SOUND DESIGN

THE SONIC LANDSCAPE - Murray Schafer

The soundscape is the collection of sounds that characterize a place.

The acoustic universe in which modern man lives has radically changed from the sounds of
past → sounds and noises of different quality and intensity.
Noise pollution is now a global problem and the soundscape
seems to have reached the peak of vulgarity.
1. Acoustics and psychoacoustics study the physical properties of sound and the way in
which is interpreted by our brain.
2. Social sciences study how humans behave towards sound and
how sounds influence his behavior.
3. From the arts, we learn how man can create ideal soundscapes.

The soundscape can be interpreted as an indeterminate composition.

over which we have no control, or we ourselves are
composers and performers.

It is necessary to create a new discipline, acoustic design, whose purpose is to discover those
principles through which the aesthetic quality of an acoustic environment can be improved;
Such principles may include the elimination or control of certain sounds and also
the safeguarding of sound footprints.
The sounds of a soundscape can be divided into:
• TONIC – in music it indicates the key or the reference tonality of a
composition, all other sounds develop in relation to the fundamental.
(in the study of the soundscape, the tonic represents the background)
• SIGNAL - sound listened to unconsciously towards which our attention is directed
attention.
• IMPRINTSOUND – characteristic sound of an area.
• ARCHETYPAL SOUNDS – ancient and mysterious sounds endowed with a precise symbolism.

Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to consider noise as music and not
like simply sounds, now all sounds today can be part of the territory and
of the domain of music.
Two versions on the origin of music in classical antiquity:
The twelfth Pythian Ode of Pindar tells that Athena, after the decapitation of
Medusa, moved by the heartbreaking cries of her sisters, created the law and the
musical structure of the succession of sounds of the scale. Therefore, music is born
from a subjective emotion, from a deity and a precise instrument: the aulos
(reed flute), Dionysus, for the exaltation of tragedy.
In the Homeric Hymn dedicated to Hermes, music is invented by him.
who builds a lyre after discovering that it was possible to produce sounds using
as a resonance chamber a turtle shell. Therefore, the music originates from the
discovery of the sound properties of the universe: the lyre, Apollo, for the
serene contemplation of the universe.

The acoustic environment can be read as an indicator of the social conditions that
They produced it, it can provide us with information on the development lines and of
evolution of that society.
The natural sound landscape
Water is one of the original sounds, in fact, life originates from water (e.g. Ocean and
(maternity womb)→the sound of water never stops, because this element is
continuously regenerates through the so-called water cycle.
Every drop has a different sound based on the type of surface it encounters (quote: "The
Rain in the Pinewood by D'Annunzio) → geography and climate have provided particular
regional tones to the soundscape.
The wind, like the sea, is one of the primary sounds (for the ancients it was
divinized): without objects along its path it seems without any movement and
direction, only when it hits something can we feel it → the wind, like the
mare, has an infinite number of vocal variations.

In ancient times, all natural events were explained in magical-miraculous terms.

an earthquake or a storm was a fight between the gods. Thunder and lightning are among the
most feared forces of nature → their noise is of such intensity and has such a wide
frequency gamma to greatly exceed human reach.

Each forest produces its own characteristic tonic; each natural soundscape
it has its sounds often so original as to turn into sound fingerprints (e.g. the vast
sulfataras of New Zealand.

The loudest sound heard on Earth was the explosion of the Krakatoa volcano.
Indonesia in 1883, heard up to 4500km away.

The sounds of life

The language and song of birds have been the subject of many studies in the history of
There have been various attempts to imitate the singing of birds: the vocalizations do not
they can be notated in musical terms, this is because they are rare sounds made up of
a single height, in most cases it involves complex noises and their
high frequency and the speed of emission prevents their transcription.

Among the sound of insects, the modern man more easily recognizes the most annoying ones.
Among insects, the loudest is the cicada: it produces sounds.
flat (like that of a tin lid pressed between the fingers).
The first significant characteristic of the sound produced by insects is that it seems to be a
continuous sound, a flat line.

Many fish species do not make sounds, but some of them (e.g. sunfish, certain types of
mackerel), make noise by grinding or chattering their teeth.

Among animals, the widest range of identifiable sounds is produced by

carnivores.

