a system. (Colman in Angerer 2017, 7)

As seen before, my research aim was to design and create aural experiences to
incite affective responses of material vitalities and vibrational forces, that would
engage an ecological re-wiring of the senses. Could this contribute to an
ecology of affect? What kind of aural experiences would attune a person with
self, others and/or the environment, to engage a transformation in her senses
interplay and relationship with its surroundings? What kind of aural architecture
design would transform our relationship with our surroundings, in such a mode
as to act as a translator, a communication channel to vibrant matter?
Architecture is a system that engages affective operations, as it affects
timespace conditions and constrains its experience. I have found similarities in
my approach with the three operations of the affective described by Angerer, as
the gaping opening into which and from which affect arises (Angerer 2017, 11).
Drawing from Angerer’s three operations of the affective (connective, disruptive,
translation) (Angerer 2017, 11), and I have defined three operations of the
affective, as parameters to design dynamic forms of aural architecture:
- transformation (disruption)
- translation, extended into the language of vibration
- attunement (connection)
I will now explain each of the operations in relation to my aural architecture
practice.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 42

Transformation

The ecological disruptions of the environment are only the visible part of
a deeper and larger problem, concerning ways of living and being in
society on this planet. The environmental ecology should be thought of
as one piece with a social ecology and mental ecology, through an
ecosophy of ethical-political nature. It is not to unify arbitrarily under an
ideology of replacement of areas fundamentally heterogeneous, but to be
underpinned by some other innovative practices for the restructuring of
individual and collective subjectivities within new technical-scientific
contexts and new geopolitical coordinates. (Guattari 1989, fourth cover)

The way in which our environment is built in western society is one of the
causes of ecological disruptions, concerning ways of living and being. In this
context, Felix Guattari presents an idea of ecology as an ecosophy 23 of ethical-
political nature, and proposes the underpinning of society with “innovative
practices for the restructuring of individual and collective subjectivities”. In this
sense, I have engaged my aural architecture practice unfolding an affective
micropolitics.

Micropolitics, affective politics, seeks the degrees of openness of any

situation. … Just modulating a situation in a way that amplifies a
previously unfelt potential to the point of perceptibility is an alter-
accomplishment. (Massumi 2008, 7)

Drawing from Brian Massumi, micropolitics emerged in my practice as a

creative concept to explore the potential of transversal interventions in a micro-
scale, events to activate matter-energy, which may underpin our society. For,

23 Felix Guattari postulated the necessity of founding an “ecosophy” or ecological

philosophy that would “link environmental ecology to social ecology and to mental
ecology” (Guattari 1996, 264).
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 43

according to Massumi, “micropolitics is what makes the unimaginable

practicable. It’s the potential that makes possible” (Massumi 2008, 20). As it
was explained on p. 14, the way the environment is built in western society
affects field conditions and constrains its experience. This has also been
described as spatiotemporal controls that affect homogenous experiences in
space (Lacey 2014, 95). My stance was that through alternative temporal
relationships and spatial tensions, new constellations could open up
experience, as an opening into which and from which affect arises. This can be
understood as an affective operation of transformation. This operation of
transformation relates to the design methods experience of site and sensory
variation (explained on p. 50 and p. 53).

Translation
The second operation of the affective relates to the development of
communication and translation methods of vibrant matter. I wanted to create an
aural architecture experience as a medium of translation (or transduction) of
matter-energy. Jane Bennett claims that "vitality is shared by all things" and that
we are in need to develop communication and translation tools of this vibrant
reality, between humans, non humans and things (Bennett 2010, 89) (see p.
34). I have explored my practice towards an amplified or enhanced experience
of vibrant matter to engage the audience in an physical affective experience of
vibrational forces, as a channel of communication with this reality. Through this
operation of translation, I aimed for an aural architecture experience to open up
acoustic communication (Truax 1984) 24 with the surroundings in a symbiotic
way, as part of the same micro-macro-ecosystem. As will be seen in my
practice, I have engaged with acoustic communication through the soundscape
composition, as a system of information exchange where sound mediated the

24 What Truax called acoustic communication (Truax 1984) was a way to understand
the complex system of meanings and relationships that sound creates in environmental
contexts. He developed the acoustic communicational model as an interdisciplinary
alternative methodology that included soundscape studies, acoustic communication
and soundscape composition (Truax 1996: 58).
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 44

relation of the listener to the environment (Truax 1996: 59). This operation of
translation was experimented with the method of aural architecture design
(explained on p. 55).

Attunement
This third operation of the affective corresponds to what Angerer has described
as connective: “the first inscription of a movement as the opening of such an
interval” (Angerer 2017, 60). It relates to what I have unfolded as an experience
of attunement, on my enquiry on resonance and attunement (p. 124). As it will
be seen, an inquiry on the phenomenon of attunement has been conducted
drawing from various disciplines such as music, cognitive science, philosophy of
science, physics and psychology. In my practical case studies, I have
experimented with an innate capacity of attunement (Morton 2014, online
reference) to self and other beings, towards an understanding of our
environment as an unifying field, of a multiplicity of relationships through
vibrational forces. I became interested to explore how, through an affective
experience of aural architecture, our mind and body could be triggered in a pre-
conscious level to get attuned into being, to here and now, to a symbiotic real
(Morton 2006). This operation of attunement relates to the site-specific acoustic
installation and spatialisation (explained on p. 58).

These operations of the affective have been experimented in this research’s

practical case studies. In the conclusion of this thesis (p. 198), I will sum up the
results.
Next, I will unfold the link between each set of methods to an operation of the
affective. Then, a diagram will expand the dynamics of the design methods in
relation with the operations of the affective.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 45

Link between the design methods and the operations of the affective

I II
experience design
as as
transformation translation

III
ecology
as
attunement

I - The experience of site as an operation of transformation:

- dynamic of experience
- sensory variation
- ambiance dynamic
II - The design of aural architecture as an operation of translation
- resonant soundscape
- space as resonator
- space as dynamic relation
- soundscape for attunement
- space as energetic geometry
III - The resulting ecology as an operation of attunement
- diversity of affective experiences of the environmental sound
- contribution for an ecology of affect
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 46

I - THE EXPERIENCE OF SITE

analysis of context

dynamics of experience

soundwalking field recording workshop

sensory variation

sensory phenomena

aural elements

ambiance dynamic

TRANSFORMATION

II - AURAL ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

resonant soundscape space as soundscape space as

space as resonator dynamic relation for attunement energetic geometry

TRANSLATION

III - INSTALATION AND

ACOUSTIC SPATIALISATION

ATTUNEMENT

AUDIENCE’S FEEDBACK

AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF
SONIC ENVIRONMENT

ECOLOGY OF AFFECT

Fig. 2.01 - links between the design methods and the operations of the affective
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 47

2. Design methods

In this section I will draw an overview of the design methods involved in the
practical case studies development.

Most of the gaps in the knowledge base which might inform

environmental sound composition (….) can be traced to the models used
by each discipline to determine its explanatory strategy. I have found
that, although traditional bodies of knowledge are still useful in specific
contexts, the only way to transcend the limitations inherent in each model
is to construct a new interdisciplinary paradigm based on different
concepts. (Truax 1996, 58)

According to composer Barry Truax, there are limitations inherent to models

employed in separated disciplines, which might inform environmental sound
composition. And the same happens for aural architecture design. I have
realised that there are several gaps, such as a lack of tools to qualify the
experience of aural space when compared to the amount of tools to quantify
sound and space in terms of objective measurement (these are far more
developed). In this sense, I have made an attempt to extend qualitative
methods. My approach was to articulate multidisciplinary methods, drawing
from the fields of architecture, acoustic ecology and philosophy.

These methods have been developed from theoretical concepts and/or from my
practical experimentation. The methods unfold as follows:
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 48

1. The experience of site

1.1. Analysis of context
1.2. Dynamics of experience
1.2.1. Soundwalking
1.2.2. Field recording
1.2.3. Workshop
1.3. Sensory variation
1.3.1. Sensory phenomena
1.3.2. Aural elements
1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic
Operation of transformation

2. Aural architecture design

2.1. Resonant soundscape
2.2. Space as resonator
2.3. Space as dynamic relation
2.4. Soundscape for attunement
2.5. Space as energy geometry
Operation of translation

3. Acoustic spatialisation
Operation of attunement

4. Audience's experience and feedback

Result: affective experience of environmental sound

Next, follows a table to show the design methods application in each practical
case study.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 49

Practical case study Vibrational Radio

Shores Passage
Fields Sonores
Method (2017) (2017)
(2011) (2012)

1. Experience of site

1.1. analysis of context x x x x

1.2. dynamic of experience x x x x

1.2.1. soundwalking x x x

1.2.2. field recording x x x

1.2.3. workshop x x

1.3. sensory variation x x x x

1.3.1. sensory phenomena x x x

1.3.2. aural elements x x x

1.3.3. ambiance dynamic modulated framed tuned modulated,

tuned,
framed

2. Aural architecture design

2.1. resonant soundscape x x

2.2. space as resonator x x

2.3. space as dynamic relation x x

2.4. soundscape for attunement x x

2.5. space as energetic geometry x

3. Acoustic spatialisation x x x

4. Result: audience’s experience x x x

Fig. 2.02 - methods’ application in each case study

Now, I will explain in what consists each of the design methods and its different
steps.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 50

1. Experience of site
As I have mentioned earlier, my practice is site-oriented and investigates
responsive environments. This first step concerns the experience of the site for
intervention as a creative process, and relates to an operation of transformation,
to accentuate differences. It has been drawn from my experience as an
architect and from an acoustic ecology and sound art practice. It concerns what
is there at the site for intervention and what is my proposal for a transformation.
This first set of design methods has arisen in each of my practical case studies,
and evolved from one into another. Here follows a short description of each of
the steps, that will unfold in the practical case studies.

1.1. Analysis of context

First, a contextual analysis of the site is carried out in a similar way as the
preliminary process of an architectural intervention, in which I look to
understand the physical, social, cultural, political and ecological contexts, and
build up a body of knowledge based on that. It is based in my personal
experience of place. It involves the following steps:
- experience the site at different times of the day, different days of the week;
- identify what is at stake;
- decide which actions are relevant;
- define the purpose of the intervention;
- choose where is the appropriate place for the intervention;
- move the intervention towards a specific sensory variation, for an affective
transformation.
This contextual analysis can be achieved by a process of gathering
impressions, through a sensorial drifting, by talking to people involved in the site
context (inhabitants, communities, authorities, representatives of a group) or by
consulting available information. An intervention always transforms a place (see
p. 24 for Michel De Certeau distinction between place and space). So the
questions are: in which terms, how and what for. An importance is given to a
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 51

sense of place. This concern is also recurrent in acoustic ecology and sound art
practices. In the work of composer Hildegard Westerkamp, the experience of
place is central to some of her pieces, such as Fantasie for Horns II (1979), in
which horn sounds “are soundmarks that give a place its character and give us,
often subliminally, a ‘sense of place’” (Westerkamp 1979 in Duhautpas and
Solomos 2014 25). Sound artist Brandon LaBelle way of work is often
“contextually orientated, and sensitive to being in a certain place at a certain
time”. He feels particularly drawn by “how sound conditions our sense of place,
and how it participates in relational exchanges, in our daily experiences”
(LaBelle 2010, online reference). In my approach, I also focus on my personal
experience of place, going to the site at different times of the day, different days
of the week, to sense what are the site potentials, what underlying forces are
gone unnoticed, what is there that is relevant to transmit. As mentioned earlier
(p. 42), micropolitics emerged in my practice as a creative concept to explore
the potential of transversal interventions in a micro-scale, events to activate
matter-energy. This step is useful to understand what is there at stake and to
move the practical case study’s intervention towards a specific purpose of
sensory variation, for an affective transformation. It is also helpful to decide
which actions are relevant and where is the appropriate place for the
intervention and transformation.

1.2. Dynamic of experience

Second, enters the site experience dynamic process that will inform the aural
architecture design process. This method was unfolded in different ways to
experience the site, individually or collectively, and concerns:

25 In [Link] - accessed July 3, 2017.

 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 52

1.2.1. Soundwalking
It concerns different ways to experience sound, walking through a site and
listening. The technique of soundwalking 26 has been extensively practiced
worldwide. I draw from my own personal approach, but also from research
carried out by composers Hildegard Westerkamp and Barry Truax, from the
World Soundscape Project 27. Westerkamp has defined soundwalking as “any
excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our
ears to every sound around us no matter where we are” (Westerkamp 1974,
online reference).

1.2.2. Field recording

Field recording may involve different modes of capturing environmental sound.
My approach to field recording involves different kinds of microphones in
relation to each site: acoustic omnidirectional microphones (DPA 4060), contact
microphones, electromagnetic microphones and hydrophones. In an interview
talking about the equipment used for his work, Chris Watson, one of the world's
leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, mentions that he uses
DPA's omnidirectional 4060s a lot. Besides the advantage of having tiny
capsules, they sound natural. They're good for recording individual close-up
sounds in mono, but he also uses them as a spaced pair on a coat hanger for
stereo recordings (Watson 2016, online reference). The advantage of being tiny
definitively allowed me access to narrow places. In some sites I became
interested in capturing not only acoustic waves, the audible, but also everyday
events that were not usually perceived. I looked to explore multiple dimensions
and different materialities of space or milieus which we usually are not aware of.
Therefore I also extended the spectrum of field recordings into infra sound and
ultra sound; low and high frequencies beyond threshold 28 (Vibrational Fields, p.

26 Soundwalk is a practice of walking with a listening focus on the environment. The

term was coined by members of the World Soundscape Project in the 70s.
27 See appendix 3 for more details on the World Soundscape Project
28 See appendix 4 (sound waves propagation and frequency perception)
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 53

74). With contact microphones I opened up the possibility to capture waves

traveling inside different media, not only air, but also concrete, metal, glass,
stone (practical case study Vibrational Fields, p. 77). Hydrophones allowed me
to hear underwater (Shores, p. 155). I have used electromagnetic microphones
in the practical case study Vibrational Fields (p. 77), to extend the enquiry into
the building’s infrastructure, capturing electricity impulses and glitches. The
process of transduction 29 was of main importance to this exploration, to
transpose imperceptible frequencies into a spectrum perceived as sound. My
practice of field recording will be further commented in relation to each practical
case study of my thesis.

1.2.3. Workshops
The aim of these workshops was to involve the public’s participation in the
practical case studies’ creative process. In some contexts, there were
opportunities to engage in a workshop with locals, which is always an
advantage in order to activate pedagogical dynamics and social participation
(Vibrational Fields, p. 107). This was also a way to incite ecological initiatives
towards the environment (Shores, p. 145). There were no predefined methods.
Each context defined the workshop dynamics.

1.3. Sensory variation

This method involved the following steps:

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena

Sensory phenomena is identified, which varies in general in terms of frequency,
patterns, rhythm and tone; it can be sensed as movement, temperature, smell,
light or sound.

29 The term transduction refers to a form of transformation of electric energy to acoustic

energy or vice-verse, such as a the process of a speaker or a radio in the first case or
of a microphone in the second case (Fischetti 2003, 183).
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 54

1.3.2. Aural elements

This step consists in identifying particular aural elements of the existing
ambiance, that affect and qualify the auditory experience, such as:
- fundamental tones
- key notes or soundmarks 30

- specific acoustic spaces

- geometry
- material density
- spatial volume
These aural elements may be gathered through field recording and the
modulation may be achieved through soundscape composition and acoustic
spatialisation. The aural elements are selected for the quality of the acoustic
cues, as it orientates navigation but provide also sensory stimulus which will
define the space’s aural specificity and influence associations, moods,
practices, or the ambiance dynamics, as it will be now described.

1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic

The desired ambiance dynamic is defined. As seen on pages 38-40, according
to architect Jean-Paul Thibaud, an intervention changes the ambiance dynamic
and its aural experience. Thibaud describes different kinds of dynamics in
ambiances (tuned, modulated, framed) and modes to account for its sensory
variations. I have extended Tibaud’s study into different methods to design aural
architecture based in frequency fields variation to transform an ambiance
dynamic - a subtle design of sound or space based in the selection of particular
elements and the modulation of matter-energy. The act of modulating different
frequency fields transforms an ambiance dynamic and explores a form of
receptiveness that links up with specific corporeal states and brings the senses
into synergy (Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 46). This is the aim of my

30Soundmark derives from the term landmark and refers to a sound unique to an area,
that makes the acoustic life of a community unique (Schafer 1993, 10).
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 55

intervention. Building a new architectural space into the existing site may also
be a way to transform an ambiance. The scope is that the intervention filters or
amplifies the practical possibilities that a space affords (Thibaud in LaBelle and
Martinho 2011, 48), and this may be achieved by introducing different rhythms
and different relations between materials. Intervening in the relation between
sound, acoustics and architecture results in an altered perception of spacetime
and corporeal states. It transforms the ambiance, opening it up to different
appropriations. As Thibaud explains, it often takes very little, almost nothing, to
change an ambiance, and a minor detail is sometimes enough to qualify the
whole of the sensory environment (Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 49).
Each ambiance transformation generates a sensory variation and a different
aural mode of experiencing urban environments. Therefore each intervention
created different operations of affective transformation as it will be seen in the
practical case studies. This method has been experimented in all the case
studies.

Operation of transformation
A consideration is done on the operation of transformation (as seen on p. 42).

2. Aural architecture design

This second set of methods engages aural architecture design as an operation
of translation, which I have explained on p. 43. I have converged soundscape
composition, acoustics and geometry into the design of different kinds of aural
architecture. I have come to the following modes of designing aural architecture.

2.1. Space as resonator

This mode of design addresses an intervention in an existing architectural
space. It emerged from the practical case study Vibrational Fields, and
concerns the phenomena of resonance and the idea of space and body as an
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 56

acoustic instrument, in which a resonator 31 ensures that the vibration occurs at

the right frequency (see p. 61). Here I have approached space as a resonator
as a system that exhibits resonance or resonant behaviour to certain
frequencies. Therefore it unfolds methods drawn from architectural acoustics, in
the following steps:
2.1.1. Architectural acoustics study: acoustic space measurement
2.1.2. Reverberation time calculation (RT60)
2.1.3. Resonance frequencies calculation (room modes)
These will be explained in detail in Chapter 3, with the practical case study
Vibrational Fields.

2.1. Resonant soundscape

This mode of design is inter-related with the previous. The soundscape design
is based in space’s resonance frequencies 32 to magnify or enhance
environmental sound, to enter into vibration with the audience’s body and mind.
It emerged from the practical case study Vibrational Fields, and is related with
the phenomena of resonance and the idea of space and body as musical
instruments (p. 64). It unfolds methods drawn from acoustic ecology and
soundscape composition, in the following steps:
2.2.1. Composition with field recordings
2.2.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies
2.2.3. Layers
These will be explained in detail in Chapter 3, with the practical case study
Vibrational Fields.

31The term resonator was also used by Hemholtz in his 1862 book, "On the Sensations
of Tone”, to describe an an apparatus able to pick out specific frequencies from a
complex sound.
32 Resonance frequencies are explained on p. 62.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 57

2.3. Space as dynamic relation

A new architectural space is designed based in a specific aural experience
(such as relatively silent, attentive listening, inner and outer listening). It
emerged from the practical case study Radio Sonores, and is related with the
concepts of space as field, relational space and assemblage. It unfolds methods
from architectural theory and experimental practices, in the following steps:
2.3.1. Space as dynamic relation
2.3.2. Energetic geometry and assemblage
2.3.3. Architectural acoustics study
These will be explained in detail in Chapter 4, with the practical case study
Radio Sonores.

2.4. Soundscape for attunement

The soundscape design is based in the idea of attunement to environmental
sound. It emerged from the practical case study Shores, and is explores
relationships between attunement, ambiance and ecology. It experimented
philosophical concepts and unfolded methods from acoustic ecology, in the
following steps:
2.4.1. Composition with field recordings
2.4.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies
2.4.3. Layers
These will be explained in detail in Chapter 5, with the practical case study
Shores.

2.5. Space as energetic geometry

Since the physical Universe is entirely energetic, all dimension must be
energetic. Synergetics is energetic geometry since it identifies energy
with number ... Synergetics provides geometrical conceptuality in respect
to energy quanta. In Synergetics, the energy as mass is constant, and
nonlimit frequency is variable. (Fuller 1975, 22)
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 58

This design method is a convergence of the previous four design methods. and
an extension into the idea of space as energetic geometry. For Fuller, space
has specific properties or constraints, it has underlying invisible forces and
multidimensional fields and shapes. For him, the essential nature of matter-
energy lied not in abstract form-making but in processes based in energetic
geometry and in the characteristics of vibrating systems such as
interconnection, relation, polarity and multidimensionality (see pages 168-171).
This design method aimed to extend these ideas, and emerged from the
practical case study Passage (p. 172). Its processual steps will be explained in
detail in Chapter 6, with the practical case study Passage.

Operation of translation
A consideration is done on how the specific aural architecture design has
created an operation of translation of an invisible design, attentive to the
interplay between dynamic physical forces and spatial constrains (as explained
on p. 43).

3. Acoustic spatialisation
This step refers to the site-specific acoustic installation which varies according
to each place and practical case study’s specificities. The spatialisation
concerns the placement of audio equipment to perform the soundscape. Its
placement depends on the place’s acoustics. I have established a protocol for
the process of acoustic spatialisation (to be used if appropriate), as follows:
1- Install the audio equipment.
2- Run tests to confirm the resonance frequencies of the space and the
frequency range of the sub-woofer; adjust if necessary.
3- Spatialise the sound system; choose the best placement of the sound system
exploring the relationships between resonance frequencies, geometry,
materials’ density and spatial volume.
4- Re-adjust soundscape composition if needed.
 Chapter 2: Overview of concepts and design methods 59

Operation of attunement
A consideration is made on how the acoustic spatialisation produced an
operation of attunement (as explained on p. 44).

4. Audience's experience and feedback

The conclusion varies according to each practical case study outcomes.
The audience's feedback was a valuable input to understand the affective
results of the experiment. I chose to leave a notebook for comments instead of
interviewing the audience. I have tried a few interviews and realised quickly that
I was getting a mental feedback, with preconceived ideas, rather than a direct
affective expression of the felt experience. As seen on p. 37, affect is primary,
non-conscious and intensive (Massumi 2002, 27).

Affective experience of environmental sound

A reflexion is made on how the audience’s feedback informed the kind of
affective experience of environmental sound.
 Chapter 3 60

Chapter 3

Working concept • Field of resonance

Enquiry • Acoustic model of waves’ propagation
• Sympathetic vibration, resonance frequencies, standing
waves
• Space and body as musical instruments
• Spatial sound
Practical case study • Vibrational Fields
Design methods • Resonant soundscape
• Space as resonator
Affective experience • The physicality of vibrational force in environmental
sound, enhanced by space’s acoustics
Emergent concepts • Background listening
• Dynamic sonic beings
• Being vibration

In this chapter, I will introduce the working concept of field of resonance drawing
from acoustics. and then situating it in relation to contemporary practice (such
as Edwin van Der Heide, Mark Bain, Randy Yao and Scott Arford). I will open up
an enquiry on space and body as acoustic instruments and on spatial sound,
looking up into similar practices and associated debates. The point in which I
differ from these examples, is my approach to acoustic ecology, with a site-
oriented exploration of environmental sounds through field recording.
I will then present the experimentation of these ideas on my practical work
Vibrational Fields (2011-2012), a site-specific soundscape composition and
spatialisation to resonate an existing building. It has produced two design
methods: the design of a resonant soundscape and of a space as resonator. It
explored an affective experience of the physicality of the vibrational force of
environmental sound, enhanced by space’s acoustics. Concepts have emerged
from within my practice experiment such as: background listening, dynamic
sonic beings, being vibration.
 Chapter 3 61

Working concept:

The Field of Resonance

With this first experiment my aim was to research how an architectural space
could become an acoustic instrument for the tuning of the body with its
surroundings. I wanted to test ideas on how to acoustically activate the
experience of sound as a field of resonance, and experiment with the ideas of a
resonant soundscape and of space as resonator (the use of the term resonator
was described on p. 55). The technique of resonance frequencies resonates
with a mode of thinking about the relations between inanimate objects and
forces such as sound. Here I have looked into similar approaches between an
architectural space’s acoustics and a musical instrument’s acoustics. All musical
instruments share the same functions: “a generator to get the vibration going, a
resonator to ensure the vibration occurs at the right frequency and a radiator to
communicate and make the vibration heard” (Johnston1989, 41). I became
particularly interested in the phenomena of resonance and how the vibrations of
musical instruments happen. Therefore I elaborated on the essential
characteristics and the causes of standing wave patterns, which are related to
the vibrations of musical instruments. In this study lies the foundation for my
exploration of space and body as musical instruments. I started this enquiry by
developing further acoustic research on a sonic experience of sympathetic
resonance between space and body, as an interconnected field of vibration.

Sympathetic vibration, resonance

The experience of sympathetic resonance between space and body, as an
interconnected field of vibration, is directly related to the relationship between
the geometry, materials’ density, and spatial volume of the space of
propagation, the type of sounds and frequencies that are performed, and its
spatialisation. The main acoustic effects for this practical case study refer to
sympathetic vibration and its physical manifestation as standing waves.
 Chapter 3 62

Sympathetic vibration or resonance may be defined as “an enhancement of the

intensity of a sound that occurs when its frequency equals or is close to the
natural frequency of vibration of an acoustic system or air-filled cavity” (Moore
2007, 403). Therefore a body resonates in response to frequencies that are
close to its own, as further explained by the following definition of resonance:
“as the frequency of the stimulus [sound] closely approaches that of the system
[body], oscillation occurs, which reaches a maximum amplitude at the natural
resonance frequency” (Fischetti 2003, 105). The natural or resonance
frequency 33 of any system is determined by its size, surface, pressure and
volume. Resonance frequencies and its multiples are avoided in architectural
acoustics. Avoiding resonance disasters is also a major concern in every
building, tower, and bridge construction practical case study 34. However, in the
case of a musical instrument, these resonance frequencies are important for the
quality and intensity of sound (such as vibrating strings or organ pipes).
Therefore this is the aspect of resonance that I wanted to explore in this
practical case study: how space and bodies may interact as musical
instruments. This form of experience is directly related to the relationship
between the geometry, materials’ density and spatial volume of the space of
propagation, the type of sounds and frequencies that are performed, and its
spatialisation. Drawing from acoustic literature, I have enquired on how sound
travels through different mediums, its resulting acoustic effects, and how
different frequencies produce different kinds of experiences in space, things and
living beings. This exploration finds a theoretical reference in the acoustic model
of waves’ propagation 35. In this model, a vibration is described as the
movement of particles traveling through a medium, producing a wave. The

33 It has been discuss that a common error found in literature is to refer the term natural
frequencies, or resonance frequencies as resonant frequencies. Source: https://
[Link]/misc/[Link] (accessed May 12 2017)
34 A commonly given example, is how the frequency of the wind can make the wire
cables of a bridge vibrate like a giant harp causing the road to vibrate in sympathy
through the principle of resonance, and even collapsing.
35 See appendix 4 (waves’ propagation and frequency perception).
 Chapter 3 63

vibration of a source produces the propagation of particles of energy that travel

along a wave. Sound waves propagate in any material, solid, liquid and
gaseous. The propagation of a wave depends on the property of elasticity in the
medium. The more elastic the medium, the faster the wave propagates (sound
travels faster under water than in air, but it travels faster through metal than
under water). The particles of matter in a medium act as enmeshed in a elastic
web, a connective tissue.

Resonance frequencies and standing waves patterns

Musical instruments are set into vibration at their resonance frequency (also
called natural or fundamental frequency). When one object vibrating at the
same natural frequency of a second object forces the second object into
vibrational motion, the phenomena of resonance occurs 36. Resonance is the
cause of sound production in acoustic instruments. And when an object is
forced into resonance at one of its natural frequencies (also called harmonics),
it vibrates in a manner such as a standing wave pattern is formed within the
object. This wave pattern is characterised by points that appear to be standing
still, referred to as nodal points. To understand these principles, a visualisation
of these standing wave patterns is helpful, such as the Chladni sound figures.
Physicist and musician Ernst Chladni, conducted a series of experiments to
make visible the waves’ modes of propagation and the phenomena of
resonance. The experiment consisted of thin metal and glass plates in which he
sprinkled powder on top and set them vibrating with a violin bow along one
edge. The powder upon the plate vibrated until it settled onto positions of
nodes. It moved away from where the vibration was greatest and collected
along the nodal lines where the vibration was least. It resulted in beautiful
vibration patterns. The conditions for resonance determined the shape of these
figures: on the one hand the amplitude and the pitch of the sound, and on the

36 Online reference: resonance and standing waves <[Link]

(accessed 23rd January 2016)
 Chapter 3 64

other hand the shape and material of the plate itself. The sound produced by
the bow was a natural frequency of the plate, and so the pattern formed was a
standing wave pattern. His experiment was revolutionary at his time (1787) as it
demonstrated that sound travelled in waves. Even today it is often used in
physics classes to visualise the relation between vibration and an object’s
natural frequencies. This same phenomenon happens to any other object,
musical instrument, body or space, as everything has a set of resonance
frequencies at which it vibrates. Each resonance frequency is associated with a
standing wave pattern. My hypothesis for the experiment Vibrational Fields was
that the space of the installation could become an acoustic instrument if played
with its resonance frequencies. Our body resonates in a similar way as a
musical instrument when exposed to particular frequencies. To find out what the
resonance frequencies are, of course it is easier to measure an architectural
space than our body’s cavities. In my understanding, as all bodies are different,
cavities’ dimensions vary, and therefore it is difficult to define natural
frequencies to every existing body type. I have extended these ideas further in
the practical case study Passage, drawing from neuroscientific studies (p. 183).
But for now, this exploration addressed the architectural acoustics of a space.
Therefore I remained mainly focused in exploring specific effects of
architecture’s resonance frequencies, reporting its bodily affects based in
testimonies. This relationship of resonance with architecture as a musical
instrument was explored in practice with the case studies Vibrational Fields,
Shores and Passage.