The signals that we find in animals, we also find emitted by humans: growling,
to yell, to moan, to grunt, to roar, to scream.
Our language tends to reproduce the sounds of the acoustic environment that surrounds us.
surrounds them, the onomatopoeia helps us to materialize such sounds.
But the soundscape is too complex for human language.
he can reproduce it, only through music can man find harmony between
his inner world and the external world to him.
The rural soundscape
• HI-FI system: from 'high fidelity', it is a landscape characterized by a
satisfactory sound/noise ratio, where the low level of background noise
allows to clearly perceive the individual sounds.
• LOW-FI system: from 'low fidelity', it is a landscape characterized by a
unsatisfactory sound/noise ratio, where signals are so numerous that
overlap and are no longer perceived clearly
e.g. countryside → environment with higher fidelity compared to the city

Sound archetype linked to hunting: horn (war horn or hunting horn).

The Romani used a thin curved trumpet as a signaling instrument for the
own troops→with the decline of the Roman Empire, this sound has been lost
particular.
14th century rediscovery of the brass casting technique with its bright and metallic tones:
the horn took on its definitive shape.

The soundscape of the farm is characterized by its fervor of activity.

Every animal has its own rhythm, in which sound and silence, wakefulness and
rest.

The rural soundscape was full of quiet, but two deep interruptions stood out.
acoustic: the noise of war and the noise of religion.
Sound archetype related to religious festivals: castanets, drums, and sacred relics
they were paraded and shaken vigorously in an attempt to imitate the sounds of
nature because they had a divine origin.

→SACRED NOISE: any sound or noise of strong intensity that does not
you fall into those socially prescribed ones. Originally, the consecrated noise was that of
of natural phenomena (thunder, volcanic eruptions, storms...) and it was believed that
these manifestations represented clashes between the divinities or were a
sign of the gods' anger towards men.

From the city to the metropolis

Two decisive moments have marked human history: the transition from life
from nomadic to sedentary and the transition from the countryside to the city with the revolution
industrial.
The acoustic signal of the Christian community is the church bell; the
The parish is the acoustic space delimited and circumscribed by the reach of sound.
of the bell. The bell produces a centripetal sound: it attracts towards itself the
faithful and at the same time establishes a bond between man and God. Sometimes, in the
past, it also had a centrifugal character in the attempt to drive away the
evil spirits.
→Bells = acoustic calendar (signal holidays, births, deaths, weddings and
fire).

In the East, the faithful are called to prayer by the singing of the muezzin on
the minaret and the sound of the bell is replaced by the gong.

In the 1300s, another important invention was added to the church bell: the clock.
mechanic who measured and loudly pronounced the passage of time → centripetal:
they unify and regulate the community (as well as the mill which had a social institution
at the center of the community's life.
Other characteristic sounds before the industrial revolution: mills, blacksmith worker,
sound of horse hooves and carts, of whips, the shouts of street vendors and
of the municipal crier, the street music.

Most of the most original tonics are made from the materials inherent to
each geographical area: bamboo, stone, metal, wood..
A tonic is rarely consciously perceived by those immersed in it, but they are
note when they are changed or when they disappear.

In 1864, the Metropolitan Police Act was approved, but the cries of the street vendors
they continued until the end of the century and beyond.
The first noise legislation was of a qualitative type, later it became
quantitative type.

The post-industrial soundscape

English Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) → the landscape appears for the first time
lo-fi sound is further enhanced by the subsequent electric revolution.
The industrial revolution introduced new sounds that ultimately obscured the old sounds.
of nature→new sounds: sewing machine, typewriter, rails in
cast iron, steam boat mechanical frame, telegraph, lathe (some of these
machines allowed work even at night.

Once again, noise is linked to power, and this kind of 'sacred noise'
(different from other noises for which there were legislations) becomes part of
from the profane: to have possession of the consecrated noise, it does not matter to be the producer
from the loudest noise, but rather to have permission to produce it without incurring
no censorship→SOUND IMPERIALISM: when a sound is such that it imposes itself within
of a landscape (ACOUSTIC SPACE = area in which any sound is perceivable and
audible).

The industrial revolution has another consequence: the appearance of the straight line in
sound landscape → when the body of a sound extends over time and is devoid of
modifications, its graphic reproduction corresponds to a horizontal straight line.
This profile is characteristic of machines, of trains.

The internal combustion engine, on the other hand, represents today the fundamental sound of
contemporary civilization.

The electric revolution

Before the invention of Edison's phonograph in 1877, to listen to music there was
need for a performer (phonograph: a device that works thanks to a needle that traces
the groove of the sound on a wax cylinder and transmits it in the form of an electrical impulse.
Thanks to this tool, recorded music is born and so is the phenomenon.
defined by Schafer SCHIZOPHONY (from Greek divide and sound, that is the sound is
separated from its original context.