Space and body as musical instruments

The idea of the practical case study Vibrational Fields was to research further
how an architectural space becomes a musical instrument for the tuning of the
body with its surroundings. Space and body were engaged as instruments
through acoustic effects and resonance frequencies. Space and body were
activated through a resonant soundscape. This technique has also been
 Chapter 3 65

explored by a few sound artists and musicians, such as the duo of sound artist
and architect-acoustician Infrasound, or sound artists Edwin Van der Heide,
Mark Bain, Ryoji Ikeda, Paul Bavister, Lukas Kühne. I had the chance to
experience some of these works. There are some points that I share in their
approach, valuable for this exploration, and other from each I differ. Next I will
unfold these ideas.

Edwin van der Heide - the audience inside the instrument

In a reverberant space of four rings, each separated by a wall, with ring shaped
corridors, here an unusual acoustic was already present. What artist and
composer Edwin van der Heide did was to amplify its natural acoustic effects,
particularly reverberation, using one microphone in one side of the wall and a
speaker on the other side. It became possible to make the sound go round and
round as if it were perpetual mobile (Heide in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 284).
Similarities are found here with Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room, which
focuses on the resonance frequencies of the room. Heide considered these
rings as circular strings where the audience would be inside an instrument. He
altered the perception of the space by manipulating sound and frequencies with
delay. He transformed “the acoustic properties of the space in real-time, turning
it into a time-based transforming space; a dynamic form of architecture” (Heide
in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 288). I actually felt the space of the installation as
if I was inside a large instrument. I, along with the other audience members,
was acoustically playing that instrument, and experiencing it by being inside of
it, exploring it. I share this idea of an audience inside the instrument, as a
system determined by the acoustic properties of the space and the temporal
alterations from sound and frequency shifts. Although in the case of my
experiment, these have resulted more from natural acoustic effects than from
the manipulation of sound with digital delay effects. Another aspect in which I
differ is the source of sounds. Instead of real time audio produced by the
audience movements, I have created a site-oriented composition using field
 Chapter 3 66

recordings. As will be seen, my aim was to engage an acoustic ecology

awareness of the site dynamics, though the spatialisation of a multitude of
sources captured from the surrounding environment.

Infrasound - the experience of space and self as vibration

Infrasound is a collaborative work between architect-acoustician Scott Arford
and sound artist Randy Yau that resulted in a series of site-specific sonic
performances and real time compositions. I share many common points with
their approach regarding the form of experience of acoustic space. They
explore the complex relationship between sound, space, perception, and the
body. They claim that their ultimate aim has always been that of the physical
experience of the tangible vibrancy. In their experiments “there is nothing else
but sound, all that exists is vibration” (Infrasound in LaBelle and Martinho 2011,
196). Their manifesto clearly states how they compose the soundscape to build
up the real time experience of vibration:
Hear with your body. This is not about music. This is not about
performance or the performer. The goal is sound and the explicit
translation of sound into physical force. The force is internal and external
realisation. It is about provoking new modes of perceiving and
experiencing one's own body – triggering variable and autonomous
psycho-physiological response. It is about the total acoustic sense of
space – observing sound to measure the capacity of architecture. It is
about the phenomenon of resonance or sympathetic vibration – all things
working in one continuum. (Infrasound in LaBelle and Martinho 2011,
196)
In their performance this is exactly what happened. They played with the
resonance frequencies of the room, with pure sine wave generators. The sound
and vibration unexpectedly took the audience into the void, where vibration
activated and occupied bodies and space with variable sound pressure levels. I
felt it became an experience of a real time-space continuum of events and
 Chapter 3 67

becoming, connecting everything, bodies, building and things. I have drawn

from this practical case study particularly for its acoustic research and
experimentation in activating body and space through sound; also from the kind
of vibrational experience it addresses, as a tangible experience of void, of
acoustic space as vibration, as a state of both physical and mental non-
existence, ever-present. They are aware that the concept of void is an artefact
of our perception, but still they claim that we can make it palpable and vibrate it
into existence by activating particles and waves of sound, to pulse interludes
and resonance between body, mind, space and time, “giving some tangible
experience to some kind of unified field” (Infrasound in LaBelle and Martinho
2011, 197). What I have retained from this example is how sound as vibration
and space's acoustics may become a strong vehicle for mind and body to enter
into resonance with this unified field.

Mark Bain - Space and body as connective tissue

I also find some common ground with artist Mark Bain’s approach on the body’s
experience of vibration, as vibration itself, through the interaction of acoustics,
architecture and physical/mental reactions to infrasonics – sounds below the
human hearing threshold. Bain explores the idea of a “connective tissue
between structures and the audience (…) whose bodies contribute to the sum
of vibrations” 37. He is involved in investigating the effects of inherent and
induced sonic events on structures and the people that inhabit them.
In his performances, he uses the sound potential of the buildings' structure,
sometimes with machinery to vibrate the materials, shacking the building and
the ground for a sonic effect. He also uses the inaudible sounds normally
present in the buildings in which he performs, amplifying it with seismographic
and other specially designed equipment. In his performance at Tuned City 2008,
Bain used analogue oscillators to map out the signature of an unfinished

37Online reference: [Link] - accessed April 23

2013
 Chapter 3 68

building and to define a presence within, which is normally thought of as static.

His final goal was to used infrasound generated by the building’s architecture.
The performance resulted in masses of infrasonic waves. The feeling of the
infrasound pressure was more physical than hearable. I felt I was in the middle
of an ocean of infrasound. It overwhelmed my senses and I became totally
immersed in some kind of connective tissue. Space gain another materiality,
dynamic but dense. I felt my organs vibrating, my blood pressure altered, my
breathing and heart beat pulsing and responding sympathetically to the rhythm,
and I thought it was almost unbearable to stay long. But still I stayed and
enjoyed the experience of feeling my skin vibrating within the mass of acoustic
waves. Here again, I have found common aspects, particularly with the
approach on connecting architecture and the audience by the means of a
physical experience of sound waves as infrasound and vibration.

Iannis Xenakis - Spatial sound and dynamic sonic beings

From another perspective, architect, musician and engineer Iannis Xenakis,
also experimented with sound materiality through a spatial approach. I have
found a particular common ground with Xenakis’ exploration of space through
sound matter through a multidisciplinary praxis between architecture and music.
Although I must say that on the other hand I was also quite distant to his
particular modern aesthetic in the sense of total composition. Besides, I was not
just interested in the process of composition but also in the experience of the
audience, as will be seen in the practical case studies. But being myself an
architect and acoustician working with sound, Xenakis’ approach to geometry as
a generative, transformative and integrative process of spatial sound design
and composition is a significant aspect that I share. His practice took him to
discover that the composition problems are the same in architecture and music.
In his research of a science of a general morphology, his thought and process
are based in profound relationships between mathematics, geometry, physics,
music, philosophy and architecture. His thought in music composition fed his
 Chapter 3 69

practice in architecture and his thought in architectural structure fed his musical
practice. In this sense, he gave particular attention to macro scale and micro
scale. Xenakis followed a composition process in a global form. He had the
totality in mind, simultaneously thinking in details, elements and proportions.
Through geometric drawing, the main tool in the process of composition in
architecture, he developed his ideas in sonic space and time. Xenakis gave
major importance to the generative, transformative and integrative process, as a
construction strategy. In interview (Matossian 1977) Xenakis stated:

I found that problems in architecture were the same as in music. One

thing I learned from architecture which is different from the way
musicians work is to consider the overall shape of the composition, the
way you see a building or town. Instead of starting from a detail, like a
(musical) theme, and building up the whole thing with rules, you have the
whole in mind and think about the details and elements and, of course,
the proportions. That was a useful mode of thinking.” (Beilharz 2004)

I find some common points between my practice and Xenakis’ approach of

acting as an architect on sound matter. My process of modelling sound
composition was also oriented towards the relational and the ensemble of
operations, as in architecture. I have engaged design in a multiple scale
approach, or multidimensionality, acting between groups of specific
microsounds' frequencies and the macrophonic perception of these groups as
sound masses. I became interested in Xenakis' idea of a transformable sound
mass as musical sound and in his approach of playing with the compositional
space's multidimensionality (Sedes in Solomos 2003, 231). Xenakis introduced
phenomenological and geometric notions, enriched the musical thought and
stepped away from all modes of thinking composition at his time (melodic or
serial). He appealed to the internal logic of natural phenomena, its structure and
perception; and freed the mind and thought of polyphonic classical schema and
 Chapter 3 70

the discussion on the detail. Xenakis scores (such as Metastaseis, Le Diatope,

Les Polytopes) were graphic or geometric. Makis Solomos explains Xenakis'
process of modelling sound was the opposite of that from serial composers. For
Xenakis the material deployment of sound determines its own form (Solomos
2003, 156). There is a fusion between form and material. This is a process of
modelling sound that I have explored in my process of composition of this
experiment Vibrational Fields but also in my practical case studies Shores and
Passagem. Xenakis gave major importance to the generative and
transformative process, as a construction strategy, and to the ensemble of
operations, as in architecture. Therefore, his practice was oriented towards
process instead of result. This is also an important point in my approach. As
Solomos points out, Xenakis looked to centre sound on its sonic plenitude
(Solomos 2003, 150), in search of an integral presence (Solomos 2003, 151).
He explored the intense presence of sound through acoustics and spatialisation
(Solomos 2003, 163). He looked to create a sonic context for the experience of
sound as to put someone in the middle of the sea, “to be in the sound that
comes from everywhere”, “surrounded by sounds” (Solomos 2003, 177). This is
the kind of experience that I aimed to create with the soundscape installations
Vibrational Fields and Shores. Xenakis transposed from architecture to music
three ideas of parabola: the space parabola; the gases parabola; the numbers
parabola. I find interest in his explorations of the parabola of space, in works
such as Les Polytopes (in Montréal in 1967, in Cluny in 1972 and 1973), with
the definition of elemental surfaces that generate the composition space (these
works will be further explored on p. 167). In my composition process, I have
drawn from his exploration of the parabola of gas, and the conception of sound
masses, for the experience of sonic space as vibrational force. An example of
this is Xenakis’ early work Metastaseis (1955), which he conceived as the
acoustical equivalent to the phenomenon of the crowd. He looked specifically
for a compositional technique adequate to powerful personal memories.
Xenakis drew upon his own graphic imagination and his training in geometry to
 Chapter 3 71

invert conventional procedures of composition. He began with a graphic

notation describing the desired effect of fields or clouds of sound, and only later
reduced these graphics to conventional music notation (Allen in Hensel, Hight,
Menges 2009, 139). In his conception of clouds of sound, or statistical music,
complex acoustical events cannot be broken down into their constituent
elements (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 120). Therefore Xenakis
fundamental concepts of composition were centred in a musical investigation of
sound masses, in its regular and irregular variations. For Xenakis, phenomena
are models in their internal processes and not in their final form or structure (Di
Scipio in Solomos 2003, 192). Therefore he developed theoretical and formal
means of conception of masses of sound, of clouds of punctual sounds. He
explored concepts of pressure, density (new in the 50s), molecules' movement
and the kinetic energy of gas clouds. Inspired by physicians Boltzmann and
Maxwell on the propagation of gases (gases kinetic theory), Xenakis was a
precursor of the model of granular synthesis. Xenakis' research contributed to
the emergence of a granular thought, approached in a multiple way between the
local and the global, between micro-sound and the macrophonic perception
(Sedes in Solomos 2003, 234), which was further developed by several other
music composers, such as Curtis Roads. In Xenakis’ model of granular or
corpuscular thought, sound is described as an integration of grains, of sonic
quanta. Each grain has a frequency, a duration, an intensity. Xenakis explored
particularly a methodology of modelling in a macroscopic scale. He explained
the aim of this macroscopic methodology in the chapter on Markovien
stochastic music 38 as follows:

For a macroscopic phenomena, it is the global massif effect that counts,

and each time that one may observe the phenomena, first one should
establish the relationship observer-phenomena. So, if we observe a
galactic cluster, we must decide if it is the movement of the whole that

38 In Musiques formelles – revue musicale nº253-254, 1963-1981, 67

 Chapter 3 72

interests us, if it is the movement of a single star, or if it is the molecular

constitution of a very small region on a star. Inversely, to act as architects
on sound matter, to build up complex sounds and the evolution of these
beings, signifies that we must use analysis and macroscopic construction
methodologies. Microsounds, the elemental grains, do not have
importance at the scale that we place ourselves, only groups of grains
and the characteristics of these groups make sense.

Xenakis explored the notion of intensity of grains and frames where sets of
sound masses move, creating sonic beings. What I would like to point out is
how Xenakis valued a new model given by sound analysis as a psycho-physic
phenomena, where “sound is perceived in a global mode, in its gaseous
environment, under the form of sound masses” (Sedes in Solomos 2003, 231).
We may think here of his works Syrmos, Analogique A et B, Achorripsis,
Pithoprakta and Concret PH. Here, he composed sets of sound masses that
move to create “music as a sonic being”, where sound has a “processual form
of becoming in relation to someone’s experience” (Sedes in Solomos 2003,
234). This is another common point that I find with Xenakis and that I have
explored in my practice, where sounds result as psycho-physic phenomena.

The approaches discussed in the previous pages (Edwin Van Der Heide,
Infrasound, Mark Bain, Iannis Xenakis) extend the inquire of the working
concept Field of Resonance towards an interrelation between two approaches.
On the one hand, I have explored the composition of a sound matter that can b
described as sound masses and dynamic sonic beings. I got interested in its
enveloping nature and psycho-physic phenomena. On the other hand, I have
experimented with the spatialisation of this sound matter composition in
architectural space through acoustic resonance, to enhance the vibrational
force of sound, and to rise the experience of self as being vibration. As will be
seen next, in Vibrational Fields, I have explored these two aspects. The point in
 Chapter 3 73

which I differ from the previous examples, is my approach to acoustic ecology,

with an exploration of environmental sounds of the site through field recording.
My stance was that it would eventually connect the audience and site to an
acoustic ecology awareness of the interconnectedness with the surroundings.
Therefore I have experimented a mode of building up the experience of being
vibration based in the phenomena of sympathetic vibration (or resonance), with
resonance frequencies, sound masses, standing waves and site-specific
dynamic sonic beings. The design process engaged an exploration of a
resonant soundscape and of space as resonator.

 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 74

Practical case study:

Vibrational Fields

The soundscape Vibrational Fields was experimented and shared in different

public spaces, in academic and cultural events:
-Media and the Senses, conference, Goldsmiths, University of London (2011);
-Rhythm Materiality, symposium, London Consortium (2011);
-Embodying Topology, performance, Tate Modern, London (2011);
-Sound-Space-Signal, performance, Guimarães European Capital of Culture,
Portugal (2012).
These were engaged as opportunities to test the same purpose and
methodology in different places and contexts, integrating in each case study the
acoustic specificity of each place. This report refers to the research process of
the first installation of the series, in the event Media and the Senses, at
Goldsmiths, University of London, a 3 days event of talks and installations that
took place at the Professor Stuart Hall building.

1. Experience of site

1.1. Analysis of context

My proposal was to intervene with the architecture of the Professor Stuart Hall
building, to interfere with the usual experience of an everyday space, by
modulating its acoustic perception. For these reasons I strategically selected
the entrance hall of the building as the place for the installation and
performance of the soundscape. This entrance functions as an intermediary
space of passage between the exterior and the interior. It has two pairs of
electric glass doors. The opening and closing rhythm varies during the day,
being more constant in the early morning, lunch break and end of the afternoon.
The louder sounds of this space are mainly mechanical: the electric system of
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 75

the doors and the ventilation system. Still, footsteps and voices are clearly
heard.
The ambiance while standing inside this space was peculiar. It felt as being in
some sort of decompression room in-between two different zones, as an
expanded border between two territories. As doors opened and closed there
was a sensory variation: the temperature of the space and the soundscape
varied. From this place, through the glass doors and wide windows, I could
clearly see what was happening outside and inside the building.

Fig. 3.01-3.06 - entrance of the Professor Stuart Hall building

I perceived this liminal space as an interstice (from the Latin interstare, to stand
in between), which is usually defined as a small empty space between different
elements. The interstice as a “void space within a substance (Lavoisiser 1723;
Baudrillard 1975) can refer to notions of permeability (De Certeau 1980),
infiltration and passage (Bhabha 1994), interval (Barthes 1970; Virilio (1984),
(…) transition, threshold and border (De Certeau 1980)” (Lévesque 2013).
Besides its spatial character, the interstice also refers to “a temporal dimension
as an interval of time” (Lévesque 2013). This aspect of the term “links the
interstitial condition to the notions of transition, transformation, process and
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 76

event” (Lévesque 2013). I found this space very appropriate for the experiment
of an acoustic amplification and to work with the idea of interval and transition
through an event. Therefore I engaged this interstice as “an open and relative
spatio-temporal condition, activated or created in-between bodies” and
therefore as a “possibility for action between certain space limits” (Moles and
Rhomer 1972; Koolhaas 1989) (Lévesque 2013). The acoustic amplification of
the interstice would engage an operation of transformation (as described on p.
42).

Fig. 3.07 - plan of the entrance level

1.2. Dynamic of experience: soundwalking and field recording

I have soundwalked inside the Professor Stuart Hall building and outside in its
close surroundings at different times of the day. I gathered sounds of the
cyclical rhythms produced by the movements of people in the building and by
the infrastructure of the building itself. My aim was that these field recordings
would extend the audience’s experience of the place of the installation, into an
acoustic ecology awareness of that same space and its close surroundings. I
have recorded 1 minute for each source, at different times of the day, to capture
distinct dynamics and circadian rhythms of the building’s public spaces and
outside close surroundings.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 77

Sources
I gathered the motions of the place, of its sounds and vibrations. Temporalities,
territories, borders and movements were guidelines to the field recording quest.
The idea was to compile significant samples that would reveal the acoustic
signature of the building and extend the perception of the place. Each source
corresponded to one different type of public space or situation, according to its
function, acoustics and soundscape:
Source 1 - outside, ambient (recording 3.08)
Source 2 - the entrance, fresh-hall (recordings 3.09)
Source 3 - the lobby, circulation corridor, choice of two paths, towards sources 4
or 5 (recording 3.10)
Source 4 - the cafe (recording 3.11)
Source 5 - circulation corridor and areas of rest (recording 3.11)
Source 6 - the void, from downstairs, acoustic tone of the building (recording
3.07)
Source 7 - electromagnetic and contact microphone recordings, at the entrance
(recordings 3.14 to 3.24)
Please refer to the documentation to hear the raw files of these sources.

Fig. 3.08-3.13 - location of sources

 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 78

Recording devices and techniques

I gathered a multitude of sounds and frequencies, using contact microphones,
electromagnetic microphones and acoustic omnidirectional microphones (DPA
4060). Here I was interested in capturing not only acoustic waves, the audible,
but also everyday events that were not usually perceived.

1.3. Sensory variation

Here the intervention was in an everyday space, which functioned as the
entrance of the building. It transformed the place’s usual function. While the
usual everyday activities of the building continued, the entrance was hacked to
become also a listening place. This sensory variation would transform a zone
where people just passed by, into a place to stop and listen.

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena

I became interested in exploring multiple dimensions and different materialities
of space in specific frequency fields which we usually are not aware of. With
contact microphones I opened up the possibility to capture waves traveling
inside concrete, metal and glass, which are the main materials of the building.
Using electromagnetic microphones, I extended the enquiry into the building’s
infrastructure, capturing electricity impulses and glitches. Here the process of
transduction 39 was of main importance to this exploration, to transpose these
imperceptible frequencies into a spectrum perceived as sound. This activation
of vibrational space to an audible spectrum, articulated an unusual acoustic
relation with the site, interfering with its structured formatted order and therefore
affecting its experience.

39 The term transduction refers to a form of transformation of electric energy to acoustic

energy or vice-verse, such as a the process of a speaker or a radio in the first case or
of a microphone in the second case (Fischetti 2003, 183).
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 79

1.3.2. Aural elements

I found the following particular aural elements:
- fundamental tones: void, background drones;
- keynotes or soundmarks: footsteps, automatic sliding doors, doors shutting;
- specificity of acoustic space: a great amount of reflection from the glass
windows and doors.

Emergent concept: background listening

Most of the time, we process acoustic information more at a background

level without attention being focussed on it. This information provides the
environmental context of our awareness, the ongoing and usually highly
redundant ‘ground’ to our consciousness. (Truax 1996, 58)

According to Barry Truax, listening is multi-leveled because it can involve

various degrees of attention. He claims that different levels of listening involve
analytical attention being paid to short-term details in the foreground case, and
holistic or gestalt pattern recognition in the background case. Interesting to
notice that these two complementary strategies are often described as the left
and right hemispheres of the brain (Truax 1996, 59). Truax describes
background listening as “a sophisticated cognitive process, involving feature
detection, the recognition of patterns and their comparison to known patterns
and environmental signatures. Moreover, background listening can trigger
conscious attention to be focussed on an incoming sound when there is
sufficient need or motivation from the listener” (Truax 1996, 59). Background
sound is normally considered insignificant, but in my spatial perspective, it
modulates the whole ambiance. Therefore here in this experiment it was very
significant. My point was that including field recordings of the background
environmental sound in the soundscape composition would involve the public in
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 80

a form of background active listening. And this could extend the perception of a
place and an awareness of environmental sounds.
I have also experimented further these variations of listening and how it
contributes to a process of balancing hemispheres in Shores’ soundscape
composition (see p. 156).

1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic

The space for the installation converged the site’s sounds and generated an
acoustic of interference. The intervention would amplify the space’s practical
possibilities. Therefore I engaged with Thibaud’s concept of modulated
ambiance (p. 39), involving slight variations of the sensory context of the place.
Here, what was felt, such as rhythms of human activity in the building (steps up
and down the stairs, sliding doors, or doors shutting) fluctuated differently over
time, with the recordings interfered and resonated with the actual activities
going on in real time. This ambiance therefore has produced an ecology of
situated perception (Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 45).

Transformation
My intention was to subvert the usage of this place and to generate a dynamic
form of aural architecture, through the amplification of the sound dimension.
The experience of the resonant soundscape would emerge within this in-
between space. People would enter the building walking through the entrance
as a sonic portal. Instead of a static entrance into the building, here space-time
references would move and change in repetitive and flowing patterns. This
place would work as the convergence point of multiple field recordings gathered
in the site. Therefore the idea for the soundscape emerged as a convergence of
multiple sources in one centre, to amplify the site's environmental sound into
one focal point. My exploration of the site was based in a convergent
movement, as a spiral or a vortex (fig. 3.14). In this sense, the space of the
installation has embodied this movement as a vortex. This convergence of
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 81

sources, with its attractive forces at work, would produce a transformation of the
affective experience as an acoustic interference.

Fig. 3.14 - exploration and convergence of sources

2. Aural architecture design

2.1. Space as resonator

The concept of space as resonator explored the capability of a space to
resonate with its physical structure and reveal a vibrational materiality in it. I
built up the acoustic study based in the physical phenomena of sympathetic
vibration or resonance, resonance frequencies, standing waves and
reverberation, resulting from natural acoustic effects. These effects generated a
particular acoustics with certain amplified frequencies, for an unifying
experience between space and body as a musical instrument.

2.1.1. Architectural acoustics study

An architectural acoustics study was helpful to spatialise the soundscape and
activate space as an acoustic instrument. This study consisted of three main
steps. I started the enquiry by the acoustic space measurement, by the
reverberation time calculation (RT60) and finally by calculating the room modes
or resonance frequencies.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 82

Acoustic space measurement

This study consisted in an objective measurement of the space, calculating
areas of different material and the total volume. I will succinctly explain the
methodology applied:
1- Get access to an architectural plan of the building.
2 - Measure the room with a meter, to complete missing dimensions (room’s
heights).
3 - Calculate the surface areas according to different materials’ density.
I observed four main materials:
- carpet on the floor;
- painted concrete on the walls;
- plaster panels on the ceiling;
- glass windows and doors.
4 - Calculate the spatial volume (V).
The geometry was a a simple parallelepiped room, so it was easily calculated.
The room’s dimensions are: X = 3,3 m; Y = 7,9 m; Z = 2,5 m (given by the
architectural plan and confirmed in situ with physical measurement)
V = 3,3 x 7,9 x 2,5 = 65,1 m3
Different materials’ density produced different acoustic effects, as will be
explained next.

Reflection and absorption

Sound waves traveling in space at one point encounter different materiality and
geometries in the room, and produce what is called acoustic effects. The main
effects associated with waves are: reflection, refraction and absorption. Here I
only considered reflection and absorption that are more relevant to sound
propagation. The effect of reflection is how waves bounce off hard surfaces,
producing reverberation or echo in a space. This affects the reverberation time
of a room, and therefore defines a certain acoustic quality. Sound waves
propagate for longer, so it generally augments the perceived loudness,
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 83

sometimes to the point of being aggressive for our ears. Concrete, glass and
metal surfaces, which are very present in this space, reflect greatly sound
waves, thus the perceived loudness is higher. Instead, the effect of absorption is
the opposite. If the same room is filled with curtains and soft textiles hung, the
energy is absorbed, decreasing the time it lasts; it is damped, so the perceived
loudness of the sound will be lower (this is generally used as a solution for noisy
environments, or to work on a precise reverberation time for a concert hall or an
auditorium).

2.1.2. Reverberation time calculation (RT60)

The effect of reverberation main be explained as “a propagation effect in which
a sound continues after the cessation of its emission. Reflections of the sound
on surfaces in the surrounding space are added to the direct signal. The longer
the reflections conserve their energy, the greater the reverberation
time” (Augoyard and Torgue 2008, 111). Therefore I gave particular attention to
this effect, as I could calculate and predict which specific frequency bandwidths
would reflect and reverberate the most in this particular space. This notion is
linked to the measurement of the time it takes for a sound to decrease by 60
dB. To determine the reverberation time (RT60) of the room I used the Sabine
equation:

RT60 - reverberation time

V - spatial volume of the room
A - effective area of all absorbing surfaces
Physicist Wallace Sabine established this formula in 1898 (Watson and Downey
2012, 27). I calculated the surface areas for each significant material, as we
have seen, and applied the correspondent absorption coefficient. “The effective
absorbing area of a surface is the product of the real area with a quantity called
the absorption coefficient. This is a number between 0 and 1. A perfect absorber
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 84

(like an open window) has a coefficient of 1; while a good reflector (like glazed
tile) it is about 0.01” (Johnston 1989, 170). In any complete acoustic literature
we may find the absorption coefficients measured for most of the materials
(Watson and Downey 2012, 27; Johnston 1989, 171).

Room dimensions: 3,3 m x 7,9 m x 2,5 m

Spatial volume: 65.1 m3
Effective absorbing area of the floor (carpet): 26 m2
– of the ceiling (plaster panels): 26 m2
– of the walls (painted concrete): 28.85 m2
– of windows and doors (glass): 27.60 m2

Total absorbing area: 108.45 m2

Absorption coefficient (A) for each

125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
material, by frequency band
Carpet: 0.04 0.04 0.15 0.29 0.52 0.59
Plaster panels: 0.04 0.12 0.52 0.95 0.93 0.58
Painted concrete: 0.02 0.019 0.023 0.022 0.026 0.026
Glass 0.18 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.02

I applied the absorption coefficient to each material surface area, and calculated
the total effective area of all absorbent surfaces. Then I applied the Sabine
equation. An easier way to have the same result is to use acoustic calculation
softwares (such as AcMus). The results of the RT60 calculation was of:

Frequency bandwith (Hz) Time (s)

125 Hz 1.36 s

250 Hz 1.45 s

500 Hz 0.54 s
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 85

1000 Hz 0.30 s

2000 Hz 0.26 s

4000 Hz 0.31 s

With these values, I could predict that the acoustic space response in terms of
reverberation was stronger in the bandwidths of 0-125 Hz, and 125-250 Hz.
Therefore I decided to enhance frequencies within this spectrum. As will be
seen, I have met these frequencies by adding layers of pure sine waves to the
composition of field recordings.

Standing waves
As seen previously, a particular aspect that I wanted to explore was the
experience of sympathetic resonance between space and body, as an
interconnected field of vibration. The main acoustic effects for this practical case
study referred to sympathetic vibration and its physical manifestation as
standing waves (explained on pages 63-64). This form of experience is directly
related to the relationship between the geometry, materials’ density and spatial
volume, the type of sounds and frequencies that are performed, and its
spatialisation. The effect resulting from a standing wave or stationary wave gave
me a way to understand exactly how vibration builds up into the phenomena of
resonance. A standing wave is actually a vibrational pattern, and not a wave. It
is the pattern resulting from the presence of two (or more) waves of the same
frequency with different directions of travel within the same medium. The
standing wave pattern allows the understanding on the relation between
vibration, fundamental modes, and higher overtones that are called harmonics.
As we have seen, every system (every space, form or structure) has a
resonance frequency, to which it responds with greater amplitude, in
sympathetic vibration or resonance, producing standing waves, or trapped
energy. This is also called the fundamental mode of vibration (which I will refer
to as resonance frequency). The resonance frequency depends on the
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 86

relationship between the system’s size, surface, pressure and volume.

Therefore standing waves happen when the frequency of a sound is the same
as the resonance frequency of vibration of a given system. This notion of
standing waves is fundamental to understanding and applying the phenomena
of resonance. When a sound in the particular resonance frequency of a room is
emitted, the effect of a standing wave is produced and this is what causes a
room to vibrate we greater amplitude, producing the phenomena of resonance.
To calculate the space’s resonance frequencies (also called room modes) that
will produce standing waves, we need to know the dimensions of the room, and
apply an equation. As we will see next, this method was applied in this
experiment, Vibrational Fields. It will also be applied in the practical case study
Passage.

2.1.3. Resonance frequencies calculation (room modes)

To calculate the space’s resonance frequencies (also called room modes) that
would produce standing waves, I needed to know the dimensions of the room.
To c a l c u l a t e t h e fi r s t s t a n d i n g w a v e I a p p l i e d t h e e q u a t i o n :

f1 = c / 2L

f1 is the fundamental mode or first resonance frequency

c is celerity 40

L is the distance between two walls

Sound travels in air at a velocity of 343 m/s under standard conditions. As we
have seem, the dimensions of the room are: X = 3.3 m ; Y = 7.9 m ; Z = 2.5 m.

40 The celerity of a medium refers to the relation between how elastic its molecular
structure is (tension/pressure) and the mass of the elements (density).
Example: celerity of air = 343 m/s; celerity of water = 1400 m/s; celerity of glass = 5000
m/s. The higher the celerity of the medium, the faster the wave will travel. Celerity also
augments with the temperature of the medium, as it augments pressure. If the
temperature of the air is 0 ºC, the celerity will be of 330 m/s, but if the temperature is 20
ºC, then the celerity will be of 342 m/s. As a carrier of sound waves, air is not nearly as
efficient as other materials such as glass, steel, or water. The molecules in these
materials are under more pressure than air, so the internal force is greater and energy
propagates faster at the slightest compression.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 87

The space has a distance of 3.3 meters between two walls. Applying the
equation:

f1 = 343 / (2 x 3.3) = 52 Hz

If I play a sound with a frequency of 52 Hz in one side of the room, I get the
effect of a standing wave. This sound wave goes back and forth between the
two parallel walls and is “trapped”, reflecting between walls and augmenting its
amplitude (or perceived loudness). In standing waves the nodes are points of
no displacement caused by the destructive interference of the two waves (the
initial wave and its reflection). The antinodes result from the constructive
interference of the two waves and thus undergo maximum displacement from
the rest position, and therefore boost in amplitude. When the reflections are
repeated in the space, the specific frequency increases in resonance and
vibrates the corresponding materials. I have looked into these resonance
frequencies to integrate into the soundscape composition. A certain frequency
will behave differently in different medium. When one knows its wavelength, the
way it will behave can be predicted for interior spaces, with the study of the
room’s geometry, materials’ density, the spatial volume. This is the main object
of study of architectural acoustics. For each of the resonance frequencies there
is the fundamental mode and its harmonics. This means that the room’s
fundamental mode resonates with the space’s walls structure, but also its
harmonics, with lesser intensity. In the resonance frequencies calculation there
are axial frequencies, tangential frequencies and oblique frequencies. Axial
frequencies hit on two facing surfaces, tangential frequencies hit on four
surfaces and oblique frequencies include six surfaces crosswise.
Here I worked mainly with axial frequencies. As the space’s volume is small,
these are more relevant for this exploration.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 88

Fig. 3.15 - screenshot of room modes calculation using software AcMus

Axial resonance frequencies (calculated with the software AcMus):

21.8
43.5
52.1
65.3
68.8
87.1
104.2
108.9
130.6
137.6
152.4
156.4
174.2
195.9
206.4
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 89

208.5
217.7
239.5
260.6
261.3
275.2-
283.0
Standard deviation: 7.1
Average of the differences: 12.4

With this data, I selected the frequencies that could generate greater resonance
in the room (we have seen that the reverberation was stronger in the
bandwidths of 0-125 Hz, and 125-250 Hz), to integrate the soundscape
composition, as it will be explained on p. 90. I also wanted to include very low
frequencies in order to resonate with space and body in a physical level.

2.2. Resonant soundscape

To create a resonant soundscape, the composition process integrated the field
recordings into a multi-layered set of recorded sounds of digital and analogue
synthesisers in order to reach specific frequencies, rhythms and acoustic
effects. The soundscape was then performed as a sound installation, spatialised
in a site-specific relation to its acoustic space. The experience intended to
attune resonating cyclic fields between body and space.

2.2.1. Composition with field recordings

The soundscape composition was developed through a process of active
listening and from a spatial approach. As I have mentioned (p. 22), I acted as an
architect on sound matter. I found my architectural background particularly
helpful to work simultaneously in micro and macro-scale. I used analysis and
macroscopic construction methodologies to model sonic beings. Therefore I
engaged the soundscape composition as a whole spatial form, in a multiple
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 90

scale approach, or multidimensionality, simultaneously thinking in details,

elements and proportions in a space-time continuum. Here there is a fusion
between form and material, meaning that the deployment of material, in a
multiple scale approach, determines its own form. The composition was
multitemporal to build up a multidimensional perception of the space. Events did
not take place in sequence but were instead interlocked in a continuous state of
vibration and oscillation. I acted between groups of specific frequencies and the
macrophonic perception of these groups as sound masses (see Xenakis p. 71).
I composed a soundscape through specific bandwidths and layers of
frequencies, so that the site of the performance became a vibrational timespace
where one navigated, opening up different degrees of affect through different
longitudinal waves. This could be a way of activating attunement 41.

2.2.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies

The environmental sounds’ composition incorporated the selected resonance
frequencies of the installation space. The soundscape was tuned into the
space’s vibration modes, through a multilayer of field recordings, resonance
frequencies, pure sine waves and harmonics. Acoustic effects such as
resonance and reverberation were explored in order to reach specific beats,
cycles, rhythmic patterns and geometric interferences. Furthermore,
psychoacoustic notions, such as binaural beats and masking effects, were
integrated as a means to attain other levels of bioresonance and psychological
response. My aim was to explore the relationship of bioresonance and
attunement as a channel to amplify the experience of being in vibration, in a
continuous field of interconnections between all things. Thus the idea was that
the soundscape would offer a tangible experience of void, of acoustic space as
vibration, as a state of both physical and mental non-existing, ever-present.
Also, I have identified a pattern of transformation with the geometry of a spiral

41To reach out an affective experience, of attunement, resonance is a key effect. A

response in sympathetic vibration is understood here as a way of attunement. I will
unfold an enquiry on the notion of attunement on p. 124.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 91

or a vortex. In this sense, artistically and technically, I felt it was coherent to

create the soundscape experience around the idea of the vortex, as a cluster of
energy, or a radiant node of sounds. This would transpose the experience of the
site’s space and time into the inflow of feelings from enveloping nature, for the
experience of being and becoming - the now. Therefore, this soundscape
composition is an experiment of a process of spatialisation of entities of sound
matter, as dynamic sonic beings. From within its spatial relation in acoustic
space unpredictable sonic events have emerged, as it will be explored on p. 96.
The soundscape composition explored this relation between beings, space and
time as a direct experience linked through sound and vibration. As we have
seen, I understand this phenomenon as an affective hit, the onset of an
activation, an unconscious level of apprehension.

2.2.3. Layers
The soundscape is composed by four distinct layers:
Layer 1 - Resonance frequencies (40-43 Hz, 65-67 Hz, 156-162 Hz, 275-276
Hz) (recordings 3.02 to 3.06)
Layer 2 - Field recording of source 6 - the void (recording 3.07)
Layer 3 - Field recordings of sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 (recording 3.08 to 3.13)
Layer 4 - Field recording of source 8 - electromagnetic fields (recording 3.14 to
3.24)
These layers of sound were edited and mixed using audio software (Logic Pro).

Layer 1 - Resonance frequencies 40-43 Hz, 65-67 Hz, 156-162 Hz, 275-276 Hz
These layers of drones, pure resonance frequencies and binaural beats were
created to engage a physical response and psychoacoustic dimension between
bodies and space. A selection of the site’s fundamental resonance frequencies
and harmonics were recorded as pure tones through analogue and digital
instruments (synthesisers and sine waves generators), and mixed in the
composition with the field recordings. For each layer, the selected resonance
frequencies were sets of two frequencies, which differed of 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 3 Hz
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 92

and 6 Hz. This is called binaural masking level difference and generates
binaural beats. Binaural beats are “periodic fluctuations in peak amplitude which
occur when two sinusoids with slightly different frequencies are
superimposed” (Moore 2007, 400). The resulting frequency is a beat frequency |
f1 - f2| = f3 (beat frequency). When two frequencies are close, the binaural
masking level difference results almost inaudible. This sound resulted as a
drone, “a permanent bass note over which other elements are laid” (Augoyard
and Torgue 2005, 40). It produced a psycho physical phenomena of resonance
between the space itself and the whole body, as a musical instrument. I
explored the notion of intensity of waves where sets of sound masses move,
creating sonic beings. Here I have drawn from Xenakis’ model given by sound
analysis as a psycho-physic phenomena, and where “sound is perceived in a
global mode, in its gaseous environment, under the form of sound
masses” (Sedes in Solomos 2003, 231). The sub-layer of 40-42 Hz penetrates
and involves the whole body. R. Murray Schafer claims that low frequency
sound is in “more intimate proximity to the listener” (Schafer 1994, 118). He
describes this type of sound as a mode of listening related to immersion, rather
than concentration, which is more related to high frequency. He defines low
frequency as “wraparound sound; presence; sound wall; electroacoustic;
immersion; ocean-womb” (Schafer 1994, 118). With the layer of 40-42 Hz I
looked to attain these characteristics toward the integrity of inner space with
outer space. The soundscape was performed using a sub-woofer to amplify
these low frequencies, beats and vibrations of materials. Initially, I experimented
to work with the resonance frequency of 22 Hz, but unfortunately the available
PA equipment for performance did not reach that low. Nevertheless, the
frequencies of 40-42 Hz were low enough to generate an ocean of low
frequency sounds, sound masses and standing waves that would involve the
senses of the audience, as being in the middle of the sea, surrounded by
sounds that came from everywhere.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 93

Layer 2 - Field recording of source 6 - the void

These sounds were recorded with omnidirectional acoustic microphones DPA
4060, at different times of the day. This layer corresponds to the mass of
reverberating sounds of the building. It echoes the building’s acoustic signature,
a presence of void. In terms of the soundscape composition, this echoing
sounds added a duration which “also allows the sound to reverberate in the
listener’s memory, providing time for long-term memories and associations to
surface” (Truax 1996, 62). As we have seen, we normally consider background
sound insignificant, but in fact it modulates the whole ambiance. Background
listening can trigger conscious attention to be focussed on an incoming sound,
“involving feature detection, the recognition of patterns and their comparison to
known patterns and environmental ‘signatures’”(Truax 1996, 59). Therefore the
purpose of this layer was to involve the public in a form of background active
listening, which could extend the perception of the place and an awareness of
environmental sounds.

Layer 3 - Field recordings of sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7

These sounds were recorded with omnidirectional acoustic microphones DPA
4060 and contact microphones. This layer was composed of several field
recordings. It built up an altered spatio-temporal configuration of the place, of
waves traveling through different media. It included sounds of birds, wind, tree
leafs, distant cars, close and distant footsteps and voices, the entrance sliding
doors, air conducts, the inside of walls and windows. In my perspective, this
particular layer would help to extend the audience’s experience of the
surroundings into an acoustic ecology awareness of the variety of vibrational
fields that actually exist in a place, and to what extend we contribute to it and
are part of it.

Layer 4 - Field recording of source 8 - e.m.f.

These frequencies were recorded with electromagnetic microphones.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 94

This layer integrated transducted frequencies, mainly electromagnetic waves

captured from the electric circuit infrastructure, such as light and air
conditioning. The resulting sounds ranged medium, high and very high
frequencies. The process of transduction of usually unheard sounds into audible
frequencies allows “the inner timbral character of the sound to emerge and be
observed, as if under a microscope” (Truax 1996, 61). This process “changes
both the morphology (Smalley 1986) and the associated imagery of the
resultant sound” in a way that “the listener may experience a process of
transformation or interpolation (Wishart 1993)” (Truax 1996, 62). In my
perspective, listening and vibrating to the usually unperceived sounds of the
structure and infrastructure could result in a feeling of integration to the building,
as becoming part of its architecture. The listener’s body would enter in
resonance with the materials and might experience a process of becoming with
the acoustic space.

To hear the soundscape composition open the audio file 3.21. Please read first
the note on the audio documentation on p. 225.

Fig. 3.16 - spectrogram of the soundscape composition using software Spek

 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 95

3. Acoustic spatialisation
This installation consisted of a pair of stereo active speakers, one sub-woofer,
and one mixing desk. The soundscape was played via a media player. The
protocol for the process of acoustic spatialisation was as follows:
1- Install the audio equipment - stereo active speakers and one sub-woofer,
spectrum range 40 Hz -20 Khz (in other events after this one I spatialised the
soundscape using multiple speakers and quadraphonic sound).
2- Run tests to confirm the resonance frequencies of the space and the
frequency range of the sub-woofer. Adjust if necessary. Resonance frequencies
did set the architectural materials in vibration, except for the lowest frequency,
because the sub-woofer did not respond to the 22 Hz frequency. The next lower
resonance frequency was 43 Hz. This one vibrated the structure and was
clearly heard and felt.
3- Spatialise the sound system. Choose the best placement of the sound
system exploring the relationships between resonance frequencies, materials’
properties, geometry and spatial volume. As this installation space is a long
parallelepiped volume, one speaker was installed in each side of the longer
dimension. The sub-woofer was installed in-between. In this sense, the
audience path walking through the space would be binaurally immersed.
4- Re-adjust soundscape if needed. In this space, I had to readjust a layer of
pure frequencies and substitute the frequency of 22 Hz for 43 Hz, as it was
inaudible through the available sub woofer. Nevertheless, the acoustic effects
were present and produced the expected result of standing waves and material
resonance.

Fig. 3.17, 3.18, 3.19 - diagram and photographs of the acoustic spatialisation
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 96

Translation: stochastic score

An unexpected result of a stochastic phenomena took place, which I have
identified as an operation of aural architecture’s translation (as referred on p.
43). As described on page 72, I have found common ground with Xenakis' idea
of a transformable sound mass as musical sound, where complex acoustical
events cannot be broken down into their constituent elements (Allen in Hensel,
Hight, Menges 2009, 120). Therefore I have approached sound matter in
relationship with vibrational forces to capture. In this experimental process of
exploring acoustic phenomena for an intense presence of sound, I composed
sets of sound masses that moved with the natural acoustic effect of resonance.
This created a soundscape environment as a sonic being, where sounds had a
generative or processual form of becoming 42 in relation to someone’s
experience. As a result, I observed an interesting phenomena of becoming
happening - the experience of the soundscape changed with the movements of
people. In fact, when the electric doors opened and closed, the space’s volume
changed; and when people would pass by or stand in the room, the material
absorption was altered. Therefore these parameters affected the space’s
acoustics and the effect of resonance was distinct. In consequence, with
different resonance effects, it transformed the vibration of standing waves and
the oscillation of frequencies. This also generated new interferences between
the composition’s layers, with new sonic events - a dynamic ever-changing flow.
Therefore the articulation between the different layers of sounds created
unusual vibrant geographies and geometries and produced multiple physical
experiences of the same space. In my understanding, this generative and
transformative process was a form of exploration of the multidimensionality of
vibrant matter. Therefore the notion of stochastic score of performance
interestingly emerged from within this work process. In fact, it resulted as an
open work, an open score, and the soundscape depended on the acoustic

42As seen on p. 34, becoming is a term explored by Deleuze and Guattari, that is often
used in processual and generative design practices.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 97

effects produced by the movement of the public going through the performance
space. The material deployment indeed determined its own form. It is important
to note that the space’s volume changed with the opening of the sliding doors,
and the material density changed with the amount of people in the space (more
or less absorption). Therefore the perception of acoustic effects were altered.
But, as the distance between fixed walls is always the same, the impact of the
effect of two standing waves remained present.

4. Audience's experience and feedback

As seen, the soundscape Vibrational Fields aimed to generate a connective
tissue, an acoustic tangible experience of some kind of unified field. The
purpose was to explore how the resulting psycho-acoustical effects would
create an ecological experience of being vibration: humans and non-humans, all
interconnected through vibration. This is what will be seen next with the public’s
feedback.
I left a notebook in the installation space over the sub-woofer to engage people
to leave their feedback. The question was: “How do you feel with this
experience? Please leave your feedback.” According to the public’s testimonies,
this soundscape experience of being surrounded by masses of sound and
vibration provoked feelings from enveloping nature. Here follows a transcription
of some significant comments (see illustrations 3.20 to 3.30 of the artworks
digital portfolio for the notebook copies):

It reminds me of a black hole for some reason.

Sounds like aircraft rumbles.
In the middle of the sea.
Moving through a space without time and references. The NOW.
I love the birdsong! Not so keen of the rest I’m afraid!
I love infrasound.
I feel like I’m in the engine room of a boat.
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 98

I feel like I’m walking into a different dimension.

Wombastic!
Bit uncomfortable.
Lift off!
(C. Martinho, Passage survey, May 5-6, 2011)

The comments revealed a response of affect, ranging from pleasure, fear, loss
of references. People that loved bass sounds, people that felt scared. People
that enjoyed the experience, people that found it unbearable. In some of them it
overwhelmed or transcended senses beyond the hearable, towards other
modes of feeling their body connected to space.

Attunement
The experience has engaged the audience in another feeling of time, space and
their bodies in vibration. Interrupting the usual practice of that space, it turned a
passage path into a place to stop and listen or feel, and provoked a different
type of awareness of the surroundings. The resonant soundscape composition
was a physical experience of the multidimensionality in vibrational forces and
activated a mode of distribution of shared formations of the sensible. These
sonic fields activated resonance through electrical impulses in the audience’s
body and mind. It has unfolded and modulated affect from the same
constructive suspense. It triggered microperceptions, produced altered time and
space perceptions and induced different states of awareness. This experience
eventually provided some kind of a sensorial reset, and tuned peoples’
biorhythms into an awareness of the now, and the forces at work at the site that
were usually unnoticed. The aural architecture design resulted as a tangible
connective tissue, which activated the experience of being vibration - humans,
non-humans and things, all interconnected through vibration. And this is what
the experience aimed, to engage attunement - all bodies were in some way
 Chapter 3: Practical case study: Vibrational Fields 99

attuned but all were distributed differently, depending on the tendencies and
capacities of each of them (natural, cultural).

Final thoughts
I considered this feedback enough for my enquiry. This experiment resulted as a
kind of vibrational experience that unfolded and modulated affect as
microperceptions from the same field of resonance. It validated my experiment
of a resonant soundscape and of space as resonator. It confirmed that this
mode of designing aural architecture could activate an experience of space as a
vibrational force, from which multiple modes of attunement could emerged. The
Vibrational Fields experience resulted in a new approach to design site-oriented
spatial relations between inanimate objects and vibrational forces of sound, in
order to produce a diversification of affect between humans, non-humans and
things. Therefore this was a valid affective experience of the environmental
sound and it contributed for an ecology of affect.


 Chapter 4 100

Chapter 4
Working concept • Space as field
Enquiry • Relational, energetic and performative architecture
• Spatial agency
Practical case study • Radio Sonores
Design methods • Space as dynamic relation
Affective experience • The experience of inner-outer listening and relatively
silent, enhanced by the space’s absorbent qualities

Emergent concepts • Space as dynamic relation

• Diagram as an energetic geometry
• Modular design as a mode of assemblage
• Mobile architecture

In Chapter 3, I have approached the working concept of field of resonance

drawing from acoustics, experimenting it in the design of the resonant
soundscape Vibrational Fields. In Chapter 4, I got interested in extending the
working concept of space as field from architectural design theory. I will extend
my enquiry in relational, energetic and performative architecture, looking up into
practices of spatial agency. Then, I will present my practical experimentation in
the case study Radio Sonores (2012), an aural micro-architecture, designed as
a mobile structure, and built collectively with a group of architecture students. It
was a gathering space to diffuse discussions and performances of sonic events,
for a cultural event dedicated to the exploration of the topic Sound-Space-
Signal. This experiment produced one design method: the design of an aural
architecture based in space as a dynamic relation.
The space’s absorbent qualities took (with the acoustic panels) allowed to
explore an experience of the inner-outer listening dynamics and the relatively
silent space. Key concepts have emerged from within my practice experiment
such as: space as dynamic relation, diagram as energetic geometry, modular
design as a mode of assemblage and mobile architecture.

 Chapter 4: Working concept: Space as Field 101

Working concept:

Space as Field

The field is a material condition, not a metaphor.

(Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 130)

Decades ago, in their explorations on Acoustic Space (1960), media theorist

Marshall McLuhan and anthropologist Ted Carpenter have criticised how space
was conceived and its implications, which McLuhan extended further years later
(1970). Already at that time, they claimed that in the everyday world, space is
conceived in terms of that which separates visible objects, as empty space
where there is nothing to see. The problem, they argued, is that we ignore much
of the world beyond what is visually given in order to locate and identify objects
in three dimensions. The objects compel our attention and orient our behaviour.
And space is understood merely as that which is traversed in getting to or from
the objects (Carpenter and McLuhan 1960, 65-67). McLuhan explained that for
a Western person it is very difficult to take things except in a visual, connected,
rational mode. And for that reason it has major consequences in all the scientific
disciplines, as Modern physicists have troubles with the visual or acoustic
problem. My view is that architecture also deals with this dichotomy. The
prevalent and global architectural model is based in the rational Modern ethic of
form follows function, where architecture is designed as a formatted generic
object to place and to program an empty space. By the time of the McLuhan
and Carpenter article, some visionary architects, such as Yonna Friedman,
Archigram, Superstudio, Buckminster Fuller, Cedric Price, engaged in a critical
practice of architecture for social and ecological change. Even thought some
architects have extended their ideas, prevailing systems have persisted in
constraining architectural models to follow a global market logic of programs
and formats. And despite decades of major technical advances in computer
assisted design and material innovation, still the same approach remains,
 Chapter 4: Working concept: Space as Field 102

constraining the experience of space to specific functions dictated by the rules

of an economic system, most of the time ignoring social and ecological issues.
We get different objects and shapes, fashions and trends, but we remain with
the same underlying ethic.
Nevertheless, in the last decade, we have seen the emergence of a new
generation of practitioners and theorists that argue for a paradigmatic shift from
architecture as a formatted object in empty space, to architecture as a field of
relationships, in all its dimensions (social, ecological, political, pedagogical).

The field describes a space of propagation, of effects. It contains no

matter or material points, rather function, vectors and speeds. It
describes local relations of difference within fields of celerity,
transmission or careering points, in a word, what Mikowsky called the
world. (Kwinter 2002, 60)

Architectural theorist Sanford Kwinter has been arguing that the notion of “field”
expresses the complete immanence of forces and events while supplanting the
concept of Cartesian or metric space (Kwinter 2002, 60). Architects and
theorists, such as Stan Allen, Michael Hensel and Achim Mengues, have also
pointed out for a paradigmatic shift.

Field conditions are relational, and not figural, they are based on interval.
(Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 120)

In an article entitled The Heterogeneous Space of Morpho-Ecologies (Hensel,

Hight and Menges 2009, 195-215) Hensel and Mengues argue for a shift away
from an ethic that sees the objective of architecture as the production of form to
one that operates through spatial relationships, through intervals. This relational
architecture produces highly specific but differentiated effects and
performances. They claim for heterogeneous space in architecture as an
 Chapter 4: Working concept: Space as Field 103

energetic system with a set of internal relationships and external forces that
inform it and to which it responds. In their view, this corresponds to a
performative ethic which presents an innovation in the ecological understanding
of architecture. Ecology, more than a green movement, is an energetic
consciousness, and could be engaged as the relationship of any system to its
environment and other systems (Hensel, Hight and Menges 2009, 195). I
became interested in exploring further these working concepts - relational,
energetic, performative - derived from a practical experimentation of space as
field, towards a design method based in space as a dynamic relation, as will be
seen next in the practical case study Radio Sonores.

Spatial agency
An online project entitled Spatial Agency presents a database of such other
ways of doing architecture and designing space as field, moving away from
architecture's traditional focus on the look of buildings. Spatial Agency proposes
new ways of looking at how buildings and space can be produced with an
expansive field of situations in which architects and non-architects can operate.
Inspired by architect Cedric Price, this project started with the belief that a
building is not necessarily the best solution to a spatial problem. Adopting
philosopher Bruno Latour's terms, this project presents modes of practice where
critical attention is shifted from architecture as a matter of fact to architecture as
a matter of concern 43. This means that “as matters of fact, buildings can be
subjected to rules and methods, and they can be treated as objects on their
own terms. As matters of concern, they enter into socially embedded networks,
in which the consequences of architecture are of much more significance than
the objects of architecture.” 44

43In From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern, Critical Inquiry, 30, 2 (Winter 2004),
pp. 225-48
44 Online reference: [Link] - accessed September 23 2016
 Chapter 4: Working concept: Space as Field 104

To sum up - relational, energetic, performative, agency - these are working

concepts that I have extended into a mode of aural architecture design that
focused on the consequences of the experience of space (sensorial, social,
political, ecological), more than the formal production of an object of
architecture; for an architecture that resulted as a field of dynamic relations, to
open up space for affective experiences. As it will be seen next, the experiment
of Radio Sonores was designed as a mode of assemblage based in a dynamic
relation, instead of a fixed structure. A creative process extended the materiality
of space as field and its dynamic forces, into an energetic geometry
understanding.



 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 105

Practical case study:

Radio Sonores

Fig. 4.1. Radio Sonores installation at ASA factory

Radio Sonores (2012) was built for the event Sonores: Sound / Space / Signal,
an artists-in-residency project by Soopa collective. This happened during the art
and architecture programme of the cultural event Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture, within the Curator’s Lab cycle on audiences.
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 106

1. Experience of site

1.1. Analysis of context

A collective of artists and musicians (Soopa collective) conceived a radio art
project to program a series of sonic events, music performances and talks, and
explored the thematic Sound / Space / Signal. A radio studio would receive
creators and thinkers for the period of three months (April, May and June 2012),
and the sessions would be broadcasted live and recorded. Besides, there would
be public happenings for local audiences. Their description of their idea of radio
was resumed on the event’s publication as follows:

Radio does not exist, it is diffusion, in the literal sense of the term. Today,
radio seems to have lost its vocation to function as a ‘promoter’ - as a
transmission link, an activity of mediation between objects and subjects.
We find ourselves in a permanent space that does not begin or end, a
vacuum that addresses everyone and no one. A space where time is
continuously flowing. (Brejon 2012)

In this context, I was invited to create the headquarter space for Radio Sonores.
My question was what kind of physical support could be offered so that it would
remain a virtual diffusion within this space-time situation. The studio should be
acoustically and visually isolated form the outside and simultaneously, it would
be interesting to engage a relation to a physical audience for performances
happening in this place from time to time. From my perspective, and inspired by
radio works of acoustic ecologists, I thought that this radio art project could not
only engage an opportunity to broadcast work, but could also offer a place, in
this case both virtual and physical, where cultural exploration and political
activism could meet (Westerkamp 2002).
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 107

1.2. Dynamic of experience: workshop of building together

Radio Sonores was commissioned as part of the workshop Construir Junto,
conducted by Exyzt collective, with students from art and architecture local
schools. This workshop built the whole space for these first three months of the
Curator’s Lab series. It included an auditorium, a kitchen, a common space to
eat and to sleep, and the radio station. The space where the art and
architecture program happened was a disused factory (fig. 4.02-4.03). The ASA
factory used to be a renowned textile factory, in the outskirts of the city of
Guimarães. It was now a typical abandoned industrial building, with suburban
housing around it, where the factory former workers still lived. With the event
Guimarães European Capital of Culture 2012, it was now object of rehabilitation
through a cultural program that included its building renovation. The collective
Exyzt facilitated a construction workshop so that students’ participation would
be at the core of the experience, to enable them to take an active part in the
renovation of the factory and of the cultural face of their city. In their words, this
pedagogical experience was crucial for the future role of students as active
citizens in the shaping of their living environment. Moreover, one of the slogans
chosen by the students to represent the project said that the most important
thing to be built is understanding. Indeed, a new understanding of this place
could be reached by building together, transcending differences and barriers.
For Exyzt and for myself, this was the most important result that this type of
collaboration could aspire to.
The workshop team and students who took part in the project are from
various origins, abilities, ages, but the language of construction
overcomes the differences to achieve common goals. It is an universal
language with a simple technique: one assures that the beams are in the
correct position, the other puts the screw in the right place and presses
the drill. And it does not matter if one has never built something, because
everyone can learn it with little effort and take part in the construction.
(Exyzt 2012)
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 108

A dynamic of social participation spread out of the ASA factory, involving the city
in the project. Students engaged in an exploration of the surroundings of the
factory to collect experiences, impressions and expectations of the citizens,
inviting them to participate. The gates of the factory opened up and citizens
came in, looked around and gave their opinions. The construction went on day
by day with opened doors welcoming the participation of anyone that came in. It
offered a communitarian open space for people, with a kitchen, an auditorium
and the radio. It was a relational space where cooking, eating, talking, listening
was an invitation to all. For the Exyzt collective, more than a physical and
architectural construction for ASA, the project Construir Junto (Building
Together) sought to be essentially a social construction. Here, the context and
the community were the true purpose of action. Construir Junto was like a
bridge, like a way of binding the inner and outer experiences of ASA.
Contributing to the returning of the factory to the city, reintegrating its new
structure by the reunion of the artists and the inhabitants in its construction and
in its meaning. This kind of practice inscribes itself in a context of participative
architecture. Here we may think of collectives such as Atelier de Architecture
Autogéré, Raumlabor, Hackitectura, muf architecture/art, in which citizens are
part of the creative process of design 45. In this same approach, Radio Sonores
was engaged as a participative architecture, with a workshop of self-
construction.