Another invention born from the electric revolution is the radio→acousmatic listening: when
the source from which a sound is produced is not visible.
Radio has extended the reach of sound; the Nazis were the first to use radio, but
Little by little, it was used more and more to shape culture.
The radio represented the first sound wall that enclosed the individual within the
the family core itself and excluded enemies → the radio has become the landscape
 “natural” sound that excludes hostile forces from the outside.

Initially, radio broadcasts appeared as a succession of

isolated interventions, interspersed with wide areas of silence. During the 30s and 40s of
In the 1900s, the schedule began to expand until it occupied the entire day.
The radio has created a surreal soundscape.
The sound walls serve to delimit a material acoustic space,
isolate private spaces from view and serve as a screen against interferences
acoustic.

MOOZAK: term applicable to all kinds of bland musical junk

schizophrenic, especially in public places. Moozak is music that should not
being heard; the abuse of Moozak has inspired another type of sound barrier: the
white noise screen or "acoustic perfume". The sound walls hide
beneath the fiction, the authentic soundscape.

Primary unit: a "central" sound in relation to which every other vibration is measured.
Only with the electronic era is there an international tonal center.

The music, the soundscape, and the changes in perceptual habits

Music represents the best documentation we have left of the sounds of the past.
represents a guide for those studying the transformations of behavioral models and
of acoustic perception.

Music is divided into two categories:

• ABSOLUTE MUSIC: the composer shapes ideal soundscapes that live
in his imagination.
• MUSIC AS A PROGRAM: it is an imitation of the environment and its highest forms.
(sonata, quartet, symphony) are conceived for a performance in a space
closed → concert hall (substitute for outdoor life)

However, the concert hall has given rise, at the same time, to the forms of
most absolute musical expressions and the most convincing imitations of nature.
Only with the soundscapes of the romantic era does the composer color nature according to
one's own personality and one's own moods.

The devices of program music transform the real space of the hall into
concert in a garden, a pasture, a forest or a battlefield.

The sound of the flute and the hunting horn evokes the pastoral sound landscape.
The orchestra was an idealization of the aspirations of the 19th century, a model that the
magnates (or the authority) of the industry tried to imitate in the daily life of
factory → introduction of new percussion instruments, brass, and the piano.
The expansion of the orchestra continued in the 20th century, especially through
the inclusion of other percussion instruments and the gradual decline of one
distinction between music and environmental noise. The soundscape since 1913 has
ceased to be divisible into two distinct universes, the musical one and the non
musical.

The auditory space is a graphic convention (agreement, pact): it is limited on three sides by
threshold of audibility and, on the fourth side, by the threshold of tolerance. Man can perceive
sounds that range from about 20 hertz (→unit of measurement of the International System of Units
frequency) up to 15-20 kilohertz.
The growth of the intensity of Western music proceeds in parallel
to the widening of the frequency band → attempt to design new
instruments capable of bringing the tonal register to the limit of audibility.
Today, electronic music and hi-fi playback equipment have made
a complete register is available that extends from 30 to 20,000 hertz.

There is another type of listening→closed space: lacks directionality and distance.

between the source and listener who finds themselves at the center of the sound (typical of systems
domestic stereo.
but the most personal acoustic space is the one produced
from listening through headphones.

Perception
The figure is the focal point of interest; the background is the context, the framing.
general; the field is the place where the observation takes place → the figure corresponds to the
signal or sound imprint; the background to the sounds of the environment; the field is the place where
these sounds manifest themselves or the soundscape.

The belonging of a sound to the figure category or the background category depends on:
• Acculturations (acquired habits);
• From the mental and intellectual conditions of the individual (mood, interest);
• From the relationship between individual and field (it can be indigenous, random, foreign);

Sonic competence is the implicit knowledge that allows for the understanding of
sound formation modes. Some companies possess sound knowledge.
superior to others, this happens where the ear plays a more important role
as a source of information, while it is weak in the populations of western countries of
today.

The history of music offers us the widest repertoire when it comes to sounds.
from the past, the study of contrasting musical styles can help us to
understand how men listened in different times and cultures
musical styles that are different from each other.