Do-it-yourself radio station

My interest to develop the radio project as a workshop was to engage a self-
built collective process and a pedagogical dynamic. I invited a long-term
collaborator, architect Mathieu Herbelin (we were part of the same collective,
Mesarchitecture, in Paris) and together we facilitated the workshop with four
architecture students, to create do-it-yourself (d.i.y.) techniques with specific

45For more details see Blundell-Jones, Petrescu and Till (eds.), Architecture and
Participation, 2005.
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 109

acoustic solutions. We also counted on the valuable help of Jean-Marc

Chevalet, expert in wood construction.
The planning of this practical case study was as follows:
1- conception - November to December 2011
2- construction workshop - February to March 2012
3- events - April to May 2012
As the central idea was to create an aural architecture which could be adapted
to different uses, it called up for the exploration of the concepts of field and
relational architecture (as seen). The approach to space as field would engage
a relational network, both human and non-human, as the field condition “implies
the acceptance of the real in all its messiness and unpredictability. It implicates
architects in a material improvisation conducted on site in real time. Field
conditions treat constrains as opportunity. Working with and not against the site,
something new is produced by registering the complexity given” (Allen in
Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 119). As a d.i.y. workshop, it engaged a
participative and collective process of self-construction. Students practiced how
to do more with less, by building acoustic panels with their own hands and very
few materials. They have learned simplified and smart construction techniques,
to work with site constrains and its complexity. In my view, this workshop was a
way of learning architectural acoustics by practicing and experimenting simple
acoustic solutions. Architecture students do not usually have access to this kind
of d.i.y. practice at school. In this sense, this alternative practice of aural
architecture as a workshop engaged an educational approach for a practical
understanding of acoustics by making. Furthermore, it experimented the ideas
of social ecology.
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 110

1.3. Sensory variation

Affirming the public's capacity to modify the sensory amenities of a place
goes hand-in-hand with recognition of the modular and circumstantial
character of the built environment.
(Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 48)

Sound-Space-Signal event was going to take place in the central space of the
factory where the main entrance stands. The space was built out of concrete,
metal and glass, so acoustically it was a reverberating and very noisy
environment.

Fig. 4.02, 4.03, 4.04 - ASA factory

Note: as this practical case study did not involve field recording, the step of
aural elements did not apply.

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena

Our approach was to create a dissociation in the sonic environment, through a
contraction on acoustic space, into a relatively silent mode of experience, for a
focused attention on the creation of sound and music. But it should also be
possible to open this space for interactions with public, from time to time. Our
proposal was then to create a modular, adaptive and mobile installation that
allowed multiple uses in relation to different sonic events. Sensory variation
could be produced according to its users needs. This possibility enabled Radio
Sonores’ users to engage the necessary attention to switch from inner to outer
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 111

listening, from an interior and personal creative process, to an exterior and co-
creative dynamic.

1.3.2. Ambiance dynamic

The space for Radio Sonores could be assembled as an enclosed environment,
to generate an insulated acoustic sphere for the radio sessions (streamed live).
And from from time to time it could open up to the outside, for public interaction.
Therefore it engaged with Thibaud’s concept of framed ambiance (p. 40), where
a specific social practice sets the conditions that define a place. Here, the radio
sessions gave shape to social situations that built new spatial relations, defining
the ambiance of the acoustic sphere. It enfolded an “ecology of relations in
public”, as the ambiance results from the public relations happening in the place
(Thibaud in LaBelle and Martinho 2011, 45). This aspect extends the concept of
relational space, as a social practice that defines an ambiance. As the social
situations in this space were dedicated to sound and music practice, it also
engaged relational space as a network between humans, non-humans and
things, connected through sound matter.

2. Aural architecture design

Radio Sonores addresses a design paradigmatic shift: from an “object of
analysis” to a field, a milieu of relations and dynamic events. In Radio Sonores I
have engaged the working concepts of space as field, and experimented the
ideas of relational, energetic and performative architecture. Building a micro-
architecture dedicated to sound events allowed me to extend an understanding
on the materiality of sound from the previous practical case study, Vibrational
Fields, into the design of relational space as an assemblage, based in energetic
geometry, as will be explored next.
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 112

2.1. Space as a dynamic relation

The idea of designing space as a dynamic relation unfolds from the previous
enquiry on a paradigmatic shift in architecture, from space as formal object, to
space as a field of relations. In the practical case study Vibrational Fields, I
have approached the concept of field drawing from acoustics, which I have
experimented in soundscape design and spatialisation. In this practical case
study, Radio Sonores, I became interested in extending the concept of field
from architectural theory, drawing from architect Stan Allen’s idea that “the field
is a material condition, not a metaphor”, and to experiment it in the design of
aural architecture (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 130). My aim was to
explore a design process that extends the materiality of space as a field of
vibrational forces, into an energetic geometry understanding, based in relation,
intervals and geometric patterns. For this, I have explored a bit further how field
conditions have the capacity to make abstract forces visible. Besides
demonstrating well phenomena of resonance, the well-known example Ernst
Chladni’s experiment with a plate of iron registering the patterns of a magnetic
field, reveals that the fillings are not the field. They are the graphic record of the
invisible forces of the field itself, the intervals, also called vibrational patterns.
These can be engaged as diagram of forces, energetic geometry patterns. I
have looked to integrate this idea of diagram of forces in the design of Radio
Sonores. As seen on page 102, Stan Allen describes field conditions as
relational, not figural, and based in interval. Therefore field conditions are
defined by the intricate local connections, the intervals and the capacity to make
imperceptible forces tangible. In his article From Object to Field Stan Allen
resumes this idea in a simple way: “form matters, but not so much the forms of
things as the forms between things” (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 120).
Therefore I became interested in directing my practice of aural architecture
towards space as a dynamic relation, or the form between things. I got into an
exploration of the generative process of this invisible field of forces, as a
creative process of design. I wanted to understand the generation of form
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 113

between things in its relation to geometry; how the form between things was
given by the kind of relationships to engage.

Relational space

Field configurations are inherently expandable; the possibility of

incremental growth is anticipated in the mathematical relations of the
parts. (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 124)

Field conditions are defined by the intricate local connections. Stan Allen
resumes this idea in a simple way: “form matters, but not so much the forms of
things as the forms between things” (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 120).
I have assumed the formal configuration and design as a relation between
things, as that which defines the qualities and specificity of the experience of
space. Allen claims for a theory of the field as a model to revitalise the practice
of architecture and to significantly alter the Modernist relationship between form,
programme and space (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 119). In these
terms, he calls for alternative practices to perform space in architecture. In
Radio Sonores I have explored these ideas to result as an experience of fields
of relationships, instead of producing an object in a field, like most
contemporary architectural production does. Therefore more than a formal
configuration, I have engaged in field conditions to design an aural architecture
as an assemblage that admits change, accident and improvisation. It resulted
as an architecture that did not invest in durability, stability and certainty, but an
architecture that left space for the uncertainty of the real (Allen in Hensel, Hight,
Menges 2009, 142). Radio Sonores derived from experimentation of a self-built
architecture, in contact with the real in all its messiness and unpredictability.
This process produced a shift of emphasis from abstract formal description of
an architectural drawing process in a studio, to a close attention to operations of
making relational space (Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 129).
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 114

2.2. Energetic geometry

Geometry is the invisible scaffold that once controls the distribution of

parts, but disappears in the final building.
(Allen in Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 122)

My following question was quite practical: what kind of geometry allowed an

architectural design of space as a dynamic relation, that left space for the
uncertainty of the real and the appropriation by its users? I wanted to step away
from the conventional Euclidian geometry. As it is based in axioms and
theorems it results in a reduced system of metric measurement of a visible
thing. We know that physical space is not Euclidian. This was confirmed when
the theory of general relativity was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1915. Non-
Euclidian geometries have emerged ever since, when the need for a metric
system was relaxed or the parallel postulate was replaced by hyperbolic and
elliptic geometry. I.e. Iannis Xenakis, as we will see on page 167, developed
his work based on a hyperbolic geometry which he translated in music
compositions and spatialisation. As seen on page 57, Buckminster Fuller has
introduced the term synergetics as energetic geometry. For Fuller, since the
physical Universe is entirely energetic, all dimension should be energetic. Fuller
claims that synergetics is energetic geometry since it identifies energy with
number, and provides geometrical conceptuality in respect to energy quanta
(Fuller 1975, 22). My aim was then to use energetic geometry to design space
as a dynamic relation, to modulate sensory variations in aural architecture.
Therefore I approached geometry based in forces, vectors, intervals,
frequencies’ patterns, instead of a fixed structure, which is the usual approach
in the production of abstract space (p. 25). As seen, my aim was to create to a
differential space, or the diversification of space. Moreover, I wanted to explore
a geometry in relation with material efficiency, as a dynamic relation between
things that would allow variable intervals and tensions, according to the spatial
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 115

practices and performances. In this sense, Radio Sonores proposed an

alternative mode of building space that embodied the materiality of relations,
and articulated simple systems, forces and agents in its design process, for the
performative quality of vibration (beyond formal). From the experiment
Vibrational Fields I knew how to transform and modulate an energetic system (a
resonant soundscape and a space as resonator) based in energy and forces,
and therefore in frequencies, intensities, amplitudes, duration, rhythm. Here I
got interested in how to build this energetic system into an assemblage with
physical materials.

Diagram as energetic geometry

The radio station was the meta-space that condensed the whole program as a
radio art project and provided a permanent broadcast, streaming and archive of
an influx of events. In this sense, it acted as an epicentre of activities. Therefore
the space was generated around the principle of a circle, as the figure of an
immersive acoustic space. The circle was engaged as “an emblem of universal
geometries, with potential metaphysical or cosmological overtones” (Allen in
Hensel, Hight, Menges 2009, 130). Therefore the initial diagram was very
simple, based in a concentric circle, as an epicentre, to expand into an
energetic geometry (see figures 4.05-4.07, p.116).
These diagrams generated an energetic geometry, from which emerged the
spatial form of the acoustic space for the radio, which should be adaptable and
evolutive. This means that the same architectural installation could be
assembled in distinct acoustic configurations, for distinct aural experiences.
It resulted in an acoustic dissociation between the inside silent space of the
radio station and the outside reverberant space of the factory. From Radio
Sonores experiment emerged the concept of a diagram as an energetic
geometry, which was further developed in the practical case study Passage (p.
189).
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 116

Fig. 4.05, 4.06, 4.07 - diagrams of energetic geometry

Assemblage
In the aural architecture design of Radio Sonores I have expanded geometric
diagrams, into an energetic understanding of form as an assemblage, drawing
from Deleuze and Guattari.

In all things, there are lines of articulation or segmentarity, strata and

territories; but also lines of flight, movements of deterritorialization and
destratification. Comparative rates of flow on these lines produce
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 117

phenomena of relative slowness and viscosity, or, on the contrary, of

acceleration and rupture. All this, lines and measurable speeds
constitutes an assemblage 46

I have used the term assemblage instead of structure, as an assemblage opens

up endless possibilities to gather a multiplicity of things. Therefore the initial
diagrams become energetic geometry, engaged as lines of articulation, as
vibrational forces that produce phenomena, intervals and dynamic relations.
Here again, a link is drawn to the previously discussed ideas of space as a field,
as a connective tissue between humans, non-humans and things.
This mobile radio station needed a simple solution for relational space: a
circular assemblage of light-weight modules, easily transportable and
assembled. But with the possibility of transformation: from an enclosed space to
an open space according to its users needs and responsive to the site where it
was to be installed. Therefore the geometric diagram became a relational base
for the design and assemblage of an aural architecture, with adaptable
acoustics.

2.3. Architectural acoustics study

Adaptable acoustics means opening and enlarging spaces or making

them narrower and quieter. It also means, for example, composing
phase-like spaces which can expand and contract in rhythmic waves …
To be able to change the acoustics to conform with specific requirements
means to be able to alter the sensorial qualities of space. Independent
acoustics opens up new dimensions of architectural design. This sounds
somewhat utopian today. However, experimentation and creative
innovation will help to define the meaning of this design approach and

46 Deleuze and Guattari, in [Link]

 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 118

lead to architectural expressions rooted in the potential for human

enrichment offered by modern technology. (Leitner 1998, 303)

Radio Sonores was designed and built with such adaptable acoustics.
Extending the diagrams as an energetic geometry, and assuming the radio
station infrastructure as a round table connected to an antenna, the space
surrounding its users was conceived as an insulated and absorbent acoustic
capsule. This capsule was assembled as a circle with eighteen identical
modules for a closed and isolated situation.
From time to time there were performances with public interaction. In this case,
the circle opened up, its modules sprawl in different configurations (i.e. half-
circle), and its inside revealed itself the time of a transmission. Then the circle
would reconfigured itself, the capsule would reshape itself in its integrality,
generating the decontextualised and protected necessary conditions for a
focused attention on the creation of sound and music.

Next, I will describe each of the properties - geometry, materials’ density and
spatial volume - that has defined the quality of the acoustic space.

Geometry

The geometry of the capsule was based in eighteen identical modules and
covered with a ceiling. The assemblage of nine elements would create an half-
moon geometry and the shape of an acoustic shell. This assemblage allowed
open performances, for interactions with public, and at the same time the
performers would have the acoustic conditions to hear themselves.

The assemblage of 18 modules (the total amount) would close the geometry of
the circle, creating a closed environment, a volume with an adequate size for a
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 119

radio station. Therefore the same architecture installation could be assembled

in distinct acoustic configurations, for distinct aural experiences.

Fig. 4.08, 4.09 - assemblage in circle and in half-circle

Besides, it was also transportable to other places. We started by the design and
experimentation of one single element, a module, a prototype, that would be
repeated. It was designed according to the overall geometry and proportions.
The module was vertical until the head’s hight and then inclined to the interior.

Materials’ density

The materials available for the construction workshop were the same for every
work: wood beams, screws and insulation cork panels. Here the material
deployment determined the architecture form. We designed and built movable
wooden partitions, making the acoustic manipulation temporary and variable.

Fig. 4.10, 4.11, 4.12 - movable wood panels

 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 120

For a more efficient acoustic absorption performance, we added an extra

absorber material. The inside of the walls and ceilings were fully covered by
acoustic panels with excellent absorption capabilities and an effective amount of
diffusion (fig. 4.13, 4.14, 4.15). It resulted in a relatively quiet environment,
suitable for a recording and broadcast studio, or a performance space.

Fig. 4.13, 4.14, 4.15 - movable wood panels

Spatial volume

The acoustic space is also determinate by the way we sit: the height of
the seats in relation to the height of the room, the way the seats are
grouped. (Leitner 1998, 302)

Once the radio station was built, we designed and built a round table with seats
distributed around the circle, according to the space’s proportions. On the one
hand, the dimensions and proportions were large enough to allow several
people to interact in the space and to circulate behind the seats, if needed. On
the other hand, the room’s height was designed to have an acoustic volume
large enough above heads, for a comfortable sense of intimate space (not too
tight, but not to high either).

Fig. 4.16, 4.17, 4.18 - interior space

 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 121

Spatial agency
A space is left for the tactical improvisations of future users. A ‘loose fit’ is
proposed between activity and enclosing envelope. (Allen in Hensel,
Hight, Menges 2009, 142)
Radio Sonores engaged a spatial agency that operates through relationships,
into socially embedded networks. This approach allowed an experience of
space as an evolutive event. This means that it opened up the re-appropriation
of space, according to each place and its users. Therefore its architecture dealt
with the consequences of its form, rather than the way it looked. Therefore
Radio Sonores emerged as an autonomous spatial device, mobile,
performative, evolutive and adaptable to different uses. it was installed in two
different places. First, it was placed behind the main auditorium, in a closed
position, acoustically and visually isolated from the surroundings (figure 4.19).
Then, it was positioned between the auditorium and the kitchen, half opened, to
allow acoustic permeability and public interaction (fig. 4.20-4.21).

Fig. 4.19, 4.20, 4.21 - spatial agency

2.4. Final thoughts

This alternative practice of aural architecture as a workshop engaged a
educational design method for a practical understanding of acoustics.
Therefore, it was a successful experiment of a participative mode of building
architecture, contributing for a social ecology. Also, it raised awareness among
architecture students of the important role aural architecture plays in shaping
our environment. Another relevant contribution was the emergence of a mode of
 Chapter 4: Practical case study: Radio Sonores 122

aural architecture design that focused on the consequences of the experience

of space (sensorial, social, political, ecological), more than the formal
production of an object of architecture, like most contemporary architectural
practice does. This aural architecture design was based in space as dynamic
relation, of fields of relationships. The design was based in diagrams of
assemblage as an energetic geometry. These diagrams opened up space for
material improvisation and for affective experiences. Radio Sonores resulted as
an experience of relationships between humans, non-humans and [Link]
ideas will also be further experimented in practical case study Passage.
But the experiment also had its short-comings. The initial idea was that this
radio station would continue to be used by the Soopa collective (the group of
artists and musicians which has commissioned the project), to develop other
radio activities in different places. Unfortunately this radio capsule was
destroyed after the event by the Guimarães Capital of Culture production. It was
a very short life for such an evolutive and adaptable aural architecture.
Nevertheless, there was a strong learning point. This practical case study was
the start of a series of experiments in designing aural architecture based in
space as relation, and diagrams of assemblage as energetic geometry. This
practical case study inspired me to repeat the experiment but in a different
context, with different materials and geometries, as I will explain in the
conclusion of this thesis.

Acknowledgments
Conception: Cláudia Martinho and Mathieu Herbelin
Construction: Cláudia Martinho, Mathieu Herbelin, Jean-Marc Chevalet with
Exyzt colective and the workshop Construir Junto (Build Together), with
students from the Architecture School of Guimarães.

 chapter 5 123

Chapter 5
Working concept • Space as field of attunement
Enquiry • Sympathetic resonance, entrainment and affect
• Attunement, ambiance and ecology
Practical case study • Shores

Design methods • Soundscape for attunement

Affective experience • Experience of environmental sound in extension with the
site, in tune with the environment in a symbiotic way
• Auditory experience of balance between inner and outer
worlds

Emergent concepts • Experience as embodied knowledge

• Ecological intimacy from oral communities

In Chapter 4, I have extended the working concept of space as field drawing

from architectural design theory. In the case study Radio Sonores, I have
experimented this concept with the design of an aural architecture based in
space as a dynamic relation. Here, in Chapter 5, I became interested in
exploring the working concept of space as a field of attunement. I have
extended my enquiry on the idea of attunement as a phenomenon based in
sympathetic resonance, entrainment and affect, looking up for an understanding
in the fields of physics, music, philosophy and psychology. I have then linked
attunement, ambiance and ecology, drawing from acoustic ecology. These ideas
were experimented in the practical case study Shores (2017), a soundscape
installation in a boat, converted into an acoustic shell to transmit a collective
sonic memory of fishermen. This practical case study produced one design
method: a soundscape for attunement to being and the surrounding vibrational
forces. It explored an affective experience of environmental sound, in extension
with the site; a sense of place and being in tune with the environment in a
symbiotic way; and an auditory experience of balance. Concepts have emerged
from within this practice such as: experience as embodied knowledge
(Westerkamp 2002), ecological intimacy (Morton 2014) from oral communities.

 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 124

Working concept:

Space as a field of attunement

When we study attunement, we study something that has always been

there: ecological intimacy, which is to say, intimacy between humans and
nonhumans. (Morton 2014)

The phenomenon of attunement has been defined in various disciplines such as

music, philosophy, physics and psychology. I have looked into these fields for
definitions which pertain directly to my research, to understand how to raise an
experience of attunement through listening to sound. In what follows, I have
unfolded a discussion and articulated different perspectives to come to an
understanding that I could explore in my practice. Therefore, I have approached
attunement from two different points, looking for links:

- as an acoustic research, with scientific facts that deal with frequencies and
objects;
- as a creative process, in an interpersonal and social level.
To reach out an affective experience, of attunement, resonance is a key effect. If
I consider bioresonance as the phenomena of entering in sympathetic
resonance, then attunement is the relation of bioresonance. For, as Timothy
Morton defines, “attunement is a living, dynamic relation with another
being” (Morton 2014, online reference). But attunement is also “the place where
causality happens. Consider what happens when an opera singer's voice
attunes to a wine glass. If done with the greatest accuracy, the wine glass
explodes” (Morton 2014, online reference). Therefore one may say in general
terms that the notion of attunement is directly related to the phenomena of
bioresonance and the effect of sympathetic resonance or vibration. In physics
and acoustic research, sympathetic resonance is a harmonic phenomenon
where a vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a
harmonic likeness. This means that a certain vibration reaches out and sets off
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 125

a similar vibration in another body. The physical phenomenon of the resonance

effect “refers to the vibration, in air or through solids, of a solid element. The
production of resonance requires (...) a concordance between the exciting
frequency and the object put in vibration.” Under specific conditions resonance
produces an infinite gain in amplitude, as a “swing set in motion by rhythmic
impulses that have the same frequency” (Augoyard and Torgue 2008, 99). An
important notion for this research is that every system (every space, body, form
or structure) has a natural frequency (also known as characteristic frequency or
resonance frequency), to which it responds with greater amplitude, in
sympathetic vibration or resonance. This is also called the fundamental mode of
vibration. The natural frequency depends on the relationship between the
system or body’s size, surface, pressure and volume. I understand this
response in sympathetic vibration as a way of attunement.
The vibrations produced by musicians playing can create a similar empathic
resonance effect in the space, between the musicians themselves and with the
audience. This resonance effect is similar to the phenomena of sympathetic
vibration, and can also be understood through the phenomenon of entrainment.
In psychoacoustics, the term entrainment is used to describe rhythmic pulsating
fields synchronising in sympathetic or arrhythmic resonance (Kossak 2007, 37).
Entrainment is discussed in scientific literature in reference to resonance fields
rhythmically synchronising together such as brain waves, circadian rhythms,
lunar and solar cycles, breathing, circulation, and rhythms found in the nervous
system (Jenny 1967; Hall 1983; Thant, Kenyon, Schauer, & Mcintosh 1999). We
may say that this phenomena depends on factors such as rhythm, intensity,
tone, duration. While the term attunement is not directly used in music literature,
the same phenomena is generally referred to as “sympathetic entrainment”,
“rhythmic entrainment”, or with more common expressions such as “locking in”
or “being in the groove” (Kossak 2007, 38). Therefore it has been argued that
the experience of attunement is achieved through improvisation that uses sound
and rhythm (Kossak 2007, 23). Philosopher and sociologist Alfred Schütz
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 126

describes the phenomena of attunement as a participative and relational

process through which musicians tune in each other. In his view, this act of
sharing a mutual tuning-in relationship relates to the lived experience of the flow
of “inner time” and its duration (Schütz 1951).
Another term used to describe this phenomenon is the idea of “empathic
attunement”, which was found in the music education literature (Seddon 2005).
In this sense, it has been described that musicians often achieve an emotional
and interpersonal interaction, such as empathy and bonding. Qualitative
research looking at jazz musicians’ experience while improvising describe the
phenomena of attunement in words such as: embodied, ecstatic, moments of
transcendence (Jeddeloh 2003), truly alive and awake, fully embodied yet
beyond the body, achievement of a higher consciousness, a greater unseen
force (Burrows 2004). All these terms are used to describe “an experience of
sympathetic resonance where the rhythmic pulse shifts to a driving force and
some other kind of energy is experienced” (Kossak 2007, 39).
Composer Pauline Oliveros has developed a work of improvisation and Deep
Listening 47, in which she has called up for experiences of conscious empathy,
resonance, entrainment, that all together can be understood as a process of
attunement. She has said that when we are empathic, distance, as we know it,
ceases to exist because we are both in the same resonance field (Kossak 2007,
27). I remember a Deep Listening workshop lead by Pauline Olivero’s herself in
which I had the chance to participate in 2011 (ISMAE, Porto). We were in a
room, sitting in a circle, and the session consisted of several exercises of
relaxation, conscious listening and improvisation. We started by listening to the

47 Pauline Oliveros herself described Deep Listening as “listening in every possible way
to everything possible to hear no matter what one is doing”.  Basically Deep Listening,
as developed by Oliveros, explores the difference between the involuntary nature of
hearing and the voluntary, selective nature - exclusive and inclusive - of listening.  The
practice includes bodywork, sonic meditations, interactive performance, listening to the
sounds of daily life, nature, one’s own thoughts, imagination and dreams, and listening
to listening itself. It cultivates a heightened awareness of the sonic environment, both
external and internal, and promotes experimentation, improvisation, collaboration,
playfulness and other creative skills vital to personal and community growth. Online
reference: [Link] - accessed March 12 2016
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 127

outside sounds, then inside, the room resonance, then each of the participants
playing a sound, with our voice or found objects. And finally all together we
improvised. This gradual process of listening, tuning to the space’s resonance,
then tuning in to the other, was helpful to achieve a state in which I could feel
more deeply and freely my self, and finally got attuned to the group. This
process raised enough confidence and bonding between all participants in order
to enjoy playing together and embody a sense of unity. I have found in this
experience of empathy and entrainment a way of attunement.
Moving on towards philosophical literature, we find Martin Heidegger drawn to
the twofold sense of Stimmung as mood and as attunement, in the sense of a
relation, as the tuning of a musical interval (Phillips 2015). As Frances Dyson
explains in her book Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the
Arts and Culture (2009), “Heidegger would seem to be offering a
phenomenology that leads us towards sound and listening”. And she continues,
“for Heidegger, vibration, as attunement (Stimmung), provides a metaphysical
interval, a space where certain rhetorical manoeuvres can take place, and a
portal through which individuals can access the spiritual center of their 'own
most' being ... Heidegger's philosophy is grounded in the metaphor of silence –
not the inner silence of the Cartesian subject, but the silence of Dasein (being-
in-the-world, literally being-there) in its authentic understanding of
Being” (Dyson 2009, 11). As we have seen, the experience of being vibration
was explored in the practical case study Vibrational Fields. Here in the practical
case study Shores, I wanted to extend this idea into an experience of
attunement in the sense of opening up to transcendence into the now; as a
channel of communication with a site-specific vibrant reality and its vibrational
forces; a channel to amplify the experience of being; an experience of being-in-
the-world, of being in vibration, in this continuous field of interconnections
between all things. As seen before, this is what Angerer has referred to as “the
temporally barred momentum of a relation, a blank, a gaping opening, into
which and from which affect arises” (Angerer 2017, 11).
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 128

When we study attunement, we study something that has always been

there: ecological intimacy, which is to say, intimacy between humans and
nonhumans. (Morton 2014)
We may say then that every being relates in search for attunement with other
being. For attunement is also described “as the capacity to sense, amplify, and
attend to difference” (Ash and Gallacher 2015, 73). I have engaged my practice
as an ecological affair to explore an amplification of this innate capacity of
attunement to self and other beings (human, non-humans, things). Therefore as
we will see on the practical case study Shores (but also in Passage) I have
explored attunement as a living, dynamic relation with another being. This is
also what Jane Bennett explored in Vibrant Matter, a political ecology of things
(2010). As seen before (p. 33-35), she describes reality as vibrant matter, a
vibrational force, an active becoming of vibrant bodies, “a creative not-quite-
human force capable of producing the new” (Bennett 2010, 118). She claims
that “vitality is shared by all things” and that we are in need to develop
communication and translation tools of this vibrant reality, between humans,
non humans and things (Bennett 2010, 89). In this sense, as we will see, my
proposal for practical case study Shores was to offer an amplified experience of
this vibrant matter, to engage the audience in an active listening to it, as a
channel of communication with this reality. This could be a way of attunement
between humans, non humans and things. In other words, my interest was to
explore the relation between beings, space and time as an experience linked
through sound and vibration, and I understand this way of linking as
attunement. For this reason, “an attunement is an active relation, not a form of
contemplation, and can thus act upon that which is attuned” (Phillips 2015). This
is also a point in which Timothy Morton argues and extends further:
Since a thing can't be known directly or totally, one can only attune to it,
with greater or lesser degrees of intimacy. Nor is this attunement a
'merely' aesthetic approach to a basically blank extensional substance.
Since appearance can't be peeled decisively from the reality of a thing,
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 129

attunement is a living, dynamic relation with another being. (Morton

2014)
In this sense, my approach to attunement is not a merely aesthetic approach of
contemplation. Instead, in the practical case studies Vibrational Fields, Shores,
Passage, I have enquired this idea of attunement as an active relation, a level
of apprehension before cognition. The purpose was to explore the experience of
being vibration. Actually prior to empiric experience, this what Alfred North
Whitehead calls “causal efficacy”, where experience is being. As we have seen
on page 37, Whitehead has described this mode of experience as an inflow into
ourselves of feelings from enveloping nature that overwhelms us (Whitehead
1929/1978, 176). This is an affective experience that I wanted to experiment
with the soundscape for attunement of Shores. I wanted to test if in this mode,
presentations of sense would fade away, and the audience would experience a
vague feeling of influences from vague things around them. My hypothesis was
that in this mode of experience, other sensorial interplays would take place. I
wanted to test if these new conditions for experiencing would favor renewed
relationships of attunement between the audience, the site (activated by the
installation) and the surrounding vibrational forces, evoked through the
soundscape.

Attunement
This brought me to enquire further on the question of affect in the experience,
and its relation with attunement. Affective attunement, refers to a concept drawn
from theorist Daniel Stern (2004). Stern defines affect attunement as relational
attachment in psychology. He uses this notion to describe the tuning in process
between a mother and her child, in the rhythmic interaction of sharing inner
feelings, through sounds, facial expressions and affect. Stern also relates this
tuning in process to artistic endeavours where “the participation in rituals,
artistic performances, spectacles and communal activities, like dancing or
singing together, all can result in a transient real or imagined intersubjective
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 130

contact” (Stern 2004, 109, in Kossak 2007, 24). The affective attunement
experience happens then with synchronistic rhythmic experiences. Massumi
claims that the idea of affective attunement is a much more supple way of
approaching affective politics, because it finds difference in unison, in the
complexity of collective situations. Therefore this is the kind of relation of
attunement that I have sought to explore. As we have seen with Infrasound (p.
66) and in my practical case study Vibrational Fields (p. 74), this is what
happened. The experience of Vibrational Fields aimed to generate a connective
tissue, a tangible experience of some kind of unified field. The practical case
study Shores, as we will see next, extended this mode of experience, to enquire
if these conditions would enable the emergence of affective attunement.

Atmospheric attunement
In search for links between ambiance, ecology and attunement, I have looked
into another perspective from urban studies literature, with Kathleen Stewart’s
paper on Atmospheric Attunements (2011, 445-453). She calls for attention to
the charged atmospheres of everyday life 48. She describes atmospheres
generated by circulating forces that come to reside in experiences. These
forces “spawn worlds, animate forms of attachment and detachment, and
become the live background of living in and living through things”. She suggests
that “atmospheric attunements are palpable and sensory yet imaginary and
uncontained, material yet abstract. They have rhythms, valences, moods,
sensations, tempos, and life spans” and may raise senses in a state of
alertness, distraction or denial. These reflexions draw a link to the description of
multi-sensory experiences (Leitner 1998), atmospheric perception (Pallasmaa
2017) and dynamics of urban ambiances (Thibaud 2011). Stewart questions
how people that inhabit these ambiances or atmospheres become attuned to
the sense of something coming into existence. This idea suggests that

48 Here I considered the term atmosphere similar to the term ambiance. I am aware
though that some authors differentiate the terms.
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 131

attunement may engage a sense of emergence, or becoming part of some sort

of unified field, in such a way that one may sense life and movement. This is an
idea that Pallasmaa as described as the result of the senses interplay and has
referred to it as the sixth sense: “Modernity, obsessed with clarity and form, has
regarded atmospheres as sentimental and entertaining properties. However, it
is becoming increasingly clear that our emotive atmospheric perception is a
consequence of evolution and could well be named our sixth and the most
important sense” (Pallasmaa 2017, online reference).

Attunement to a symbiotic real

Trivially speaking, ecological awareness means realising that beings are
interconnected in some way, but then we have to figure out what this
interconnection actually means. At the moment, the phrase I’m using for
the thing that ecological awareness names is “the symbiotic real”. What
do I mean by that? I mean that ecological relationships are best
described in terms of symbiosis, and symbiosis is a very interesting thing
because it’s always a sort of fragile, contingent, uneasy relationship in
which it’s impossible to determine which entity is the top entity. Symbiosis
can fail in various different ways: if there’s too much stomach bacteria in
my stomach, I might have some problems. If there’s too little, I might
have some problems. There’s a sort of dynamic system there. (Morton
2016)
In the practical case study Shores, I have experienced a very similar
phenomena while recording fishermen on a boat. As it will be described next,
Azorean native hunters are in such a mode of attunement with their
environment that they have developed a symbiotic way of experiencing place.
The interesting fact I have learnt, is that while the fishermen experience a deep
ecological intimacy with their environment, it results as an embodied knowledge
of the ocean’s language. In the experience of Shores, I have understood that
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 132

we have much to learn from oral communities about ecological intimacy,

symbiotic ways of experiencing place and embodied knowledge.

I have enquired these ideas of attunement and ecological intimacy further in

relation to acoustic ecology. As we have seen in this thesis introduction, I find
some common ground with the World Soundscape Project, particularly with
research by composers Hildegard Westerkamp and Barry Truax, such as
conscious listening (Westerkamp) and acoustic communication methods
(Truax), as will be explored next.

Environmental sound awareness

How can soundscape composition enhance environmental listening

awareness? What is its role in inspiring ideas about balanced
soundscapes and acoustic ecology? How can the soundscape composer
raise listening awareness in an already overloaded sound world with yet
another sound piece? What is the ecological stance that we take through
our compositions both as listener and composer? (Westerkamp 2002,
online reference)

Hildegard Westerkamp was one the key speakers at the Invisible Places
Symposium 49 in Azores, where the practical case study Shores was developed.
I had the chance to soundwalk with her guiding a group a couple of times.
These moments were definitively a source of inspiration for my work on Shores.
Westerkamp has been actively engaged with our soundscapes and contributing
for an awareness of environmental listening. In her article Linking Soundscape
Composition and Acoustic Ecology (2002), she describes acoustic ecology as
the study of the inter-relationship between sound, nature, and society. She
claims that this arena is the basis from which this work and the term

49 See [Link] - accessed May 13 2017

 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 133

soundscape composition emerged in the first place in the mid-seventies.

Westerkamp argues that if soundscape composition is always rooted in themes
of the sound environment, then it should be the soundscape composer’s
responsibility to act like an acoustic ecologist. She takes this one step further,
questioning if a soundscape composition can initiate ecological change, as
energy for change can be created in the link between composer and audience.
And furthermore, in the link between soundscape composition and acoustic
ecology meaning is also created. Therefore the ecological balance of our planet
is a major issue that soundscape can make audible. And for this, she says, the
soundscape composers have the skill and the expertise. They just need to learn
to hear it and to speak back. The soundscape composer's attention to
ecological issues should then start with listening as a conscious practice in daily
life, continue during the acquisition of sound materials, the work in the studio,
right through to the presentation of the final piece (Westerkamp 2002). As will
be explored next with the practical case study Shores, listening is central to my
process of composition, as sound guides the shaping of it, not the other way
around. One is both composing and being composed through sound (Truax
1996, 60). One may also contribute to re-integrate the listener with the
environment (Truax 1996, 63). I also found essential to conduct Shores’
soundscape presentation with conscious attention towards an ecologically
balanced acoustic environment.

Soundscape composition as a tool for change

In the face of wide-spread commercial media and leased music
corporations, who strategically try to use the schizophonic 50 medium to
transport potential customers into a state of aural unawareness and
unconscious behaviour and ultimately into the act of spending money. In

50 For Murray Schafer a 'schizophonic' listening experience is characterised by the fact

that the sound source always originates in another place than where it is heard and
often produces a mood or atmosphere that is out of context of the listener's physical
location (Westerkamp 1999).
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 134

the face of such forces the soundscape composition can and should
perhaps create a strong oppositional place of conscious listening. Rather
than lulling us into false comfort, it can make use of the schizophonic
medium to awaken our curiosity and to create a desire for deeper
knowledge and information about our own as well as other places and
cultures. It is a forum for us as composers to 'speak back' to problematic
'voices' in the soundscape, to deepen our relationship to positive forces
in our surroundings or to comment on many other aspects of a society.
Rather than disorienting us, such work potentially creates a clearer
sense of place and belonging for both composer and listener, since the
essence of soundscape composition is the artistic, sonic transmission of
meanings about place, time, environment and listening perception.
(Westerkamp 1999, online reference)

Westerkamp claims that our actual acoustic environment, an overloaded sound

world which in itself can be dense, noisy and schizophonic, may be perceived
as ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ by many. But the fact is that it can also have a
disorienting effect, create a sense of unreality, and “the listener's ‘sense of
place’ may become confused and uprooted” (Westerkamp 1999, online
reference). In this context, Westerkamp claims for a soundscape composition
as a strong oppositional place of conscious listening on a more activist and
political level. She argues for the engagement of soundscape composition as a
tool for a change in the way we perceive and connect to the world around us, as
it presents an ecologically meaningful language. It is a powerful means to
comment problematic issues of the environment and society, or deepen our
relationship to our surroundings (Westerkamp 2002, online reference).

Composing with environmental sound

For Truax (as seen on p. 43), the term acoustic communication (Truax 1984)
refers to a way of understanding the complex system of meanings and
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 135

relationships that sound creates in environmental contexts. He developed the

acoustic communicational model as an interdisciplinary alternative methodology
that included soundscape studies, acoustic communication and soundscape
composition (Truax 1996: 58). Here, I became interested to engaged the
soundscape composition as a system of information exchange to generate an
acoustic community (Truax 1984) where sound mediated the relation of the
listener to the environment (Truax 1996: 59). Truax claims that when composing
with environmental sound, one learns that these sounds are rich in acoustic
complexity, and rich in multiple levels of meaning, both personal and cultural
(Truax 1996, 59). This process is very different from composing sound
abstractly. It amplifies relationships of the world of lived experience, bringing
them into the compositional process (Truax 1996, 60). The fact that
environmental sounds are situated within the world of lived experience, turns a
soundscape composition relevant for an acoustic ecology awareness. As
listeners get connected to a web of social relationships, they get involved in the
composition and complete their network of meanings (Truax 1996, 55). Truax
claimed that the quality of environmental sounds are “more complex in their
spectral and temporal shape than most other musical material; synthesised
sound in particular (...) has none of the corporeality of environmental
sound” (Truax 1996, 51-52). In the same line of approach, musicologist John
Shepherd argued that “as the essence of individual sonic events, timbre speaks
to the nexus of experience that ultimately constitutes us all as individuals. The
texture, the grain, the tactile quality of sound brings the world into us and
reminds us of the social relatedness of humanity” (Shepherd 1987).
Barry Truax has also established important principles of the soundscape
composition, and to which my work has referred to:

(a) listener recognisability of the source material is maintained, even if it

subsequently undergoes transformation;

(b) the listener's knowledge of the environmental and psychological
 Chapter 5: Working concept: Space as a Field of Attunement 136

context of the soundscape material is invoked and encouraged to

complete the network of meanings ascribed to the music;

(c) the composer’s knowledge of the environmental and psychological
context of the soundscape material is allowed to influence the shape of
the composition at every level, and ultimately the composition is
inseparable from some or all of those aspects of reality;

(d) the work enhances our understanding of the world, and its influence
carries over into everyday perceptual habits. (Truax 1996, 63)

As will be seen next with the practical case study Shores, and drawing from this
enquiry, I have experimented the design of a soundscape for attunement with
the environment and the creation of a place for conscious listening. It explored
an innate capacity of attunement (Morton 2014, online reference) to self and
other beings, towards an understanding of our environment as an unifying field,
of a multiplicity of relationships through vibrational forces. My goal was the re-
integration of the listener with the environment in a balanced ecological
relationship. I composed with environmental sound enhanced by acoustics,
exploring its corporeality and physicality, to amplify the world of living
experience, the transmission of meaning and sense of place.

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 137

Practical case study:

Shores

Fig. 5.01 - Shores installation at Ponta Delgada harbour

The practical case study Shores was created while in residency at the Invisible
Places Symposium 51, a biannual event. The aim of this conference was to bring
together scholars, artists and theoreticians on soundscape art and acoustic
ecology to further new perspectives in interdisciplinary research and practice. A
central topic discussed was about the fundamental role of our sound heritage
for the holistic evaluation of landscapes in the evolution of all species. This year
it took place in São Miguel, Azores.

51 See [Link] - accessed May 13 2017

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 138

1. Experience of site

1.1. Analysis of context

Collective memory of São Miguel, Azores

I had never been in Azores before, although this was a travel I dreamt of, but
not as a tourist. The Invisible Places’ call for residencies was the perfect
opportunity to get to know this unique place. Being Portuguese myself, when I
thought of Azores I have always imagined boat sailing, fishermen and deep
ocean. Of course there is much more than that, but still, it is an important part of
Azores’ cultural heritage which is disappearing. Arriving to São Miguel I
confirmed that artisanal fishing has been drastically declining. One of the main
reasons is that as the fishing activity is inevitably industrialised, small scale
fishing companies are disappearing, and so are certain fish species, most of
artisanal fishermen and wood boats’ builders. Consequently a significant part of
the island’s sustainability is out of balance. Next to that, I realised that each
year, tourism is augmenting exponentially in São Miguel, for its unique attractive
ecosystem. And so is the number of airplanes landing and taking off. Adventure
tourism tours are contributing to the infrastructure evolution with motorways.
Therefore the acoustic ecology of São Miguel is becoming heavily contaminated
by jet airplane motors and tourism buses. Obviously, these changes in such a
small territory (736 km²) have a strong ecological impact. Sea exploration to
watch dolphins and whales is also an issue. Locals complain that multinational
companies have monopolised the Azores market as they have the capital to
invest in high tech boats, captivating tourists. Of course, one may say that this
is inevitable, this is the world’s global progress. Still, there are ways to balance
and work towards local sustainability. I am aware I may be here a bit
“ashamedly” nostalgic. But I realised that for the fisherman and their families, it
is hard to live everyday on the hope to find subsistence. In this context, as
fishing activities are diminishing, fishermen are left workless and poor, excluded
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 139

from this emerging sea tourism. The link between traditional sea activities and
new sea tourism markets should be a major political, social and cultural
concern. But according to locals, there is no education investment in the fishing
communities towards new inclusive sea activities. Therefore traditional
fishermen are left out of the touristic scenario and small communities by the sea
are disappearing, as it has happened over and over in different places around
the world. And unfortunately, their ancestral sea knowledge is being quickly
forgotten. My question therefore was how could I contribute to valorise this
collective memory and cultural heritage, and moreover to promote their aural
identity? My idea was that my soundscape work should create and transmit
meaning, connect places, renew a collective memory of São Miguel. I wanted to
do a sonic intervention in urban space to create embodied and multiple
understandings of the island’s reality. This sense of place, or essence, could be
many different things, according to the one that experiences it. Therefore the
idea was not to transmit one meaning, one memory, one understanding, one
sense of place. On the contrary, I wanted to create an affective experience to
open up different ways of listening to São Miguel’s life’s diversity, urban and
natural, its sea culture and its ecological richness as a small island in the middle
of the ocean. This could raise listening awareness and even incite an active
engagement with the surrounding soundscapes. In this context, I wanted to
avoid a touristic or superficial approach. Being Portuguese was already an
advantage. Still, this place’s specificity was foreign to me. At first I could not
understand some words because of the strong accent of this island. Here it was
very clear how the sounds of an oral language, its rhythms, tones and
inflexions, are attuned to the contour and scale of the local landscape (Abram
1996). Curiously though, I felt some kind of immediate resonance I could not
explain. Perhaps it was because I lived half of my life near the sea. Therefore I
was in residency the longest I could, almost four weeks, to reach a deep
experience. Generally, when I get to a place that I do not know, my approach is
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 140

to follow my intuition and let my work emerge from within everyday life’s
experiences, at the rhythm of the place.
We may find similarities with an ethnographic approach in the way that it
focuses “on fieldwork primarily through sensuous experience and the
creation of an outward response to that experience from the inside”, as
John Levack Drever points out (Drever 2002). And ethnography may
offer practices of soundscape composition ways to move forward in a
relevant and social way, with a more critical and reflexive mode of
operation (Drever 2002).
I wanted to take time to embody the territory, to live and feel its essence, so that
the soundscape would reveal itself. And in the same way, it also takes a long
time to build up confidence with local communities. Luckily the symposium
organiser, Raquel Castro, has engaged a local producer, Diana Diegues, who
made my task a lot more easy. By introducing me to Liberato Fernandes, the
former president of fishing cooperative Porto de Abrigo, the doors of the fishing
reality got opened to me. He has done an impressive amount of political and
social work to help the fishermen communities in reclaiming their rights and
improving their work conditions. And curiously, he was very enthusiastic with the
whole practical case study, as he believed that these cultural and artistic
interventions were means to reveal the fishing world to people that are normally
not aware of it. This local expert informed my work with a reality that I was not
aware of. He helped me in building up an accurate knowledge of the fishing
reality but also, and more importantly, he facilitated a direct and confident
relationship to the fishermen. He was the bridge between myself as an artist-
researcher and the local communities of fishermen and their families. Liberato
Fernandes was the key person that made this practical case study possible.

Fig. 5.02, 5.03, 5.04 - Photographs at Porto de Abrigo cooperative

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 141

1.2. Dynamic of experience

The creative dynamic involved a process of soundwalking, field recording and a
workshop.

Sense of place
My immediate feeling was that the sea, the wind and the island shores’ sharp
topography were major elements that determinate São Miguel’s sense of place
and its people’s identity. The forces at work were very powerful and raw. For the
soundscape composition, my aim and central idea was to get on a fishing “hunt”
and record it; and to go to the harbours of fishing communities and record
everyday sounds. I also wanted to develop my work in a dynamic of co-creation,
in a collaborative and participative process with local communities. I thought of
interviewing fishermen’s families, to let their voices be heard about their actual
situation and concerns. And besides, I also wanted to engage students in a
workshop of sound mapping, soundwalking and field recording around the
island’s shores. My practical case study had several layers to take into
consideration. It articulated a social, cultural, educational and ecological
intervention; and an artistic, architectural and acoustic creation.

Rabo de Peixe
On my third day in the island, Liberato Fernandes personally took me to Rabo
de Peixe, which is the biggest, poorest and most united fishing community of
São Miguel. I became aware of this side of the island reality, which is ignored by
most of the people in the main city of Ponta Delgada. Surprisingly, the
fishermen were very enthusiastic as well with my practical case study, even
though they are not the usual public for this kind of artistic intervention. I was
generously offered three old boats that I could use and convert into an acoustic
shell. Additionally I also got several possibilities to join fishing companies. I
decided to go on board with the companion of master Paulo Sousa, a traditional
fishing boat with 13 fishermen. A curious fact is that women are normally not
allowed to go on board. But luckily, they opened an exception for me.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 142

Fig. 5.05, 5.06, 5.07 - Rabo de Peixe – views of harbour and village

1.2.1 Field recording: sea sources

The fish “hunt”

A couple of days later, my first fieldwork was to get on a boat with these
fishermen and go on a fish “hunt” (I use the word “hunt” as I really felt like I was
on a native hunt). I had never been on a fishing boat before, therefore I had
absolutely no idea how this was going to be. I knew that it would last for about
seven hours. We left at 7 am and got back at 2 pm. Normally they would have
left at 6 pm and return at 6 am, to fish mackerel during the night. But it was a
time of major crisis, there haven’t been any mackerel for three weeks already.
For this reason, they had to hunt the little sardines, which is done by daylight
near the shores, with the traditional technique of purse seine fishery. It is still a
challenge for me to describe in detail this overwhelming experience.

Fig. 5.08 to 5.13 - the fish hunt

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 143

I have retained though a deep feeling of how the experience changed my whole
way of understanding the human relationship with the sea and its ecosystem. I
felt that the movement and balance of the boat over the sea waves immediately
liberated my senses, as some sort of sensorial reset. And this was a new
soundscape and acoustic reality that I had never listened to before: the
fishermen’s strong powerful voices, echoing as the sea waves against the cliffs,
the changing hunting movements of the fishing net, at the quick rhythm of the
schools of sardines, with a constant background drone of the motor, with
modulating frequencies changing with the speed of the boat. And still we could
also clearly hear sounds from the shores coming once in a while with the wind
blows, such as church bells, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, waves crashing
against the volcanic stones. For me, this was a whole new relation to the
territory and to myself. I felt part of the team, in the same dynamic. Somehow I
felt this close relationship between the Azorean human being and the ocean
being, as one. I was experiencing this ecosystem reality through the fishermen’s
oral culture, as native sea hunters, micro-macrocosmos everyday practitioners.
The familiarity with the ocean environment and the instinctive knowledge of the
habits of his prey provides the hunter with “an expanded set of senses, an
awareness of events happening beyond his field of vision” (Abram 2015). It has
been argued that this sort of interplay between sense perceptions creates a
dynamic process, as “being, alive - the ritual drama - particularly in primitive
societies where the association of elements in such patterns is especially
strong” (Carpenter and McLuhan 1953, 70). As seen, this senses synergy
engages a peripheral or atmospheric perception, and is a valuable way of
experiencing the environment, of sensing a place (Pallasmaa 1996; Leitner
1998; Thibaud 2011). I understand this state as a mode of attunement, which
has been described on p. 126 as an act of tuning-in relationship which relates to
the lived experience of the flow of “inner-time” and its duration (Schütz 1951). In
this sense, fishermen engaged a tuning-in relationship with the fish school and
the sea being, through their sharp senses and their artisanal instruments. It
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 144

looked incredibly hard to fish the way they do, it is a real hunt. At the same time,
it feels like they naturally know the sea forces and how to anticipate their prey’s
movements. As their ancestors, they surround manually, patiently and precisely
the exact species of fish they are hunting for. A very important point is that this
is a sustainable and ecological way of fishing. They are not just throwing the net
and grabbing whatever comes in, as most of the industrial fishing companies do
with trawl nets. Therefore I realised that one of the most valuable things we can
learn from oral communities and Azorean native hunters is ecological intimacy,
for its symbiotic way of experiencing place, of being in tune with their
environment, and in this case, an embodied knowledge of the ocean’s
language. This way of attunement has always been there: an ecological
intimacy (Morton 2014, online reference), between humans, fish and the ocean.
Therefore this is the collective memory and sense of place that I wanted to
share through my work. After this amazing experience in which I learnt much, I
felt an even greater respect for these people.

Oral culture
If we listen, first, to the sounds of an oral language - to the rhythms,
tones, and inflections that play through the speech of an oral culture - we
will likely find that these elements are attuned, in multiple and subtle
ways, to the contour and scale of the local landscape, to the depth of its
valleys or the open stretch of its distances, to the visual rhythms of the
local topography. But the human speaking is necessarily tuned, as well,
to the various non-human calls and soundings that animate the local
terrain. Such attunement is simply imperative for any culture still
dependent upon foraging for its subsistence. Minute alterations in the
weather, changes in the migratory patterns of prey animals, a subtle shift
in the focus of a predator—sensitivity to such subtleties is inevitably
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 145

reflected not just in the content but in the very shapes and patterns of
human discourse. 52

While in the boat, I also interviewed fishermen, to provide a contextual

testimony of their current situation. I have composed a selection of testimonies
into a soundtrack. It was presented as a separated piece to complement the
soundscape composition, which the audience could listen to attentively with
headphones (audio file 5.41).

1.2.2 Field recording: shores sources

Back to the ground, it was time for a sound-mapping, soundwalking and field
recording with students. I could have selected the sources myself, but it seemed
to me important to engage participation of the inhabitants in spotting out their
island’s ecological diversity. This was a way to raise awareness and concern on
the acoustic environment. Therefore I enquired the architecture students I was
going to work with and different locals I met around. My question was what
sounds and places with particular acoustics near the shores they liked. Many
people told me about quiet, restful places in the interior of the island. They
turned their back to the sea because they found it aggressive, associated with
struggle, disgrace and death. But there were some that mentioned the ocean
with passion as an amazing living being, and its shores as strong, powerful
places that made them feel alive. I realised the ocean is a love-hate relationship
for São Miguel’s people, as it tends to happen in most of the islands.
Some commentaries significantly outline this relationship:

I don’t particularly like the sea, but I miss it when I’m elsewhere.
I love the ocean, it’s such a huge, enormous, living being.

52 Abram 1996, in [Link]

accessed May 14 2017
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 146

The sea rules it all, you have no idea how it is like to live on a island.
Much respect.
In this place I feel myself, I feel alive.
I cannot live elsewhere. I wanted and tried, but I could not.
(C. Martinho, Shores survey, March 21-31 , 2017)

This enquiry confirmed my feeling that the ocean is a major element that
determinates São Miguel’s sense of place and its people identity. Its shores are
very rich ecosystems, with amazing acoustics due to its shorelines’ topography
and surrounding landscape. Many people mentioned the same places, therefore
I started to draw a sound map with a few spots to experience.

Fig. 5.14 - Map with sources location

Emergent concept: conscious listening

Conscious listening and conscious awareness of our role as

soundmakers is an inseparable part of acoustic ecology, as it deepens
our understanding of relationships between living beings and the
soundscape. (Westerkamp 2002, online reference)

Conscious listening is important both to composer and listeners as a way to

make sense of the sound environment. A practice of continuous attention to the
sounds of daily life deepens soundscape composers’ relationship to the
acoustic environment. Westerkamp calls attention to the fact that this also
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 147

deepens an ability to communicate through soundscape composition as an

acoustic ecologist. Katherine Norman describes the same idea:

Listening is as much a 'material' for the composer as the sounds

themselves. (Norman 1996, 2)

Barry Truax proposes an understanding of listening within a system of

information exchange that he called ‘acoustic community’ where sound
mediates the relation of the listener to the environment (Truax 1984). To
emphasise this idea, Truax mentions how Westerkamp has characterised the
relationship as a balance between input and output, impression and expression,
listening and soundmaking (Westerkamp 1988; Truax 1996). Truax draws
attention to how the act of recording changes the way we listen, as it changes
our mode of selective hearing to a broader all surrounding perspective. When
we record environmental sound attentively, “listening becomes active, unlike the
conventional approach of ‘getting it on tape’ where the recordist is merely the
conduit' for transferring the signal to a storage medium” (Truax 1996, 61).
Therefore the use of a microphone may intensify the recordist’s listening
process and bring alerted awareness to the soundscape. I have tried to explore
these ideas in a workshop of soundwalking and field recording, as will be seen
next.

1.2.3. Workshop and soundwalk: listening as a conscious practice

In Shores, I proposed a workshop as an educational approach to develop
conscious listening and acoustic sensibilisation (see p.16). It was engaged as a
way to generate a sonic connection with the surroundings, and as an incentive
to care and explore further the acoustic environment.
In this sense, the goal of was to share experiences of environmental listening,
favouring cross-generation relations, acoustic memory and the promotion of an
aural culture identity. Also, I was interested in recording places with particular
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 148

natural acoustics (specially through binaural recordings), as a symbiotic process

of integration between place and self.
The idea for the workshop was to soundwalk, background-atmospheric
listening, and recording coastal places with particular natural acoustics. To
captivate students, I did a presentation at the local architecture school. Students
got all very excited with the topic of architectural acoustics, they all wanted to
know more. But as typical as it is in architecture schools, they were contained in
a theoretical way, extremely busy with tight schedules.
Therefore I only managed to get a couple of them to come along for a journey in
Maia. We basically explored different modes of listening with the ear and with
binaural microphones. “The ear and the microphone are the starting points for
the soundscape composer. They are two quite different tools with which we
gather our sound materials and our listening experiences”, as it transmits
different information about the soundscape and often changes recording/
listening practice (Westerkamp 2002).
In this place, besides fishing, there were people crab hunting, and scuba-diving.
In ancient times, women used to wash their clothes in a beautiful volcanic stone
construction of water tanks and small cascades, through which a river flows
down to the sea. Curiously it also created some sort of amphitheatre where the
sea waves resonated with great force, playing with the water falls’ sounds (fig.
5.19, 5.21, 5.22).
We found very distinct patterns and rhythms in relation to the activities of the
people we met, and to the coast line topography. I also felt that our senses were
clearly washed up with this experience. The students seemed satisfied and
wanted to join me in the soundscape installation process as well.
After the workshop, I continued fieldwork on my own, and went on recording
other places: Rabo de Peixe, Lagoa, Ponta da Ferraria, Nordeste, Ponta do
Arnel, Ponta da Madrugada, Ponta Delgada.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 149

Fig. 5.15 to 5.26 - Places recorded

1.3. Sensory variation: a soundscape on a boat

In this context, my question was how the soundscape installation could create
attunement between audience and composition. My idea was to convert an old
boat into an acoustic shell to transmit a sonic memory of the fishing community
and ecosystems of São Miguel's shores. This boat would act as a sonic
intervention in an urban public space of the main city of Ponta Delgada, in order
to reach a bigger audience.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 150

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena

I was offered an old boat that had been abandoned in Ponta Delgada’s harbour
for several years. I decided to leave the old boat to recycle there in the harbour,
instead of moving it to a central place in the city. It seemed to me relevant to
attract people to the harbour, to get to know the reality of this part of the city, its
ambiance, and its powerful sensory phenomena. In this way, the urban
intervention would act as an extension of the forces at work already there. This
means that it would extend the acoustic ecology of that place, in a relation of
continuity to its context. Therefore the acoustic ambiance of the harbour would
enhance the whole soundscape experience. While the usual everyday activities
of the harbour continued, an old abandoned boat was appropriated to become a
listening place. A small variation in the position of the boat was enough to
transform the whole ambiance. With this sensory variation on a place where
fishermen just passed by, here they would eventually stop to listen.

1.3.2. Aural elements

In each of the places that I have recorded, I have found several aural elements.
There were a few that come out of the soundscape composition more
significantly:
- fundamental tones: the sound of sea, background drone of the motor of the
boat, waves’ crashing, water falls.
- key notes or soundmarks: fishermen voices, church bells, harbour sirens,
endemic birds (cagarros and prioulos), seagulls, captured sardines,
motorcycles, airplanes, volcanic stones being thrown on the crab hunting.
- specificity of acoustic spaces: up the cliffs, down the cliffs by the sea,
harbours’ round bays, volcanic stones topography, wind, fog, low clouds,
underwater sounds.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 151

1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic

The idea was to incline the old boat and convert it into an acoustic shell. The
boat shape as an acoustic shell would generate an intimate aural space but
would still remain visually open to the surrounding environment. Therefore when
seated, the whole body would be immersed in the soundscape, facing the
water, receiving a fresh sea breeze with a smell of fish. People would be in tune
with the surrounding environment, but at the same time would be transported to
the middle of the sea. The intervention would amplify the space's practical
possibilities. I find that Jean-Paul Thibaud’s description of tuned and modulated
ambiances fits well my intervention. For him, a tuned ambiance emerges as the
place is brought into tune with the conduct it supports and therefore engages
“an ecology of the lived world” (Thibaud 2011, 45). And a modulated ambiance
involves slight variations of the sensory context of the place. Therefore what is
left fluctuates over time and varies in line with activities. It engages “an ecology
of situated perception” (ibid). In this sense, by tuning and modulating the
harbour place’s ambiance, I experimented with a form of receptiveness that
linked up with specific corporeal states to bring the senses into synergy, and
involved the emotional aspect of the situation (ibid).