The perspective was introduced in painting in the 15th century→the unique point of view from which
to observe a painting. Giovanni Gabrieli (Italian composer and organist) introduced
in Western music a perspective mindset → objects are lined up and
arranged according to their distance from the observer; in music, sounds are
ordered according to their dynamic emphasis within the virtual space of the landscape
sonorous → deliberate illusion that then became a habit.

The modern lo-fi soundscape (with the term low fidelity, or also lo-fi,
the contraction of the term in English low fidelity refers to a type of production
poor music compared to usual standards, namely high fidelity, also called hi-
that surrounds us is devoid of perspective. At times a single sound strikes
the ear, in others more sounds are perceived simultaneously by the ear.

• GESTURE: it is the isolated, unique, specific sound.

• FABRIC: it is the generalized aggregate. A sound fabric can be defined as the
sum of countless gestures, no longer discernible (recognizable, distinguishable).
SOUND DESIGN, SOUND AS PROJECT - Alberto Morelli
The term 'sound design' encompasses multiple meanings, but it is primarily
an attitude full of attention towards sound, understood as an element that refers back
to life.
Even the silence that refers to death is itself a sound: a "perfect sound" (quote)
Schaffer)→when a sound is produced, we have a distortion because the object that
the sound must overcome its own inertia to be put in
movement and thus causes slight imperfections in the sound that is produced
broadcast. All the sounds we hear are imperfect. For a sound to be
completely free of initial distortions should have started before the
our life should continue after our death, so as not to perceive in
without any interruption, then we could perceive it as perfect sound. But a
a sound of that kind would be perceived as SILENCE.

The vital importance of sound

Can the acoustic element build a foundation of human experience?
Studies that open a perspective on the perceptual capacity at the level of hearing.
from the fetus: B.J. Anson and colleagues (1962) demonstrate that the inner ear reaches its
adult size at the fifth week of gestation → functional for primary
communication with the mother.
The future newborn structures forms of recognition based on stimuli.
sounds that envelop him during his gestation → everything that the fetus hears
During pregnancy, they will all become potential signs of character.
quieting.

Salk (1973) → starting from the observation of paintings, noted that in 4 out of 5 cases the
mother held the baby on the left side: in this position, newborns are able to
to listen to the heartbeat of their mothers.
• Experiment on a group of mothers, some separated for 24 hours after childbirth, on
which side felt natural to them to hold the baby → Salk concluded that it was precisely the
separation influencing the mother's response (53% left side, 47% right side
destroy).
• Experiment on the calming function of the heartbeat → a group of
the infant was exposed to the spread of an abnormal heartbeat at 128
pulsations per minute; another group was not exposed to any sound.
The group exposed to the abnormal heartbeat showed an immediate increase in
crying and restlessness.

Some sounds have an ONTOGENETIC value (= they are linked to the specifics of history)
of an individual), others of a CULTURAL type (= specific to an environment in which the individual
it grows and is culturally formed). Other sounds have a UNIVERSAL character (e.g. heartbeat
cardiac, laughter and weeping, the sounds of natural elements such as water, wind, and thunder.
Benenzon (1998) calls these universals: SOUND ARCHETYPES → everyone has their own
specific sound identity (ISO) which in turn presents both common traits and
unique traits characterizing his individuality.

In the myths about genesis, the sound element is associated with the act of the birth of the world:
Schneider lists a vast inventory of mythologies concerning the genesis of the world in which
the rhythmic-sound element is foundational to the creative act; furthermore, the world
mythological from which man will take life presents suggestive references to the dimension
prenatal → the myths of human genesis refer to the plant and aquatic one:
connectable to the placenta in which the fetus lives during gestation→the myth, like the
music, evokes that universal experience that every human being has lived in their
prenatal life, an experience punctuated by the rhythms and sounds produced by the body
of the mother.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, we find the coincidence of the myth in some sound objects.
foundational and tribal roots → DEZA SANZA (instrument specific to the Lemba of Transvaa,
South Africa) represents the ancestors and allows them to
reincarnate through the dancer-mediums.
Another example is the harp-lute GINGIRU, a sacred instrument for the Dogon of Mali, in which
Foggia is represented by the Nommo (Master of Men), a creator figure of the species.
human.
It is likely that behind these founding myths there is a common experience, a
the primary mode of feeling that binds us as belonging to the specific
human.