Fig. 5.27, 5.28, 5.29 - The harbour ambiance

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 152

2. Aural architecture design

The urban intervention would act as an extension. The soundscape installation
would extend the acoustic ecology of that place, in a relation of continuity to its
context, as it will be described next.

2.1. Soundscape for attunement

The soundscape design was based in the idea of attunement to environmental
sound which is related to the working concept of environmental sound
awareness (as described on p. 132).

2.1.1. Composition with field recordings

The emergence of a piece is not unlike getting to know a soundscape

itself, its rhythms and shapes, its atmosphere.
(Westerkamp 2002, online reference)

After two weeks of fieldwork, soundwalking and recording, my ears started to

adapt to the harsh climate changes and strong winds. I finally got the feeling
that I embodied the island and the island embraced me. Still my overall feeling
was that this place raised a sense of how small and vulnerable we are. A deep
listening experience arose from a powerful soundscape of ocean waves, human
voices attuned to their territory, peculiar chanting of native bird species (such as
cagarros and prioulos), extremely loud airplanes, church bells, cow bells, noisy
motorcycles and milking motors; resounding through the wind, fog, low clouds,
rain and the reverberating acoustics of volcanic stones, volcanoes’ craters, cliffs
and harbours. I have explored São Miguel’s soundscapes in two ways. On the
one hand, I have enquired how sonic landmarks and dominant frequencies
created a sense of orientation and place. On the other hand, as an extension, I
have explored how certain spaces were dominated by specific sonic effects,
generated by particular acoustic qualities of certain places (LaBelle 2010;
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 153

Auinger and Offenhuber 2013). As seen before, I have resumed these aural
elements on page 150.

The recordist/composer's knowledge of a place extends beyond the

recorded soundscape to the smells, the air, the temperature, the time of
day, the atmosphere, the feel of a place, the season, the social situation
and significantly, the changes that occur when a microphone enters a
space. This extended knowledge is bound to influence the piece in some
way, as well as intensify the relationship between composer and place,
between composer and composition.
(Westerkamp 2002, online reference)

In a similar way as in Vibrational Fields, I have engaged in a process of field

recording and soundscape composition as a method to extend knowledge of
place. What was intuitively engaged in Vibrational Fields, here in Shores it has
become a clear intention. The experience of recording contributed to a deeper
understanding of the surrounding environment. My approach lied in
accentuating site-specific differences and multiple relationships. Therefore my
approach to Shores’ soundscape composition was to illuminate the
environmental context, to enhance the auditory experience, to highlight the
world around us and our relationship to it, and to create unusual encounters and
connections between human beings, non-humans and things. My intention was
also to create a place of balance between inner and outer worlds (Westerkamp
1999, online reference). I was inspired to explore the idea of a soundscape
narrative or document, created with unprocessed sounds. The sounds were
recorded, edited and mixed with that same approach.

A fundamental truth about soundscape compositions is that they emerge,

they can only be pre-planned to a limited extent.
(Westerkamp 2002, online reference)
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 154

The emergence process is an important aspect in my approach to the

soundscape for attunement’s composition methodology. In Shores, the
materials spoke with their own language and the soundscape essence and its
deeper meanings emerged. Westerkamp  refers to materials not only as
recorded sounds, but also to the composer’s musical training, listening
experience, along with her or his cultural, social, political and spiritual
perspective. She explains that the essence of soundscape composition is
located precisely in the meeting of these "materials" that the composer brings
into the compositional process (Westerkamp 2002, online reference). In other
words, she describes the soundscape essence as the artistic, sonic
transmission of meanings about place, time, environment and listening
perception. My soundscape composition emerged as alive matter and dynamic
sonic beings. The aesthetics of the raw field recordings was already very
intense that I decided to only subtly highlight the essence of this place’s life with
its own energy and forces at work. To enhance its essence, I have selected
recordings that have captured natural acoustic effects, due to topography or
architectural qualities. I approached the soundscape as a narrative or
document, created with the unprocessed sounds. The sounds fade one into
another, according to similar rhythms. Rhythms, tension, relaxation, climax or
time-scale are given by the recorded places topography. There is a clear
relation between the sounds characteristics and acoustic space. There are
moments of relaxation with the sounds of water flowing and chanting; then
moments of tension with waves crashing against the cliffs. A climax is attained
when finally after a long wait the sardines are captured. The sounds of captured
sardines moving around was a totally new sound to my hears.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 155

2.1.2. Tuning with resonance frequencies

Then, I composed the field recordings with layers of specific frequencies, to
reach acoustic and psychoacoustic effects in its spatialisation; fading one into
another, with no digital effects processing.

2.1.3. Layers
The soundscape composition had a total duration of 27 minutes and seven
distinct layers:
- layer 1 - field recordings of Rabo de Peixe ambiance
- layer 2 - field recordings of fishermen, surrounding and capturing sardines
- layer 3 - field recordings underwater at Ponta Delgada harbour
- layer 4 - field recordings of boat arriving to Lagoa harbour
- layer 5 - field recordings at Praia da Maia
- layer 6 - field recordings at Nordeste forest shores, native bird specie prioulos
- layer 7 - field recordings at Ponta da Ferraria cliff, native bird specie cagarros
These layers were edited and mixed using Audacity and Logic Pro.
To hear the soundscape composition open the audio file 5.40. Please see first
the note on the audio documentation on p. 225.

Fig. 5.30 - spectrogram of the soundscape composition using software Spek

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 156

Emergent concept: listening-in-readiness and balancing

I call this situation ‘Iistening-in-readiness’ because it involves both
background and foreground listening strategies. It requires a favourable
acoustic environment for information to be available (a good signal-to-
noise ratio in technical terms), and an active cognitive processing of
patterns and their comparison to known ones. (Truax 1996, 59)

Barry Truax claims that different levels of listening involve analytical attention
being paid to short-term details in the foreground case, and holistic or gestalt
pattern recognition in the background case. The interesting fact is that these
two complementary strategies are often described as the left and right
hemispheres of the brain (Truax 1996, 59). Generally, music is known to involve
either or both such strategies depending on the listening context and the
listener's training or competence (Bever & Chiarello 1974; Wagner & Hannon
1981; Truax 1996, 59). Therefore, I became interested to explore in Shores,
how a soundscape composition and its presentation as an aural architecture
could create a situation that involves listening-in-readiness and therefore
contribute to a process of balancing hemispheres. The experience of listening to
the soundscape composition as an extension of the site's ambiance would
produce different kinds of auditory awareness, switching from foreground to
background listening strategies. In this sense it probably might have contributed
for the hemispheres balance. This result was reported in the audience
feedback.

3. Acoustic spatialisation

3.1. Installation: the boat conversion

I cleaned the old boat full of holes that was left abandoned and filled with trash.
It was brought to life. Recycling an old boat was also a way to valorise
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 157

traditional wooden boats’ heritage, which is disappearing. Even fishermen that

passed by it, ignoring it everyday since four years, started to look at it, stepping
inside of it and talking about possible uses to recover “such an old and rare
beautiful boat”; “perhaps we could put a sail in and take tourists for a sailing
tour”, they commented. I was glad already that my intervention was generating
discussion among fishermen. For the purpose of my intervention, the shape of
the boat wood structure was perfect to generate a resonant aural architecture,
with no need for modification.

3.2. Spatialisation: the boat inclination

The boat was intentionally inclined with the help of fishermen, so that by
stepping in, the audience would feel slightly unstable, and would have to reach
for a different state of equilibrium, in a similar way as when we get on a boat
floating above water. I remembered that I experienced this when I got in the
fishermen’s boat. It was this search for balance that produced a strong change.
I felt that it somehow switched my senses interplay and produced some sort of
sensorial reset. The sense of balance or equilibrioception results of several
sensory systems working together. The vestibular system (ears) work with the
visual system (eyes) and the skeletal system to maintain a sense of balance
and orientation. The vestibular apparatus is the region of the inner ear where
three semicircular canals converge; with the cochlea, it forms the labyrinth,
which is a membraneous region with vestibular fluids (endolymph). The sense
of balance is determined by the level of the vestibular fluids. Therefore, my
soundscape installation produced a sensorial variation, not only through
hearing, but also with a change in the audience’s body’s balance. I believe that
by stepping inside an inclined boat, and seating in an unstable balance position
while hearing strong background and foregrounds sounds, the audience’s
vestibular liquid levels might have changed. And so did the whole sense of
balance. This change was reported in the audience’s feedback (p. 159).
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 158

3.3. Spatialisation: amplification

The soundscape amplification was quite simple. We built in two speakers inside
the boat, in opposite sides. A sub-woofer was placed outside, behind the boat,
to transmit vibration into the wood material and set the boat in resonance. Here
it came out very clear that wood is a material with a strong 'live' quality (Leitner
1998, 299). It responded and resonated. The wood boat became an acoustic
shell and turned into a communication channel. Therefore this aural
architecture’s vibrational materiality effectively acted as a translator. The sound
transmission was felt through the whole body senses. Space’s resonance
magnified environmental sound and entered into sympathetic vibration with the
audience’s body and mind. The soundscape resonated with the boat’s physical
structure and the audience, into an aural travel experience, as in the middle of
the sea - surrounded by sounds.

Fig. 5.31 to 5.39 - Installation and public presentation

 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 159

4. Audience’s experience and feedback

In this experiment, I also left a notebook to report on the public’s feedback, as in

Vibrational Fields. But given the specialised audience present at the Invisible
Places symposium, I also conducted a few interviews, as this would provide
valuable input for my research. These are presented transcribed bellow and as
audio recordings. Here follows some significant comments transcribed.

I loved the feeling of the mixture of the outside sounds with the
soundscape composition. There were resonance frequencies happening.
I felt quite immersive, a physical experience of sound.
– Jen Reimer, artist in residency at Invisible Places symposium
(See digital artworks documentation - audio file 5.43)

I’m feeling slightly dizzy from this experience. I wonder if it was because
of the angle of the boat and the vibrations… When I got back to the
ground, I actually felt like I have been at sea.
I also felt I was part of a working energy, constantly surrounded by this
motor sound, which was interesting, because I think we often forget
about that presence. I wonder if the fishermen and the people would also
forget about that sound. It is a barrier between us and the water
experience. It comes out really clearly here.
I’m still feeling emotional. I wasn’t when I was on the boat, but I’m feeling
it now.
– Hildegard Westerkamp, composer and sound ecologist
(See digital artworks documentation - audio file 5.42)

I liked how the work is done with the fishermen, you can feel there is a
respect for their work, for what they do. Not like someone that comes
from outside, takes things, uses them and goes away. On the opposite, it
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 160

feels like you were working together and doing something with the
community. It seems you tried to learn from them, and for a continuity
with it.
The choice of the boat made all the sense, not just an obvious thing, but
for the place where it was placed, the angle, the relation with the water,
how it resonated, how you could go on the back and hear how wood
resonates sound. I liked the particularity how the boat wood structure
resonated the sound of the sea so well, this took me on a travel.
– Sam Auinger, sound artist and sonic thinker

I listened by getting in the boat and outside the boat by putting my ear to
the wood. Quite different experiences of course. It’s really nice to hear
the water bubbling through the wood. a close idea of what it would be
like, to be at sea.
– Peter Cusack, field recordist and musician
(See digital artworks documentation - 5.44)

I felt a bit sick, you feel movement, as if the other boats around are
moving.

It was like being on a real boat over water, some sounds are really taking
you inside the water space.

I liked the angle of the boat, it turned into a big sound system. And I liked
the interaction with other people.

You’re just there with the fishermen, in the sea.

I felt I was living your experience at sea. I was inside the vibration, it feels
like it is really happening for real.
Peaceful, then violently sick, then peaceful again.
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 161

I liked the boat angle, I laid down looking at the sky and felt like I was
sailing.
We need to have this kind of experiences permanent in public space, its
really important to share this longer, to be part of everyday life.
(C. Martinho, Shores survey, April 9, 2017)

Attunement
According to the testimonies transcribed, it seemed that this aural architecture
resulted as an experience of immersion, balance, deep listening, resonance and
attunement. The set up opened up different degrees of affect and a diverse
range of experiences of attunement: with them selves, with others, the
fishermen, vibration, the boat, the sea, the harbour’s place or the island. My
goal was also the re-integration of the listener with the environment in a re-
balanced ecological relationship. Therefore I have composed with
environmental sound to explore the potential of its corporeality and physicality
to amplify the world of living experience. My intervention addressed the
potential of site-specific vibrational forces, enhanced by spatial acoustics, to
accentuate differences and to open up experience and communication channels
towards more ecological relationships between human and non-human beings.
The acoustic boat connected unusual or imperceptible relationships between
the elements of the shores (human and non-human), to accentuate differences
and produce a differential space (Lefebvre 1991), with multiple identities and
meanings, all interconnected in a vibrational spacetime continuum, in some sort
of symbiotic real. This acoustic boat shell aimed to generate a tangible
experience of some kind of unified field, through a subtle amplification of
material vibration with resonance frequencies. As seen, resonance triggers the
emergence of attunement, or the feeling of being vibration, as a living dynamic
relation with another being, through a participative process (Stern 2004;
Massumi 2008; Morton 2014). Therefore I created an experience of attunement
as a channel of communication or method for translation (p. 43). In this
 Chapter 5: Practical case study: Shores 162

soundscape for attunement, the ocean being took over the affective, and took
the audience in its waves. It engaged the audience into an active listening and
in an immersive experience. And it was reported as overwhelming by its
vibrational forces, as entering a gaping moment of spacetime suspension and
re-balance. This was the kind of result that this case study aimed at.

Continuity
After this experience, my feeling is that it would have been interesting to instal
the acoustic boat in an everyday public space, to invite people into an
unexpected soundscape travel. This would allow to reach an ecological
soundscape awareness into a wider and less specialised audience. The initial
idea was that the installation could be appropriated by the community, and even
installed in different places. Unfortunately this was not possible for budget
reasons. But Liberato Fernandes (from fishing cooperative Porto de Abrigo)
showed interest to give continuity to this project. Therefore I hope I can go back
to São Miguel, to do a workshop with Rabo de Peixe’s community. Resulting
from this collaboration, I would like to co-create a permanent acoustic boat
soundscape installation with a local traditional boat constructor, for Rabo de
Peixe public space, and for its community’s appropriation with their own cultural
and artistic activities.

Acknowledgments
The fishing community of Rabo de Peixe, master Paulo Sousa and his
companion of the boat Lisboa, shipowner of the boat Sónia Cristina, Liberato
Fernandes and the Cooperative Porto de Abrigo, Lotaçor SA, Portos dos Açores
SA, students from the department of Architecture of Azores University, and the
Municipality of Ponta Delgada.

 Chapter 6 163

Chapter 6
Working concept • Ecology of vibrational affects
Enquiry • The language of vibration
• Synergetics (or energetic geometry)
Practical case study • Passage
Design methods • Resonant soundscape
• Space as resonator
• Space as relation
• Soundscape for attunement

Affective experience • Modes of ecological re-wiring of the senses through the

inciting of affective responses
• Diversification of affects
Emergent concepts • The affective experience of environmental sound
• The inner and outer dynamic of the auditory experience
towards meditative states

In Chapter 5, I have extended the working concept of space as a field of

attunement, and in my practical work Shores I have explored the design of a
soundscape for attunement. Here, in Chapter 6, I will explore the working
concept of an ecology of vibrational affects. I conducted an enquiry on the
language of vibration and synergetics (or energetic geometry). These ideas
were experimented in the practical case study Passage (2017), a soundscape
installation in resonance with the acoustic space of a tunnel and the creation of
an aural architecture based in a zome geometry. This case study converged the
four aural architecture design methods produced by the previous case studies,
into one single experiment, as a microcosmos with multiple experiences, an
ecology of affects. Passage experimented further articulations of modes of
ecological re-wiring of the senses through the inciting of affective responses,
and the diversification of affect. Concepts have emerged from within this
practice experiment such as: the affective experience of environmental sound,
and the inner and outer dynamic of the auditory experience towards meditative
states.

 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 164

Working concept:

Ecology of Vibrational Affects

As seen in my thesis’ introduction (p. 22), my practice has sought to contribute

to an ecology of affect, by creating an experience of aural architecture that
produces a diversification of affect, as ontologically one, formally diverse. This
approach means that from the physical experience of space as a vibrational
force, multiple modes of attunement have emerged. This has also been
described earlier on page 25 as a site-orientated intervention that accentuates
differences and creates a diversification of space, for the production of new or
“differential space” (Lefebvre 1991, 52) and “the restoration of the sensory-
sensual” (Lefebvre 1991, 363). In practical terms, it regarded the creation of an
experience of spacetime as a gap opening - a gaping moment into which and
from which affect arises (Angerer 2017, 11). This became my main intention for
my thesis’ final practical case study, Passage.
As seen on p. 38, I have defined three operations of the affective, as follows:
- transformation
- translation
- attunement.
The operation of transformation was engaged in each of my previous practical
case studies as the aural modulation of a situation in a way that amplifies a
previous unfelt potential as affect. I have understood the result of such
experiences of aural architecture as attunement, in which body and mind are
triggered in a pre-conscious level to get attuned into being, to the here and now,
to imperceptible forces at work in a site. The operation of translation has
emerged in the previous practical case study, Shores. Therefore in this next
practical case study, Passage, I wanted to focus on the operation of translation,
by extending the exploration of the language of vibration. As seen before (p.
33-35), Jane Bennett claimed that "vitality is shared by all things" and that we
are in need to develop communication and translation tools of this vibrant
 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 165

reality, between humans, non humans and things (Bennett 2010, 89). In this
sense, the practical case study Passage engaged the creation of an aural
architecture as a medium of acoustic communication and translation (or
transduction) of vibrant matter. In this sense, the practical case study Passage
explored further an amplified or enhanced experience of vibrant matter to
engage the audience in an physical affective experience of it, as a channel of
communication with this reality. Through this operation of translation, I aimed for
an aural architecture experience to open acoustic communication with the
surroundings in a symbiotic way, as part of the same micro-macro-ecosystem.
I would eventually allow further explorations of a symbiotic real (Morton 2006),
and the potential dynamic relationships between human and non-human beings
and their interconnection in space.

To sum up, as it will be now seen, the practical case study Passage converged
the four aural architecture design methods produced by the previous practical
case studies, into one single experiment, as a microcosmos with multiple
experiences, and multidimensional modes of sensing material vitality. It explore
how can aural architecture design engage an ecology of affect, as a
communication channel and medium of translation.

The language of vibration

Wherever we look in nature, animate or inanimate, we see widespread

evidence of periodic systems. These systems show a continuously
repeated change from one set of conditions to another, opposite set. This
repetition of polar phases occurs alike in systematised and patterned
elements and in processes and series of events. (Jenny 2001, 17)

Vibration creates form (geometry, material density, spatial volume). The nature
of forms as vibrating structures or periodic systems was vastly investigated in
 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 166

meticulous experiments carried by physician and natural scientist Hans Jenny,

to which he called Cymatics 53, a study of wave phenomena to visualise
examples of patterns’ formations. He studied how vibrations generate and
influence patterns, shapes and moving processes. This work, along with other
earlier experiments, such as the Chladni figures, the Lissajous figures or
harmonograph studies, allowed the visualisation of vibration and frequency
patterns, clearly revealing visually that form is a vibrating structure. These
patterns “are the expression of a 'dialogue', a dialogue between the vibration of
the tone and the 'answering' matter, between the motion energy contained in
the vibration, and the matter which is either resonating in co-movement or
paused inertia, 'unwilling' to participate” (Lauterwasser 2006, 42-46).

What insights into vibration and periodicity have been gain in the vast
range extending from the cosmic system (rotations, pulsations,
turbulences, circulations, plasma oscillation, periodicity of many kind in
both constituent elements and the whole) down to the world of atomic or
even nuclear physics (shell model of nucleus; nucleon structure;
organisation of meson clouds). The idea of periodicity is all embracing.
(Jenny 2001, 18)

According to Jenny, the idea of periodicity of vibration is all embracing, and the
same periodic principle underlies in the macrocosmic and microcosmic scale 54.

Jenny also claimed that one needs “to learn to ‘hear’ the process that blossoms
in flowers, to ‘hear’ embryology in its manifestations and to apprehend the
inwardness of the process” (Jenny 2001, 276). This is what I have sought to
experiment in this final practical case study: to apprehend, translate and
communicate the inwardness of the vibrational process, through the experience
of environmental sound, enhanced by acoustics.

53Cymatics is a term originated from the Greek “to kyma, the wave; ta kymatika, matters
pertaining to waves, wave matters” (Jenny 2001, 20).
54 See appendix 5 for further details on vibrating systems.
 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 167

My intention for the next experiment of this thesis, Passage, was to extend
further research on the language of vibration and translate its understanding
into aural architecture design modes. In the works Polytopes of Iannis Xenakis
and Synergetics by Buckminster Fuller I have found a similar intention (with
distinct formalisations), as it will be explored next.

Polytopes
As seen on p. 64, architect, musician and engineer Iannis Xenakis also
approached the integrative behaviour of systems based in forces, frequencies
and geometry, applying his architectural thinking into his musical compositions.
Some of his work was created based in a hyperbolic geometry which he
translated in music compositions such as Metastaseis (1955), in architectural
design such as the Philips Pavilion (1958), or in his multimedia performances
such as Les Polytopes (in Montréal in 1967, in Cluny in 1972 and 1973)
(Xenakis 1975, 11). In these works, there are evident similarities between the
hyperbolic geometry and the musical glissandi scores (Xenakis 1975, 12). The
Polytopes are works in space of an art of time (Xenakis 1975, 19). This
geometric approach allowed him to create “actions of light and sound” (Xenakis
1975, 134), events in multiple spacetime, therefore the title Polytopes 55. In his
sketches of the Polytope de Montréal we find notes of sound-space phenomena
such as “tentacles, labyrinths, spiral movements, random steps, stochastic
rivers, black holes formation, crystals projection, water falls, anemone” (Xenakis
1975, 19, 65-69). This dynamic geometry of phenomena was based in intervals:
in a sonic variation in terms of amplitude, duration, intensity, tone, and in a
spatial variation in terms of points, lines, curved surfaces, clouds (Xenakis
1975, 33). He paid major attention to the sensible, as the eye and the ear were
his main tools to design these geometric relations, and to produce sensory
variations (Xenakis 1975, 33). As seen before (p. 144), his geometric approach

55 In Greek: poly - multiple, topes - place (Xenakis 1975, 10)

 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 168

in architecture and music was stepped away from the conventional Euclidian
geometry (which is a reduced system of metric measurement of a visible thing).
Instead, Xenakis’ geometry was topological, hyperbolic, and sensible. It was a
generative, transformative and integrative process of spatial sound design and
composition, based in forces, vectors, intervals and frequencies’ patterns. A
particular aspect that I share, regards his purpose in translating phenomena of
patterns’ formation from micro to macro scale, embodying its geometry in his
musical and spatial architecture.

This operation of translation relates to Alfred North Whitehead's claims on

vibrational patterns:

On the organic theory of nature there are two sorts of vibrations which
radically differ from each other. There is vibratory locomotion, and there
is vibratory organic deformation; and the conditions from the two types of
changes are of a different character. In other words, there is vibratory
locomotion of given pattern as a whole, and there is vibratory change of
patterns. (Whitehead 1997, 131)

On my next practical case study, Passage, I have drawn from this approach on
macro-micro scale design practice. This means that my purpose was also to
design an aural architecture based in the dynamic geometry of vibratory
phenomena, as a translation of micro events (environmental sounds) to a macro
experience (dynamic sonic beings, spatial acoustic effects) through our our
whole body’s senses. Although I must say that the aesthetic formalisation of my
work is quite distinct from that of Xenakis.
 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 169

Synergetics

In the knowledge of the comprehension of nature patterns and evolutive

consciousness, one may find ways to build a sustainable life between
beings and the environment... I am confident that humanity’s survival
depends on all of our willingness to comprehend feelingly the way nature
works. (Fuller in Edmondson 1986, 5)

Visionary architect, engineer, geometrician Buckminster Fuller developed for

more than five decades pioneering solutions in innovative design that did “more
with less”, and was responsive to the way nature works (Fuller 2008, 7). In 1985
(after Fuller’s death), a new carbon molecule (C60) was discovered with a
similar structure to that of a geodesic dome. It is a form of carbon with
molecules of 60 atoms arranged in a polyhedron resembling a geodesic sphere.
Therefore this molecule was named “buckminsterfullerene”, now commonly
known in the scientific community as “buckyball” 56. This fact confirmed that
Buckminster Fuller’s geometric creations definitively comprehended nature
patterns. With his two volumes of work entitled: “Synergetics: Explorations in
the Geometry of Thinking” (1975), Fuller contributed with major advancements
in the building of space based in energetic geometry and molecular structures.
His research was based in powerful thought tools: topology, geodesics,
synergetics and general systems theory (Fuller 2008, 83). For Fuller, the
essential nature of matter-energy lied not in abstract form-making but in
processes based in energetic geometry and in the characteristics of vibrating
systems such as interconnection, relation, polarity and multidimensionality. He
investigated the principle of vibration, observing nature's processes and forms.
Buckminster Fuller uncovered frequencies and rhythmicity of structural motifs,
and translated it into geometric patterns of formation, as architecture.

56 In [Link] (accessed august 2017)

 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 170

Since the physical Universe is entirely energetic, all dimension must be

energetic. Synergetics is energetic geometry since it identifies energy
with number ... Synergetics provides geometrical conceptuality in respect
to energy quanta. In Synergetics, the energy as mass is constant, and
nonlimit frequency is variable. (Fuller 1975, 22)

With his mathematical-geometric investigations and practical experimentations,

he actively sustained his argument that “all dimension must be energetic” (Fuller
1975, 22). Fuller claimed for the concept of synergy as essential in architectural
design and in our societies construction in general, for it explains the eternally
regenerative integrity of the universe: the integrated behaviour of whole
systems (unpredicted by the behaviour of their parts taken separately, which is
the usual scientific perspective), which is fundamental for the understanding on
the way nature works. This relates to what has been seen with Iannis Xenakis’
micro-macro scale practice (p.164). Moreover, it is fundamental to develop
sustainable ways of living, based in energy efficient structures.

The fundamental hypothesis behind synergetics - and the work of many

other pioneers exploring the science of form - is that nature's structuring
occurs according to the requirements of minimum energy, itself a function
of the inter-play between physical forces and spatial constraints.
(Edmondson 1986, 9)

Synergetics principles are embodied in nature. Buckminster Fuller claimed that

this system described the coordination of physical and metaphysical
phenomena alike, both energy and thought 57. Synergetics is a triangular and
tetrahedral system 58, using 60 degree coordination instead of 90 degree

57In [Link] - accessed October

23, 2017
58In tetrahedral molecular geometry, a central atom is located at the centre with four
substituents that are located at the corners of a tetrahedron.
 Chapter 6: Working concept: Ecology of Vibrational Affects 171

coordination, which does not exist in nature, and is not energy efficient (Fuller
1975, 23). He introduced the tetrahedral model to substitute the cube, to
simplify the understanding of the physical universe, and to open up innovative
practical applications. Fuller has explained the importance of the role of physical
forces (gravity, magnetism, electrical and chemical attractions), and how space
was not empty. For Fuller, space has specific properties or constraints, it has
underlying invisible forces and multidimensional fields and shapes. In his
introduction to “Space Structures”, scientist and crystallographer Arthur Lee
Loeb explained that "space is not a passive vacuum, but has properties that
impose powerful constraints on any structure that inhabits it. These constraints
are independent of specific interactive forces, hence geometrical in
nature” (Loeb 1976, xvii; in Edmondson 1986, 10). In this sense, Buckminster
Fuller investigated thoroughly nature's coordinate system, to uncover the
operative principles in the universe. However, his main purpose was to call our
attention to an invisible design revolution taking place, and to inspire our active
participation in guiding this progression in preferred ways (Edmondson 1986,
268). In this sense, I was inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s thought and practice,
to contribute to a translation of an invisible design based in synergetics, into
affective experiences of environmental sound. In the next practical case study,
Passage, I have explored synergetics, or energetic geometry, into the design
and self-construction of a zome structure, with specific acoustic qualities
(geometry, material's density and spatial volume). My aim was to integrate
synergetics into the aural architecture design method of space as dynamic
relation (experimented in the practical case study Radio Sonores). As it will be
seen, I have engaged in a design of form based in nature’s structural
requirements of minimum energy, attentive to the interplay between site-specific
physical forces and spatial constrains.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 172

Practical case study:

Passage

Fig. 6.01 - Passage installation at Estufa Fria, Lisboa

In this final practice, my aim was to converge the aural architecture design
methods produced by my previous practical case studies into one single
experiment. I also wanted to extend further research on the operation of the
affective as translation (p. 43). I had the opportunity to do so with the practical
case study Passage (2017). This project was commissioned for the event
Lisboa Soa, an annual event on sound art, urbanism and auditory culture in
Lisbon, Portugal. This edition happened at Estufa Fria, a green house with
hundreds of species of plants in the middle of the city of Lisbon.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 173

1. Experience of site

1.1. Analysis of context

In a microcosm with hundreds of species of plants in the middle of a city, what
do you listen to? This was my question when I got to Estufa Fria. The last time I
have been there was 17 years ago. I soon realised that this was so for most of
the visitors of the event Lisboa Soa. The aim of Lisboa Soa was precisely that:
to take citizens on a sonic journey to re-discover their cities’ green spaces, and
value them. This was a particular green space. It was a human-made
ecosystem of thousands of plants’ species, running water, water falls, stones,
steps, caves and tunnels. This artificial landscape seemed like an exotic
romantic island. Simultaneously, sonic layers of urban drones and airplanes
would mix with birds, insects, water running and the gardeners working. Some
interesting acoustic effects happened there when walking around, as the place
had several specific spatial features: several levels with different heights, some
openings on the sides, stone covered walls and a permeable roof (fig. 6.03,
6.04). There were also some caves and tunnels which produced particular
acoustic effects. I have chosen to intervene with a spatialisation of a passage
way, a small tunnel (fig. 6.01), and to extend its experience with the construction
of an aural architecture based in synergetic principles (p. 168-171).

Fig. 6.02, 6.03, 6.04 - Estufa Fria, Lisboa

 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 174

1.2. Dynamic of experience: soundwalking and field recording

In my first visit, I practiced soundwalk around the place from morning until
evening. I recorded some parts of the soundwalk and specific places. I identified
the place for my aural architecture installation. I listened carefully to these
recordings to get a closer idea of the material that I wanted to gather. I was
looking for vibrant matter, as potential forces susceptible of producing
overwhelming affective experiences. And this place was full of it.

Sources
On my second visit I identified the sources I wanted to record, and I spent one
full day doing so. I have recorded ambient sounds at different times of the day. It
changed drastically at specific times - in the morning, lunchtime and end of the
afternoon - the rush hours. It became very noisy and saturated with sounds of
cars and buses. Another strong sound was the constant passage of airplanes,
every 5-10 minutes. In the intervals of these noisy events, drones of city sounds
could be heard, such as the low frequencies of trains passing in the subway
underneath. I used binaural microphones to record all the sounds. My purpose
was to amplify what was there already, and that one could listen to if getting
closer to some sources, or go inside particular acoustic spaces.

Fig. 6.05 to 6.10 - sources

 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 175

1.3. Sensory variation

Here the sensory variation was engaged as a translation of languages, as a
transduction into a hearable spectrum. My purpose for this sensory variation
was to draw the public’s attention to the forces at work in the greenhouse,
usually unnoticed. My intention for the aural architecture installation was to
explore ways to listen to this ecology through acoustic phenomena.
My initial idea was to create a walking path with two different interrelated
experiences, and engage the public in two different kinds of sensory variation:
1- a soundscape to amplify the vibratory forces that propagated there, and
modulate specific frequencies, in resonance with the space of the tunnel.
2 - a zome as a quiet moment for attunement. It would be built in a strategic
place, where the path coming out of the tunnel divided in two paths. The zome
would embrace the path coming out of the tunnel and transform it into another
experience.
This sensory variation connects to the operation of transformation, as described
on p. 42.

1.3.1. Sensory phenomena

I was attracted to how water was everywhere, early in the morning: water falls,
water drops, water channels, chanting all over the place. The water presence
was a powerful vibratory force that modulated the whole ambiance. But in the
end of the morning, the water channels were closed, and its song would slowly
fade away. Therefore I have chosen to enhance the water presence in the
greenhouse, and amplify it in the acoustic space of the tunnel, which was a
cold, dark, humid passage. The tunnel would turn into a water channel, a
passageway between different time-spaces, a communication channel to the
whole network of the thousands of species of plants living there. As an
extension, the zome would offer a cosy, dry, warm shelter, to turn the
experience to the interior of self.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 176

Here I identified some sound marks, and specific sonic effects, as will be
explored next.

1.3.2. Aural elements

I have gathered the following sound marks and key notes:
- water flowing, falling or dropping in different places;
- watering sprinklers, recorded early in the morning, before the doors opening;
- airplane heard inside of the tunnel;
- birds signals;
- human voices mixed with urban sounds;
- drones of insects (cicadas), recorded in a warm summer day.
Additionally I recorded the following acoustic effects:
- close up to water drops falling along the tunnel stone walls;
- close up to water running in the gravel ground of the tunnel;
- inside the tunnel, at different heights and positions in length, closer or farer
from the wall;
- outside the tunnel, at the entrance;
- inside a smaller tunnel-canal of water;
I have chosen these sources (Fig. 6.05 - 6.10) for the affect they created on me,
as I will explain next.

1.3.3. Ambiance dynamic

My aim was that the ambiance dynamic would engage an active and immersive
listening, in a mode of attunement with our ourselves, the place and the
surroundings. This experience mobilised Thibaud’s three ambiance dynamics:
tuned, modulated and framed ambiance. The tunnel passage would involve the
audience in a modulated ambiance (as explained on p. 40). The audience
would have their mind and body literary washed up and connected to the
molecules of water. After the passage, the zome would involve the public in the
experience of a relatively quiet space, turned into the inside. This would create
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 177

a framed ambiance dynamic (as explained on p. 40). Inspired by the

surrounding geometry of plants, I explored the geometry of the flower of life (p.
189), into the construction of a zome 59. The zome geometry would resonate
with the patterns of the plants. Therefore this would engage a tuned ambiance
(as explained on p. 40). I will describe this in detail on p. 189.

Emergent concept: the language of water as vibration

I engaged with water as the main element for my intervention. The sounds of
water sounded like talking to me. Listening to its different dynamics (falling,
flowing, dropping), at the encounter of different materials, resonating in different
acoustic spaces - I felt like I was tuning into the language of water. Through an
amplified sonic experience of this vibrational materiality I embodied the feeling
of being water.

About 70 percent of the human body is made up of water and,

coincidentally, more than 70 percent of Earth is covered in water. Water
creates an environment that sustains and nurtures plants, animals and
humans. 60

The auditory experience of water was resonating deeply in me. I was

experiencing what Thibaud has described as a form of receptiveness that linked
up with specific corporeal states and brought the senses into synergy (Thibaud
in LaBelle and Martinho 2011: 46). This was a kind of transformation that
engaged an affective experience of vibration. I felt as I was entering into the
molecular language of vibration. My purpose was that the enhancement of the
experience of water, through a physical acoustic experience, would activate a
vibrational materiality of water in the audience's bodies. Eventually this acoustic

59The term zome was coined in 1968 by thinker Nooruddeen Durkee, combining the
words dome and zonohedron).
60 In [Link] -
accessed November 3 2017.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 178

amplification of masses of sounds of water flowing would draw the audience

into an immersive experience, as part of the greenhouse’s plants ecosystem, in
which water flows and infiltrates everything. My aim was that this experience
could contribute to an embodied understanding of the environment as an unified
field of relationships, all interconnected through vibration.

2. Aural architecture design

As I have mentioned already, I wanted to converge the four aural architecture
design methods produced by the previous practical case studies, into one single
experiment. And this single experiment of Passage turned into a microcosmos
with multiple experiences, and multidimensional modes of sensing material
vitality.

Operation of translation
Passage engaged the creation of an aural architecture as a medium of acoustic
communication and translation (or transduction) of vibrant matter. Through this
operation of translation, I aimed for an aural architecture experience to open up
acoustic communication with the surroundings in a symbiotic way, as part of the
same micro-macro-ecosystem. In this sense, Passage explored further an
amplified or enhanced experience of vibrant matter to engage the audience in
an physical affective experience of it, as a channel of communication with this
reality. This intervention addressed the potential of site-specific vibrational
forces, enhanced by spatial acoustics, to accentuate differences and to open up
communication channels towards more ecological relationships between human
and non-human beings. With this operation of translation I have also sought to
apprehend the inwardness of the process of formation of vibrational materiality
(Jenny 2001, 276). This has been explained as the translation of phenomena of
patterns’ formation from micro to macro scale into geometry, musical and spatial
architecture (Xenakis, p. 167). This has also been described by energetic
geometry, or synergetics and translated into architecture (Buckminster Fuller, p.
168). My aim was to engage in a process of translation of phenomena into
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 179

geometry, and embody this geometry in aural architecture design. As will be

now seen, this aural architecture design was based in the dynamic geometry of
vibratory phenomena, as a translation of micro events to a macro experience
through our our body’s senses. Sound became a channel to communicate with
the non-human forces of that site. With this operation of translation, my aim was
to enable an experience of attunement to invisible forces, towards an acoustic
communication between humans, non-humans and things. In this sense, I have
explored different modes of ecological re-wiring of the senses through the
inciting of affective responses, and to contribute to a diversification of affect, as
will be presented next.

As I have described, the installation Passage created a walking path with two
different but interrelated experiences (fig. 6.11 and 6.12). Therefore, in the aural
architecture design of Passage, two different actions took place:

2.1. The tunnel - an intervention in an existing architectural space

2.2. The zome - the creation of a new architectural space

Both designs were based in acoustics, dynamic relation and geometry. Instead
of repeating the same design methods as before, my aim was to extend and
integrate simplified principles of energetic geometry into the design methods.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 180

Fig. 6.11, 6.12 - plan and section of the zome and the tunnel
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 181

2.1. The tunnel

In this stone tunnel, I was inspired by ancient places such as Chavin de
Hantuar, or Tihuanaco, in South America, where amazing acoustic
infrastructures of water channels are found. It is possible that when water was
passing in, a deep roaring sound was produced, probably associated with an
entity of rain or thunder, or as an acoustic matrix, where oracular
pronouncements could be deciphered (Devereux 2001, 143). For the
experience of the tunnel, I thought of a similar effect. With the intention of
amplifying a deep roaring sound, I imagined an immersive passage, an
amplified void, as an in-between zone of low frequency sound, with portals of
standing waves (fig. 6.11, 6.12). Again, this resonates with the recurrent idea
throughout my thesis of the experience of a gaping opening, into which and
from which affect arises (Angerer 2017, 11). Therefore I became interested in
exploring this idea drawing from archaeoacoustics and related neuroscientific
studies (see p. 182).

2.1.1. Space as resonator (tunnel)

As we have seen, the idea of space as resonator was explored before in the
practical case study Vibrational Fields. These are the aspects that I have drawn
from Vibrational Fields:
- a new acoustics was integrated into an existing space, with resonance
frequencies activated by the soundscape;
- acoustic spatialisation into the space’s resonance frequencies;
- resonance between space and body as musical instruments.
Here, the difference was that this tunnel was not an enclosed space. For this
reason, an accurate acoustic space measurement could not be conducted,
neither a reverberation time calculation. Anyway, these studies were not needed
to conduct my experiment. My aim was to reach out for particular resonance
frequencies, to create standing waves, which was quite simple to find out based
in the distance between two parallel walls, as will be calculated next.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 182

2.1.2. Resonance frequencies calculation (room modes)

To reach out the acoustic effect of a standing wave pattern, I needed to
calculate the primary resonance frequencies between two parallel walls.
For a distance of 1,60m, I calculated a resonance frequency of 108 Hz, and
introduced also its harmonics 61.

Fig. 6.13 - resonance frequencies

Interesting to point out archaeoacoustics reports on some of the acoustical

effects in prehistoric chambers in connection with recent research in
neuroscience (Coimbra 2016, 126). It has been argued that since prehistory,
space with particular acoustic resonance qualities were used to achieve body-
mind experiences. Archaeoacoustics investigations inside pre-historic chambers
such as Newgrange or Loughcrew identified acoustic resonances between 95
Hz and 120 Hz (Jahn et al. 1995, in Coimbra 2016, 126). In neurophysiologic

61 The resonance frequencies calculation was explained on p. 86 of this thesis.

 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 183

studies, thirty adults were monitored with electroencephalography while expose

to frequencies between 90 and 120 Hz. Between 108 and 112 Hz the brain
activity was significantly lower. This corresponds to “a shift to pre-frontal activity
that may be related to emotional processing” (Cook et al. 2008, 96, in Coimbra
2016, 126). In studies assessing brain activity (by functional magnetic
resonance imaging), conducted in experienced practitioners of meditation while
meditating, there is an increased activity in the prefrontal cortex (Xu et al. 2014,
5, in Coimbra 2016, 126). These authors argue that this activity is related to the
relaxed focus of attention, which allows spontaneous thoughts, images,
sensations, memories and emotions.
By coincidence, the resonance frequency of the tunnel was of 108 Hz. This
allowed me to experiment this phenomena with standing waves. I wanted to
open a gaping moment in spacetime, tuned to this resonance frequency, to
create an affective experience of presence in the now, a sense of self as part of
a field of energy, a driving force.

Archaeoacoustics and mind-body experiences

The aural qualities of a space are recognised by the human being since pre-
history. Several European prehistoric chambers, especially in those that have
megalithic art on their walls, have particular resonance qualities, with a
resonance frequency around 110 Hz (Coimbra 2017, 128). It seems then
unlikely that acoustic effects would have gone unnoticed in prehistory (Cook
and Watson 2006, 107). I have always been interested in sound behaviour in
ancient places, to understand how and why our ancestors used spaces with
very particular resonance qualities. This is also the object of study of
archaeoacoustics. As it has just been described, recent findings in
archaeoacoustics and neuroscience have shown that the experience of these
places with particular resonance frequencies, produces a relaxed attention and
facilitates mind-body experiences. While the primordials of aural architecture
might have resulted from unplanned acoustic accidents, it certainly resulted as
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 184

the origin of inspiration for intentional aural architecture constructions, from

which has emerged knowledge and cognitive frameworks on the relationship
between sound, frequencies, vibrational patterns, geometry, acoustic effects,
affect and consciousness.
I have presented this practical case study Passage at the Archaeoacoustics
conference III (2017) 62. I have pointed out the value of the geometric
knowledge of ancient civilisations’ architecture that has been “forgotten”. The
ancient civilisations used natural spaces’ acoustics and built architecture based
on an embodied knowledge of vibration, energetic geometry, light and sound as
creative design. Until the advent of the industrialisation in the 19th century,
architectural design devised very particular acoustic qualities to the experience
of space, with a deep knowledge on its consequences. This is very explicit in
known examples of European churches such as St. Paul’s Cathedral and the
Whispering Gallery (1697), in Islamic mosques such as the Ālī Qāpū Palace
and Music Hall, Isfahan, Iran (17th century), in pyramids’ chambers, such as in
Saqqara, Egypt, or in pyramids stairs such as Palenque, Mexico and Tikal,
Guatemala (see Devereux 2001; Blesser and Salter 2007).
While recognising the value of such knowledge, my practice was not aiming to
reproduce an imitation of pre-industrialised acoustic space. Today we need to
explore new forms, adapted to our culture. I became interested though to
explore the same purpose common to so many ancient civilisations: mind-body
experiences of attunement through the experience of sound in space.
Therefore, my interests and common points with ancient aural architecture
were:
- The use of natural phenomena and elemental sounds (particularly water);
- Architectural space as an acoustic resonator (by the appropriation of existing
places with particular resonance qualities or building new ones);

62 See [Link] and [Link]

- accessed November 13, 2017
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 185

- The enhancement of mind-body experience (which I have named experience

of attunement);
- Research on relationships between sound, affect and human consciousness.

2.1.3. Resonant soundscape (tunnel)

A resonant soundscape was experimented previously in the practical case study
Vibrational Fields. These are the aspects that I have drawn from Vibrational
Fields:
- to activate resonance frequencies of the whole setup as an unified field
through sound;
- the physicality of vibrational force of environmental sound, enhanced by
space’s acoustics;
- multidimensionality, spatial sound and dynamic sonic beings.
Here the focus was on the embodiment of acoustic phenomena, the corporeality
of environmental sound and the physical affective experience of water
resonance as a dynamic sonic being, to step into the language of water.

Emergent concept: corporeality of environmental sound

In terms of soundscape considerations, the magnification seems to relate

less to the ‘brute force’ amplification of the public address system than it
does to the corporeality that is characteristic of acoustic sound (Truax
1996: 62)

I have explored a form of experience based in the corporeal aspect of

environmental sound and acoustic embodiment. Therefore I have designed an
immersive experience of the physical environment, as an interconnected field of
vibrational forces. My stance was that this form of experience could engage the
experience of space and time as an unified field of resonance. Acoustic
embodiment here means that through the space’s resonance, the magnification
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 186

of environmental sounds produced a sense of physicality and entered into

sympathetic vibration with the audience’s body and mind. I have searched for
an enhanced water experience, into micro molecular movements of drops, and
macro embodiment of the physical flow of its driving forces. Low frequency
sounds were already present in the tunnel, therefore the soundscape would
amplify its experience and embodiment. Passage addressed how the
enhancement of the natural acoustic phenomena of a soundscape could
reconfigure the relationship between body-mind-space-time as embodied
molecular vibration.

2.1.4. Composition with field recordings

My purpose for this soundscape composition was to sublimate the presence of
the vibratory force of water in its different dynamics, that modulated distinct
layers of frequencies, pitch, rhythms, intensities. I have also decided to amplify
the presence of infrasound, to enact intensity at the physical level. I have added
specific frequencies to draw mind-body experiences to levels of relaxation and
meditation, as it was described on p. 183. These area the main aspects that
have emerged from my composition:
- dynamic sonic beings - the water being
- multiple scale approach:
- macro acoustic space, spatial sound - the movement of water sound
masses, washing up;
- micro close-up to the molecular movements of water and subtile
frequencies modulation and pitch of water singing.
- multidimension of different acoustic spaces’ spatial volumes and
reverberation, different tunnels, narrow, long, wide.
As in Vibrational Fields, here the tunnel would undergo a process of acoustic
transformation, engaged as an overwhelming force, an immediacy, like an
immersion that takes experience into a field of interconnection between self and
the surrounding vibrational forces.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 187

2.1.5. Layers
The soundscape composition had a total duration of 6 minutes and 6 distinct
layers:
Layer 1 - ambiance outside the tunnel - minutes 00 to 01:38
Layer 2 - inside the tunnel, water drops, infrasound - minutes 01:30 to 02:58
Layer 3 - inside the tunnel, water dropping fast - minutes 02:50 to 03:21
Layer 4 - narrow tunnel with water flowing - minutes 04:05 to 05:23
Layer 5 - resonance frequencies, binaural beats (108-110Hz; 216-217 Hz;
432-434 Hz)
Layer 5 - resonance frequencies, binaural beats (27-28Hz; 54-57 Hz; 85-86 Hz)
To hear the soundscape composition open the audio file 6.37. Please see first
the note on the audio documentation on p. 225.

Fig. 6.14 - spectrogram of the soundscape composition using software Spek

After going though this passage, the audience would go inside the zome, an
ostensibly silent space, covered with portuguese cork.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 188

2.2. The zome

The zome 63 was self-constructed and incorporated specific acoustic qualities,
due to its geometry, material's density and spatial volume, as will be explained
further next. My aim was to integrate synergetics into the aural architecture
design method of space as a dynamic relation, experimented in practical case
study Radio Sonores. Therefore in the aural architecture design of this zome,
there were aspects which I have drawn from Radio Sonores, and that were
further extended.

2.2.1. Space as a dynamic relation (zome)

These are the aspects that I have drawn from Radio Sonores:
- relational, energetic, performative, modular, self-built architecture;
- specific acoustic qualities.
Here in Passage, the focus was in extending design of space based in a
dynamic relation towards ecology, sustainability and synergetics. These are the
ideas that I have expanded further:
- extend architectural acoustics studies further into energetic geometry and
synergetics;
- explore frequencies and rhythmicity of geometric patterns of formation, and
translate it into aural architecture design;
- design space according to requirements of minimum energy; as a function of
the inter-play between physical forces and spatial constraints (Edmondson
1986, 9);
- design space based in energy efficient structures, as a contribution for
sustainable modes of building and ways of living.

63The term zome was coined in 1968 by thinker Nooruddeen Durkee, combining the
words dome and zonohedron.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 189

As we will now see, I have engaged in a design of form based in ecological

structural requirements of minimum energy, attentive to the interplay between
physical forces and spatial constrains.

2.2.2. Energetic geometry - synergetics

I have extended an architectural acoustics study one step further into energetic
geometry. Therefore I have engaged in an experimentation of geometry in
relation with natural materials efficiency and a sustainable mode of building.
Zomes are geometric volumes composed of lozenges arranged in a double
spiral. The geometry of this zome was based in a frequency of six, which is a
diagram of equilibrium and balance of forces (a triangle up and a triangle down,
same distance between the points) (fig. 6.15). This is also the diagram at the
base of the geometry of the flower of life, which is known since ancient cultures
as a geometry that includes all existing geometric patterns (fig. 6.16). Therefore
the zome design was based in this geometry. The spatial variation started from
the base. The reference was the dimension of the space for its installation. This
geometry expanded then vertically as a double spiral or helix, one spiral curving
clock-wise, the other spiral curving anti-clock wise (fig. 6.17).

Fig. 6.15, 6.16, 6.17 - hexagram, flower of life and zome geometry

Materials’ performance
Here, I focused on the performative quality of the building material. I had to use
bendable wood, in order to easily assemble the zome. The building process
involved cutting the materials myself. I was living by the mountain of Gerês,
therefore it was easy for me to cut the materials, and assemble it there (fig. 6.18
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 190

to 6.20). I did this one month before the event so that the wood would dry up
and maintain the bending position.

Fig. 6.18, 6.19, 6.20 - zome assemblage

A few days before the event, I disassembled it, transported it to Lisbon, and
reassembled it there in Estufa Fria (fig. 6.21 to 6.23). I decided to use only
natural materials (bendable wood, jute wire, cork), to integrate the architecture
as part of the site. I have used roles of bendable cork to cover some parts of the
zome. This would create a protective environment, absorbent but at the same
time allowing permeability (fig. 6.24 to 6.26).

Spatial volume
I did not used any metric system to determinate this spatial volume. It was all
based in relation and performance. The spatial volume was determined by the
diameter at the base and the available dimension of the used bendable wood
(approximately 3 meters high each branch). The diameter at the base was
chosen according to a strategic place, where the path coming out of the tunnel
divides in two paths. The zome embraced the path coming out of the tunnel to
transform it into another experience (fig. 6.27, 6.28, 6.29). The resulting spatial
volume and energetic geometry engaged some sort of dynamic stillness. I
wanted to create an inner intimate experience, connected to the outside
environment but at the same time protected and isolated. My aim was to open
up a dialogue between inside and outside. Therefore I have engaged an
acoustic communication as a dialogue, an inner-outer listening towards a
meditative state.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 191

Fig. 6.21 to 6.29 - zome assemblage

2.2.4. Soundscape for attunement

These are the aspects that I have drawn from Shores:
- emergence process of composition;
- subtly highlight the essence of place;
- experience of attunement to environmental sound, awareness.
The main idea here was for an experience of attunement to the zome geometry,
the double spiral, and the acoustic intimate sense of place. I had thought of
leaving it as a relatively silent space. But then I decided to create an experience
based in binaural field recordings. The purpose of this soundscape for
attunement was to only subtly illuminate aurally the zome experience. What
could be heard inside such an intimate environment that would enhance the
zome experience?
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 192

2.2.5. Composition with field recordings and layers

The soundscape composition (audio file 6.38) had a total duration of 3.30
minutes and three distinct layers:
- layer 1 - field recordings of watering sprinklers
- layer 2 - field recordings of cicadas
- layer 3 - field recordings of water drops

Layer 1 - watering sprinklers (min 00 to min 01:43)

I had the chance to find out that the green house activated watering sprinkles in
the early morning and closed them when the doors opened to public. Therefore
I have arranged a way to get in early and record these sounds. I recorded it
bellow a plant with large leafs. For that reason we can hear heavy water drops
falling once in a while over the top of our head. Hearing this inside the zome
was quite agreeable, the feeling of protection was highlighted.

Layer 2 - cicadas (min 01:39 to min 02:44)

I was lucky to record during the summer the sound of stridulation 64 of cicadas
in the green house. Acoustic signalling is a widespread form of communication
that occurs in vertebrates, arthropods and even in plants. Acoustic
communication in cicadas is well-known for their timbal sound-producing
mechanism in males. Male cicadas emit different types of acoustic signals in
different behavioural contexts in order to gain benefits such as attracting
specific females and deterring predators 65. Listening to this sound tuned me to
a relaxed rhythm, possibly related to summer time. I also felt that this sound
would propagate well in cork walls.

64 Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts.
65In [Link] - accessed October 9,
2017.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 193

Layer 3 - water drops (min 02:44 to min 03:29)

This layer resonated to what the audience had experienced in the tunnel, but
with a lower intensity, higher pitch and clarity. It would connect the audience to
their relation to water as a song, singed close to the ears.

To hear the soundscape composition open the audio file 6.38. Please see first
the note on the audio documentation on p. 225.

Fig. 6.30 - spectrogram of the soundscape composition using software Spek

3. Installation and acoustic spatialisation

3.1. The tunnel installation and acoustic spatialisation

The tunnel installation process was a bit complex regarding the available PA
and the tunnels’s stone walls. Initially I had request four 3-way car audio
speakers and one sub-woofer, so that the speakers would be integrated to the
wall, and would not be visible. Unfortunately, the production did not have this
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 194

audio equipment. For this reason, I had to install two pairs of stereo heavy
active speakers with two stands, one sub-woofer, and one mixing desk. The
soundscape was played via a media player. The protocol for the process of
acoustic spatialisation was the same as the previous practical case studies, as
follows:
1- Install the audio equipment - stereo active speakers and one sub-woofer,
frequency spectra range of 40 Hz -20 Khz
2- Run tests to confirm the resonance frequencies of the space and the
frequency range of the sub-woofer; there was no need for adjustment.
3- Spatialise the sound system – choose the best placement of the sound
system exploring the relationships between frequencies resonance, materials’
properties and spatial geometry. The idea was that the audience would be
binaurally immersed. Therefore the speakers were placed at the ears’ height,
two at the way in and two at the way out. The sub-woofer was placed in-
between.

Fig. 6.31, 6.32, 6.33 - tunnel spatialisation

3.2. The zome installation and acoustic spatialisation

The zome installation was simple. I have used two small car audio speakers,
and installed them on the cork walls, one in each side of the ears (hight of an
average person position when seated in the bench), for a binaural experience.
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 195

Fig. 6.34, 6.35, 6.36 - resonance frequencies

4. Audience's experience and feedback

The event received a great amount of audience. As in my previous experiments,
I have conducted a survey by leaving a notebook with the question: how do you
feel with this experience? Here follows a transcription of some of the comments.

4.1. The tunnel - audience’s feedback

Impressive! I felt like a plant for the first time! Seeing with vegetable ears.
No time. A dimension with a lower frequency.
I feel like I’m falling into a hole. I like the strong sensation in the sounds,
it seems like I feel it inside myself. I closed my eyes and it becomes
much more powerful!
With my body inside the wall, but with my ears out.
I’m in a menthol cave, with water drops going up and going down
(signed: Tiago, 9 years old).
Inspired. The entrance was not very inviting, but the way out opens a
new world.
A passage is normally an in-between space, but here it becomes a place
in it-self, like a reality bubble.
I remembered I breed!
It reminded me how sensual the sound of water is… I wonder how would
sound the fire, the earth, the wind…?
Flying in the water

Refreshed
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 196

Relaxed
Peaceful
Water transports me in harmony and balance
The sounds travel through the stones like if they are communicating
between themselves
(C. Martinho, Passage survey, September 15-17, 2017)

4.2. The zome - audience’s feedback

Sliding in life
I don’t want to go out
Floating
In another world
In my world
In balance
Free
Very calm
Quiet
Relaxed
Is this what bees hear? I like this shape. It smells good like the earth
(Joana, 7 years old)
Suspended
Tuned with the vibrations of this space
I feel the transmission of nature on an human shape, like if it was a real
person.
Centred
(C. Martinho, Passage survey, September 15-17, 2017)
 Chapter 6: Practical case study: Passage 197

Affective experience of environmental sound

Drawing from the comments, I may say that all bodies were attuned, and there
was a diversification in the affective experiences. It was an experience of non-
verbal communication between being and place. On the one hand, it created an
affective experience of environmental sound as a presence in the now, a sense
of self as part of a field of energy of the site, a driving force. Sound and
acoustics enhanced communication with vibrational forces at work in the site,
that are usually unnoticed by humans. On the other hand, the aural architecture
of the zome acted as a point of centring in the balance of self with the
surroundings.

Final thoughts
My aim for this practical case study was achieved, as it was a contribution to a
translation of an invisible design based in the contingencies of the site but also
in synergetics, into a diversity of affective experiences of environmental sound.
As will be explored next in Chapter 7, which is the conclusion of this thesis,
there are several ideas that have emerged from within this practical case study
that will be further developed into future experiments.

 Chapter 7: Conclusion 198

Chapter 7

Conclusion

In this section, I will start by summarising my research proposal, questions and

methods used to answer the questions. I will describe the design methods
developed, its learning points and how it contributed to knowledge. I will finish
by describing further developments such as the continuity of one of the practical
case studies and the creation of a new aural architecture experiment, that will
extend this thesis’ research further.

1. Research proposal, questions and methods

While the acoustic environment and urban soundscapes shape our everyday
experiences, most of architecture practice usually neglects the consequences of
acoustic space in its design process. In this context, my research proposal
addressed the challenge in integrating the knowledge of acoustics and the
human experience of sound in architecture practice.
Therefore I have engaged in this PhD research with the following research
question:

What kind of design methods could integrate the experience of urban

soundscape and acoustic space, to create a site-oriented aural
architecture, towards an ecology of affect?

I have answered this question through my practical experimentation and by an

exploration of theoretical concepts.
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 199

To answer my research question, on the one hand I have drawn methods from
acoustic ecology and acoustics. On the other hand, I have engaged a shift in
the conception of space as visual orientated or “empty”, as it is usually
approached form most of architectural practices. To embody the auditory
experience of urban soundscape and acoustic space in its design process,
architectural design needs to move beyond the modern mode of design based
in focused vision and formal objects. Therefore I have engaged a mode of
design based in space as a field of relations, and in multi sensory,
omnidirectional and unfocused experiences. This has resulted in a series of
approaches to design aural architecture. I will explain its outcomes on p. 203.

I also became interested in an exploration of the auditory experience of urban

soundscape as an affective experience of environmental sound. Therefore I
have explored theories of affect, and got interested by an ecology of encounters
of organisms and things (Angerer, Bennett), in relation to specific sites. I also
got interested in exploring the experience of space as matter-energy, in how
aural architecture could amplify a previous unfelt potential as affect - as primary,
non-conscious and intensive (Massumi 2002, 27). I wanted to understand how
the physical experience of vibrational forces in environmental sound, enhanced
by acoustics, would relate to affect. Drawing from Marie-Louise Angerer’s three
operations of the affective (Angerer 2017, 11), I have developed three
operations of the affective in relation to my practice as a way to link this theory
of affect to an ontology of vibrant matter. These operations are: transformation,
translation and attunement.

Following my enquiry, I have approached the idea of space as field of matter-

energy (Bennett 2010) as a working concept, cross-fertilising it with ideas from
the disciplines of physical acoustics (field of resonance, pages 61-64), sound art
(body and space as musical instruments, pages 64-67), music (spatial sound,
dynamic sonic beings, pages 67-72), architecture (space as field pages
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 200

101-104; space as a dynamic relation, pages 111-114; space as energetic

geometry, pages 167-171 and 188-190), philosophy (microperceptions, p. 39, p.
98; space as a field of attunement, pages 124-131), acoustic ecology
(attunement, ambiance and ecology, pages 131-135).

Additionally I have experimented this working concept exploration in four of my

practical experiments, engaged as case studies for this thesis. It was from these
four practical case studies that I have developed four different approaches to
design aural architecture, towards the kind of affective experiences described
above. So, the design methods have emerged from my own practice. These
four creative approaches resulted as four sets of design methods, in relation
with the operations of the affective. The first set of methods guided the
experience of the site for intervention, through analysis of context, participation,
soundwalking, field recording, in order to decide a specific purpose for the
sensory variation that the particular context required, for an operation of
transformation of the ambiance dynamic. The second set of methods offered
different approaches in designing aural architecture through the recomposition
of urban soundscape and architectural agency based in resonance, dynamic
relation and energetic geometry, for an operation of translation; the third set
concerned the acoustic installation and spatialisation, for an operation of
attunement; the forth set explored the affective experience of environmental
sound based in the audience’s feedback.
To develop such methods, I have drawn from architectural practices that
approach the design of space as relational, energetic, performative,
sustainable, that is responsive to its inhabitants, such as dynamics of urban
ambiances (Jean-Paul Thibaud), spatial sound (Iannis Xenakis), synergetics or
energetic geometry (Buckminster Fuller). Additionally, I have drawn from
acoustic ecology methods that approach the soundscape experience as a way
to foster a sonic connection with the acoustic environment, and to balance inner
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 201

and outer worlds, such as acoustic communication methods (Barry Truax) and
conscious listening (Hildegard Westerkamp).
Next, follows a summary to clarify the unfolding of each operation of the
affective as a set of design methods, and in relation with the fields and methods
that have informed its development.

Operation of
Design method drawn from methods /fields
the Affective

1. Experience of site
1.1. Analysis of context
1.2. Dynamic of experience
1.2.1. soundwalking • Architecture as spatial agency
I. 1.2.2. field recording • Participation
Transformation 1.2.3. workshop • Acoustic ecology
1.3. Sensory variation • Sensorial architecture
1.3.1. sensory phenomena
1.3.2. aural elements
1.3.3. ambiance dynamic

2. Aural architecture design

• Site-specific sound art
2.1. Resonant soundscape
• Acoustics
2.2. Space as resonator
II. • Acoustic ecology
2.3. Space as dynamic relation
Translation • Soundscape composition
2.4. Soundscape for attunement
• Relational architecture
2.5. Space as energetic
• Synergetic architecture
geometry

3. Acoustic spatialisation
III.
3.1 Installation in acoustic • Acoustics
Attunement
space

IV. Affective • Survey based in anonymous

experience of 4. Audience’s experience and commentaries
environmental feedback • Interviews to specialised
sound audience

Next, I will explain the learning points of this thesis.

 Chapter 7: Conclusion 202

2. Learning points
I will start by explaining my aural architecture practice outcomes in relation to
each practical case study, the emergent methods and concepts addressed. I will
then describe more general learning points of the research process.

Outcomes of the practical case study Vibrational Fields

Working concept • Field of resonance

Enquiry • Acoustic model of waves’ propagation
• Sympathetic vibration, resonance frequencies, standing
waves
• Space and body as musical instruments
• Spatial sound
Practical case study • Vibrational Fields
Design methods • Resonant soundscape
• Space as resonator
Affective experience • The physicality of vibrational force in environmental
sound, enhanced by space’s acoustics
Emergent concepts • Background listening
• Dynamic sonic beings
• Being vibration

With the practical case study Vibrational Fields (Chapter 3), I have learned to
design with the physicality of vibrational force in environmental sound,
enhanced by space’s acoustics and resonance. The result was an aural
architecture that activated the experience of space as a vibrational force of
dynamic sonic beings, unfolding and modulating affect from the same field of
resonance.
The resulted aural architecture design method was: resonant soundscape and
space as resonator (explained on p. 55). Here the soundscape design was
based in space’s resonance frequencies to magnify or enhance environmental
sound, to enter into vibration with the audience’s body and mind. This method
related with the phenomena of resonance. It also unfolded methods drawn from
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 203

acoustics, acoustic ecology and soundscape composition. The design of space

as resonator was inter-related with the resonant soundscape, and addressed an
intervention in an existing architectural space. It concerned the idea of space
and body as a musical instrument. It unfolded methods drawn from architectural
acoustics, such as acoustic space measurement, reverberation time calculation,
and resonance frequencies calculation (room modes). These methods might be
useful for other practitioners who wish to enhance their sound works through
the acoustics of architectural space and play with resonance frequencies to
activate a physical and affective experience of being vibration.

Outcomes of the practical case study Radio Sonores

Working concept • Space as field

Enquiry • Relational and performative architecture
• Spatial agency
Practical case study • Radio Sonores
Design methods • Space as a dynamic relation
Affective experience • The experience of inner-outer listening and relatively
silent, enhanced by the space’s absorbent qualities

Emergent concepts • Space as a dynamic relation

• Diagram as an energetic geometry
• Modular design as a mode of assemblage
• Mobile architecture

With the practical case study Radio Sonores (Chapter 4), I have learned to
design space as an interval or a relation, focused on the consequences of the
experience of space (sensorial, social, political, ecological), more than the
formal production of an object of architecture. The result was an aural
architecture as a field of relations, evolutive, adaptable and that opened up
appropriations of space for affective experiences.
The resulted aural architecture design method was: space as a dynamic
relation. Here, a new architectural space was designed based in a specific aural
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 204

experience (relatively silent, attentive listening, inner and outer listening). It is

related with the concepts of relational space and assemblage. It can be useful
for practitioners who wish to build up a modular aural architecture based in
energetic geometry, to create a specific acoustic environment for a studio or
performance space, based in geometry, materials’ density, spatial volume and
proportions.

Outcomes of the practical case study Shores

Working concept • Space as field of attunement

Enquiry • Sympathetic resonance, entrainment and affect
• Attunement, ambiance and ecology
Practical case study • Shores

Design methods • Soundscape for attunement

Affective experience • Experience of environmental sound in extension with the
site, in tune with the environment in a symbiotic way
• Auditory experience of balance between inner and outer
worlds

Emergent concepts • Experience as embodied knowledge

• Ecological intimacy from oral communities

With the practical case study Shores (Chapter 5), I have learned to design
space as a field of attunement, based in the experience of environmental sound
in extension with site, of a symbiotic way of being in tune with place and self, as
embodied knowledge. The result was an aural architecture of balance between
inner and outer worlds. I have also learned ecological intimacy from oral
communities.
The resulted aural architecture design method was: soundscape for attunement.
The soundscape design was based in the idea of attunement to environmental
sound. It explored relationships between field recording, urban soundscape
recomposition, ambiance extension. This method might be useful for other
practitioners who wish to create an aural architecture to highlight the sense of a
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 205

certain place. It can be helpful to enhance an urban soundscape experience

through a sensory variation based in tuning and modulating an existing
ambiance.

Outcomes of the practical case study Passage

Working concept • Ecology of vibrational affects

Enquiry • Ecology of affect
• The language of vibration and vibrational affect
Practical case study • Passage
Design methods • Resonant soundscape
• Space as resonator
• Space as a dynamic relation
• Soundscape for attunement
• Space as energetic geometry

Affective experience • Modes of ecological re-wiring of the senses through the

inciting of affective responses
• Diversification of affects
Emergent concepts • The affective experience of environmental sound
• The inner and outer dynamic of the auditory experience
towards meditative states

With the practical case study Passage (Chapter 6), I have learned to design an
ecology of vibrational affects, based in the language of vibration, translated from
water as matter-energy. I have explored modes of ecological re-wiring of the
senses and the inciting of affective responses. The results were two aural
architecture experiments that engaged a diversification of affect and the inner
and outer dynamic of the auditory experience towards meditative states.
Drawing from the comments, I may say that all bodies were attuned, and there
was a diversification in the affective experiences.
The resulted aural architecture design method was: space as energetic
geometry. This mode of design is a convergence of the previous four modes of
design. Therefore it extends the studies of resonant soundscape, space as
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 206

resonator, space as a dynamic relation and soundscape for attunement, and

integrates it into one single experiment. It emerged as a microcosmos with
multiple experiences, as an ecology of affects. This design method of space as
energetic geometry has created an experience of attunement as an experience
of non-verbal communication between being and place, through the element of
water dynamics. On the one hand the tunnel created an affective experience of
environmental sound as a presence in the now, a sense of self as part of a field
of energy, a driving force. On the other hand the aural architecture of the zome
acted as a point of centring in the balance of self. This method might be useful
for other practitioners who wish to enhance their sound works through the
acoustics of architectural space, play with resonance frequencies for mind-body
experiences, and open communication channels with the vibrational forces of
sites. It may also inspire the self-building of an energetic geometry aural
architecture.

As for general learning points, related to this thesis’ research process, there
were challenging aspects, such as the articulation of my multidisciplinary
practice with a multidisciplinary theory, and theorising about my own practice.
Nevertheless these were valuable learning points as well. My research was a
very long process, due to many contingencies of life. At one point, it was a
challenge to understand in which way I could articulate my multidisciplinary
practice with a multidisciplinary theory, as a thesis. It became quite complex. It
was not an easy task to articulate concepts and methods from a wide range of
disciplines, with different languages (artistic, scientific, philosophical). My idea
was to translate concepts to practice and systematise it as sets of design
methods, so that these would become useful for my practice, and accessible for
other practitioners and researchers as well. This was one of the main reasons
also why I did this thesis. In my opinion, there is a very wide array of interesting
research being conducted in academia that could inform and contribute to
advancements in the field of aural architecture. But most of it stays within
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 207

academia, or a specialised public, or it does not reach a practical application.

Perhaps that is not the purpose of theoretical authors. But I believe it should be
the task of practitioners to bring forth and disseminate these ideas into an aural
architecture practice, to experiment in everyday life, and to contribute to more
sustainable ways of living and being. Our built environment needs innovative
design in architecture with an acoustic ecology approach. The sound quality of
our everyday experiences has serious consequences in our well-being, as it
directly affects our nervous system (Leitner 1998, 293), so our architecture's
design approach to the built environment should also focus on the
consequences of the aural experience.

Also at times, I found it was a challenge to stop my practical dynamics and to sit
down to theorise about my own practice. It required a certain time passed the
experience. I was only able to develop the last two practical case studies a few
months before submitting this thesis, due to unforeseen circumstances. For this
reason, I had a very short time to integrate the experiments and finish the
thesis. Therefore, sometimes it was not an easy task to articulate my practice-
based research, which involved such a variety of methods and multidisciplinary
concepts, and produced a clear and concise thesis. Nevertheless, it was a
valuable learning process. Through this practice-based research process, I
have learned how to develop an aural architecture practice methodology, as an
architect and acoustician working with sound. Today, I know how to approach
research methods to design aural architecture, I see more clearly its relation
with other disciplines and its potential for further developments.

Other important points that contributed to the development of the design

methods that I have developed, were the collective dynamics and the
audience’s feedback. The workshops were a positive way to exchange ideas
and to engage art and architecture students and communities in acoustic
ecology, to foster a soundscape awareness. I have learnt a lot with these
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 208

collective dynamics. I.e. in the case study Shores, I have learnt ecological
intimacy and embodied knowledge of site from the oral communities of
fishermen. The architecture students have learnt to be more aware to the
acoustic experience of site and the importance that aural architecture plays in
the environment. These are also valuable points of contribution. I believe that
workshops are a very important way to advance in aural architecture. And in the
future, I will look for opportunities to engage my practice further in collective
dynamics.
The audience’s feedback was a valuable way to confirm my artistic explorations
and contributed for the advancement and development of the aural architecture
design methods. I.e. in the case study Shores, the idea of balance emerged
from the commentaries. I became interested to explore further this approach of
balancing the auditory experience in the following project, Passage, with an
exploration of inner and outer listening dynamics into centred aural architecture.

Therefore, my research towards this thesis was sometimes a slow, stagnant

process, and other times extremely active and creative. But aren’t all creative
processes that way? My advice for other PhD students is that a PhD research
does not have to be a lonely process. I am very thankful for all the exchanges
during the workshops, the artistic residencies and the presentations. The
feedback and critics made my PhD research process much more interesting,
constructive and fruitful.

3. Contribution to knowledge
This thesis aimed to contribute with advancements in the field of aural
architecture design and practical experimentation. A site-oriented aural
architecture practice methodology, formalised as a set of design methods, was
my main contribution to knowledge. These design methods were elaborated in a
way to facilitate its further development and other practitioners’ use.
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 209

Next follows a summary of why and how other practitioners might be interested
in using the design methods. The design methods may be useful for architects,
soundscape designers/composers and spatial practitioners that look for
methods to:
- Create site-responsive aural architecture experiments that deal with moving
sound installation to public space, and take into account an enlarged
environmental potential;
- Design site-oriented aural architecture based in sensory variation and
ambiance dynamics, as a way to enhance the soundscape experience;
- Connect unusual or imperceptible relationships between the elements of a
specific site (human, non-human), to accentuate differences and multiple
dimensions, for the emergence of a diversity of sensory experiences;
- Address the potential of site-specific vibrational forces, enhanced by spatial
acoustics, to open communication channels towards more ecological
relationships between human and non-human beings;
- Open up the experience, transformation, translation and attunement to
vibrational forces of sites, to move spatial practices beyond an anthropocentric
perspective, and towards an ecology of affect and symbiotic relations;
- Experience environmental sound as dynamic sonic beings, enhanced by
natural acoustic effects and resonance, for unusual encounters and connections
between human beings, non-humans and things, and towards a symbiotic way
of attunement.

Furthermore, my research contributed to re-integrate the knowledge of

acoustics (the relations between geometry, materials’ density, spatial
proportions, acoustic effects) and the human experience of environmental
sound in the design process of architecture.
My practical case studies also contributed to an ecology of affect, by
experimenting a diversity of affective experiences of environmental sound.
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 210

4. Future projects
As for future projects, I would like to give a continuity to aural architecture
workshops: teaching and learning through practicing, to extend design methods,
and as a way to contribute further to an ecology of affect.
I will develop further the Shores project. Not only in São Miguel but also in other
coastal places. I would like to do so working with fishermen communities and
their children, to engage them in listening and recording their families’ fishery
activities, to encourage conscious listening across generations and a sonic
connection with the acoustic environment. Resulting from this work, I would like
to co-create a permanent acoustic boat soundscape installation with a local
traditional boat constructor and young adults, for Rabo de Peixe public space,
and for its community’s appropriation with their own cultural and artistic
activities. This will allow to reach an ecological soundscape awareness into a
wider and less specialised audience. I would like to see how this project would
evolve in time, and how the community would appropriate the space.

Another project that I will develop is a Temporary Autonomous Zome or TAZ,

referring to the book Temporary Autonomous Zone (Hakim Bey, 1991). The
book describes urban tactics to elude formal structures of control. This aural
architecture experiment will create a temporary space that might elude
homogenisation of the built environment and transform it into affective
experiences of environmental sound, by offering a diversity of urban
soundscape experiences. This project will extend the zome geometry of the
assemblage of Passage into an assemblage of acoustic panels, with specific
features. TAZ will be a mobile and modular aural architecture, based in the
zome geometry. It can be installed in any public place, outside or inside. It will
involve a participative process of collective self-construction (d.i.y.); and a
participative process of soundwalking, field recording and soundscape
composition. This project will allow me to advance in my aural architecture
design methods into an experiment with modular acoustic panels, assembled in
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 211

different configurations, based in energetic geometry. There will be different

kinds of acoustic panels (reflective, absorbent, diffuser), with specific materials.
Some panels can be played as percussion musical instruments. Other panels
integrate small amplified speakers in the inside wall, to hear soundscape
compositions created during the workshops. The interior acoustics of the zome
will be optimised for that. And some other panels will integrate mini-jacks
entrances to hear with headphones in the outside wall, to hear field recordings
that highlight particular sounds of the surrounding close environment.
This project will also research further participative methods to experience the
site, that may incite participants to continue the co-creative soundscape
dynamics and the appropriation of space. I hope I can also run workshops to
engage children in playful dynamics with the acoustics panels.
The TAZ will open up several possibilities due to its modular assemblage, so
that it can be installed temporarily in any everyday public space. The TAZ can
travel to another place, to reach out different audience and different contexts.
This will be a way to extend my PhD research further, to advance other kinds of
aural architecture design methods, to incite an active engagement in the co-
creation of our soundscapes, and to contribute to a diversity of affective
experiences of environmental sound, for an ecology of affect. Hopefully this
work will also be of inspiration to other practitioners and researchers.

Thank you for reading.

 Chapter 7: Conclusion 212

Appendices

Appendix 1
Practice developed during the PhD research
Selected installations, performances and presentations
2017, Passage, installation. Lisboa Soa, Lisbon, Portugal. [Link]
2017, Shores, installation. Invisible Places symposium, São Miguel, Azores,
Portugal. [Link]
2017, Archaeoacoustics III International Conference, presentation, Tomar,
Portugal. [Link] and http://
[Link]/
2017, Architecture, Geometry and Education, presentation, Pedagogia 3000,
Bolivia. [Link]
2017, Invisible places: Sound Urbanism and Sense of Place, presentation, São
Miguel, Açores. [Link]
2016, Sound Education Experience: Women In Sound, Women On Sound,
presentation. Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. https://
[Link]/calendar/?id=9966
2012, Radio Sonores, installation. Guimarães Capital of Culture, Portugal.
[Link]
2012, Applied Universal Geometry, presentation, Isla del Sol, Bolivia. http://
[Link]/2012/12/12/applied-universal-geometry/
2011, Site of Sound: of Architecture and the Ear, Vol. 2, publication, co-edition
with Brandon LaBelle, Errant Bodies Press. [Link]
2011/12/21/site-of-sound/
2011, Topology: Embodying Transformation, performance. Tate Modern,
London, UK. [Link]
embodying-transformation/
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 213

2011, Rhythm and Event Symposium, performance. The London Graduate

School, London, UK.   [Link]
and-event/
2011, Drone Ensemble, site-specific performance, Matéria Prima, Porto,
Portugal. [Link]
2011, Vibrational Fields, installation, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
[Link]
2010, lost-in-space workshop, presentation. University College of London,
UK. [Link]

Appendix 2
Previous practice that has informed the PhD research
Selected installations, performances and presentations
2010, Body Sound, scenography of sound artworks from Centre Pompidou
Media Art Collection, Zebrastraat, Liedts-Meesen Foundation, Ghent,
Belgium. [Link]
2010, Constellations, scenography, Les Anciens Abattoirs, Nice, France. http://
[Link]/2010/10/02/constellations/
2010, VLF~UHF, performances, Paris, France.
2009, Architectones seminar on sound, art and architecture, co-mediation and
presentation. La Saline Arc-et-Sénans, France. http://
[Link]/2008/07/09/architectones/
2009, Evento, co-curatorial, public art biennal, Bordeaux. http://
[Link]/2009/10/09/evento/
2008, Tuned City – between sound and space speculation, presentation, Berlin,
Germany. [Link]
2008, Architectones seminar on sound, art and architecture, presentation, La
Saline Arc-et-Sénans, France. [Link]
architectones/
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 214

2008, Fiction Vs Reality, installation and scenography of works from the Centre
Pompidou New Media Collection. CAMJAP, Gulbenkian Foundation,
Lisbon, Portugal. [Link]
reality/
2006-2011, Infra, irregular series of events and recordings, Paris, France. http://
[Link]/2006/05/11/infra/
2000-01/2006-11, Bureau des Mésarchitecture/ Didier Faustino, collaboration.
Paris, France. [Link]/
Other architecture collaborations include Acconci Studio (2003-04), Storefront
for Art and Architecture (2003-04), nArchitects (2004).
Workshops on sound and space installations at art schools, such as: Le Sonic
Sound Art and Design program, Le Quai Art School of Mulhouse; Master in Art
and Design for Public Space, Fine Arts School, University of Porto; Ecole
Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Art School of Le Mans.

Appendix 3
The World Soundscape Project (WSP)
The World Soundscape Project (WSP) was established as an educational and
research group by Raymond Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University during
the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its main instigators are composers Raymond
Murray Schafer, Hildegard Westerkamp and Barry Truax. Murray Schafer
created the term soundscape and opened up the field of acoustic ecology with
his work The Soundscape, Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World
(1977). Barry Truax describes that the principal work of the WSP was to
document and archive soundscapes, to describe and analyse them, and to
promote increased public awareness of environmental sound through listening
and critical thinking. Eventually a parallel stream of compositional activity also
emerged that created what he has called soundscape composition (Truax 1984)
(Truax 1996, 54). But, according to him, the aim of The World Soundscape
Project was not to exploit the environment as a source of musical material, but
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 215

rather to explore the knowledge base of musical design, in order to redesign the
soundscape, and to reawaken people's perceptual appreciation of its
importance. The field of acoustic ecology eventually expanded worldwide, and
The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) carries on investigation with
numerous contributors.

Appendix 4
Sound waves propagation
In the acoustic model of waves’ propagation, a vibration is described as the
movement of particles traveling through a medium, producing a wave. The
vibration of a source produces the propagation of particles of energy that travel
along a wave. Sound waves propagate in any material, solid, liquid and gas.
Several factors affect the way an acoustic wave travels. The propagation of
waves depends on the property of elasticity in the medium. The more elastic the
medium, the faster the wave propagates (sound travels faster under water than
in air, but it travels faster through metal than under water). The particles of
matter in a medium act as enmeshed in a elastic web, a connective tissue. The
speed of the wave decreases as the mass of the elements augments (density
augments inertia) and the speed of the wave increases as the internal forces of
the medium increase (tension/pressure produces greater force) (Johnston 1989,
145). As acoustic waves propagate in any medium (except vacuum), the
traveling energy penetrates and involves everything. The degree of absorption
and propagation of energy through matter will depend on the relationship
between the frequency and the properties of the medium. This means that
waves propagate differently according to the space’s architectural acoustics: of
its material density, volume and geometry, which result in acoustic effects.

Frequency perception
Modern physics has defined different categories to classify ranges of
frequencies or bandwidths, according to its wavelength, but also of its origin, its
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 216

source, natural or artificial (human made). Different modes of propagation

characterise different kinds of waves. Sound is categorised as an acoustic
wave. Frequency varies according to its wavelength: the lower the frequency,
the wider is its wavelength; and the higher the frequency, the shorter its
wavelength. Waves’ motion is different according to its nature and frequency of
vibration. I.e., an acoustic wave of very low frequency, such as an earthquake,
has a very wide wavelength and expands spherically from its epicentre in all
directions. But a laser beam (or any other light, x-rays or radio waves) produces
an electromagnetic wave, formed by an electric field and magnetic field, and its
wavelength is short and directive in one precise point. According to its
wavelength, the vibration may or not be perceptible. In terms of frequency,
humans perceive the bandwidth between 430–790 THz as visible light, and in
average between 20 Hz and 20000 KHz it is perceived as sound (these values
as a general consensus but it varies according to each individual). This
perception of sound refers to the sensation of a frequency, commonly referred
to as the pitch of a sound, or tone – the higher the frequency, the higher the
pitch, as in musical notes. We also sense frequencies as temperature, as a
trembling sensation, with our skin, nerves and organs. When it comes for
human perception of frequencies, psychoacoustics has widely study its effects.

Appendix 5
Vibrating systems
Hans Jenny used sound waves in his experiments to vibrate different matters,
creating vast recognisable pattern formations. He investigated vibrating systems
to characterise the underlying phenomena of vibration and periodicity in nature.
Jenny claimed that he was not dealing with the vibratory phenomena in the
narrow sense, but rather with the effects of vibrations. Vibration’s periodic
phenomena affects our planet's nature – the vegetable, animal and mineral
kingdom. The vegetable and animal kingdom is a endless formation of tissues
on a macroscopic, microscopic and electron microscopic scale, of cells
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 217

formation or degeneration, and processes of cell division and gene formation.

And “it is in the vibratory field that all bioelectrical, chemical, mechanical,
energetic, thermal, structural, kinetic and dynamic processes take their
course” (Jenny 2001, 20). According to Jenny, wherever we look we can
describe morphology and physiology in terms of periodicities and rhythmicities.
Throughout the animal and vegetable kingdom nature creates in rhythms,
cycles, frequencies, reduplications, serial phenomena, sequences, etc. These
are the characteristics by which natural structures are built. This
characterisation is about the general process; each step and change “must be
seen in the context of metamorphoses, development stages and functional
cycles (Jenny 2001, 271). To illustrate this we can just think of simple examples
such as the skin of animals, the bones and muscles' structure, the formation of
flowers, etc., all arranged in serial patterns based in periodicity or vibration.
Whether we take this for granted or not, to characterise nature's mode of
construction it is important to recognise and understand the vibration principle in
this mode of periodicity which is ubiquitous in nature's creations (Jenny 2001,
270). This take us to the fundamental fact that nature's structures are created in
terms of periodic/vibrational morphology and physiology and are therefore
based in the universal laws of vibration. Jenny resumed a few characteristics
shared by vibrating systems (Jenny 2001, 269-277):
- Polarity – everything is cyclical, and expresses as a waveform;
- Relational – every part relates to a whole; relation is based on vibration;
- Interconnection – everything is composed of interconnected fields of vibration
(theory of the field);
- Multidimensional – everything belongs simultaneously to different
dimensions, and its materiality is perceived differently according to the
observer's perceptive spectrum.
What is evident even by observation is that their nature, dynamics and kinetics,
structure and texture reveal its periodicity. Meaning that periodicity or vibration
affects material density, geometric patterns and spatial volume. And the same
 Chapter 7: Conclusion 218

principle underlies the mineral kingdom. The periodic formation or vibrational

structure is also quite visible in the lattice structures of matter in the crystalline
state.
But it is not only the structural elements which show a repetitive periodic
character; functions also proceed rhythmically, in regular cycles and
serial processes. This is exemplified by the pulsations of the heart, the
respirations, the oscillations in contracted skeletal muscle, the autonomic
rhythmicity of the intestinal musculature, and the serial action currents of
the nervous pathways, etc. (Jenny 2001, 271)
Human physiology and morphology naturally follow the same principles that we
have seen in Nature's vibrating systems. The human body consists of
interlocking and interdependent vibrational systems of various frequencies and
densities within an environment of fluids. We may mention a few physiological
examples such as systems of respiration and circulation controlled by natural
periods or rhythms, the active muscle system which is in a state of constant
vibration. Events that do not take place in sequence, are also in a continual
state of vibration. In the nervous system impulses occur serially and therefore
are described as frequencies. The brainwaves are described in categories
through frequencies, and each frequency bandwidth triggers different states of
awareness, concentration, and relaxation.

 bibliography 219

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 Guide to the artworks’ digital documentation 225

Guide to the artworks’ digital documentation

Please open the USB drive included in this thesis.

The artworks digital documentation refers to this thesis’ four practical case
studies and is structured under two folders:
1. Primary materials: audio-visual files
Audio files of the case studies’ soundscape compositions.
Raw audio files of field recordings, when relevant.
Illustrations of the case studies’ design process.
2. Secondary documentary audio-visual files
Audio files of the survey’s interviews.
Audio-visual documentation of the installations.

Note on the audio documentation

As the soundscape experiments operated with resonance frequencies (meaning
that sound waves of particular size were in relation to each place’s specific
spatial volume, geometry and materials) it is not reproducible through audio
documentation because the acoustic effects are gone. These psycho-physical
effects could only be heard and felt in each specific space of the installation.
Nevertheless, you may hear the audio file of the soundscape composition that
was spatialise in each place, in the artworks digital documentation.

Equipment
Recorders: Fostex FR2-LE; Edirol R-09HL; MacBook Pro
Microphones: 2x DPA 4060 Lavalier microphone with omnidirectional polar
pattern; 2x contact microphone handmade diy; 2x electromagnetic microphone
handmade diy; 1x hydrophone Aquarian H2a-XLR.
 Guide to the artworks’ digital documentation 226

Contents of the artworks’ digital documentation

1. Primary materials: audio-visual files

File name Practical case study
3.01 to 3.20 Vibrational Fields (drawings, photographs and spectrogram)
3.21 Vibrational Fields (soundscape composition)
3.22 to 3.44 Vibrational Fields (raw files)
4.01 to 4.21 Radio Sonores (drawings and photographs)
5.01 to 5.39 Shores (photographs and spectrogram)
5.40 Shores (soundscape composition)
5.41 Shores (fishermen interviews)
6.01 to 6.36 Passage (drawings, photographs and spectrogram)
6.37 Passage (soundscape composition - tunnel)
6.38 Passage (soundscape composition - zome)

2. Secondary documentary audio-visual files

File name Practical case study
3.21 to 3.31 Vibrational Fields (copies of the survey comments)
3.45 Vibrational Fields (video documentation)
5.42 to 5.44 Shores (survey audio interviews)
5.45 to 5.46 Shores (video documentation)
6.39 to 6.43 Passage (video documentation)

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