RHYTHM: a musical piece has notes and pauses, and the interposition between one and the other denotes
rhythm, from Greekρυτμοσ.
1. In Ionic philosophy with Leucippus and Democritus, who attributed it to
meaning of form (this concept is, along with order and position, one of the
three criteria that differentiate things from each other) → for Democritus the form refers to
to the arrangement of the parts of a given object.
2. The concept of rhythm is applied by Leucippus and Herodotus to the shape of letters.
of the alphabet.
3. The lyric poets of the seventh century B.C. use the term to characterize the
individual and distinctive form of human character.
4. Plato made rhythm, understood as order in movement, a prerogative.
the word rhythm-form essentially characterizes the movements of the body
subjected to the order of even numbers in music.
5. According to Fraisse, rhythm arises from the periodic returns of simple structures or
complex (where structure refers to a specific organization of events that
for our perceptual mode they result in harmony with each other.
When a duration is short we can perceive it; beyond this limit we are
only able to evaluate it. Perception is an immediate reaction to a stimulus
present

The rhythm takes us back to the imprint of primary experience, characteristic of life.
prenatal, and on the other hand to the functioning of our nervous system→directly
involved are the thalamus and the cortical level of the brain:
• All information reaches the thalamus unconsciously, only
subsequently they reach the cortex and are perceived as
sensations and emotions.
Our auditory system is not a standalone system, but rather interacts with
other parts of the nervous system→the multisensory experience is closely connected to the
organic specificity of our perception.
Kryter→non-auditory system responses = reactions generated by the interaction of the system
auditory with three neural systems not exclusively assigned to auditory tasks:
1. THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (controls somatic responses and the state of
activation of the body
2. THE RETICULAR NERVOUS SYSTEM (involved with the activation state of the centers
higher cerebral centers of the central nervous system and with sensory stimuli
 affecting the relationship with pleasure and pain
3. THE CORTICAL AND SUBCORTICAL CENTERS OF THE BRAIN (involved in the fields
cognitive, thinking, performance, etc.

The sound permeates our existence→some sounds can affect our health
Psychophysics. The acoustic element is fundamental both for the individual and for the human species.
Acoustic hyperexcitability creates a sort of auditory narcosis.

Beyond the noise and the music

The radical change that gradually led to a comprehensive restructuring has
origin in England in the 17th century and is named the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
inverted values and lifestyles that had been in place until then, led to a progressive abandonment
of the countryside, but also to the introduction in the countryside itself of those processes
typical machining mechanics of the industry.

These new inventions introduced during the course of the eighteenth century have transformed the profile
from the sound landscape of the West → living immersed in these increasingly present sound flows
the events of hectic rhythms acoustically offered an environment that could only provoke reflection
on the new identification of Sound, Noise, and Music.
The first unmistakable sign of this change in perspective can be found in
futurist manifesto "The Art of Noises" by Luigi Russolo (1913) → necessity of new
tools that allow the sounds of contemporaneity to be integrated into
composition of the new century.
Edgar Varese paid attention to Russolo's work and his poetics, but
I see something rhetorical and naive in the futurist movement → search for one
an instrument capable of producing a continuous sound at any
height: speed and synthesis are characteristics of our time, and thus the
sound-noise-music ratio.

Erik Satie and John Cage opened music to the surrounding environment, recognizing in
the sound flow of the landscape is an element that is musical in itself:
• SATIE musically spans the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
"Musique d'Ameublemen"t (1920) reflects on the use and habit of making music in
circumstances with which music has nothing to do = necessity of a
background music with functions similar to comfort in its many forms
applications (comforting and discreetly enveloping sound flow) with the purpose
to fill silences, sometimes heavy, while simultaneously neutralizing the noise
of the road.
• CAGE multiplies this inclusive attitude → for him we can no longer isolate ourselves.
the same from the environment we are immersed in, therefore it is necessary to insert the flow
ambient sound casually in a musical performance.

4'33'' places the emphasis on the necessity of listening as it is a silent piece

the attention to listening refers to the possibility of reconnecting to Nature = continuous
flow of sounds (→ contextualize human activity in an environment that contains it).
John Cage will then begin to compose based on duration: non-musical sounds from
percussive character and environmental sounds become part of the generated sound flow
from the composition→in this way it leaves space for the entire sound universe, including the
silence, where silence refers to the sounds of the physical surroundings.
The silence, amplified in the 'silent' composition 4'33'', refers to
suspension of a will that can bend the sounds already existing by themselves
in the environment.
With Russolo, noises enter into the rhythmic-harmonic solutions of new music and
they expand the timbral possibilities → the use of CONCRETE SOUNDS and the related
the ability to control its parameters is the greatest legacy of the composer.

With Satie, the possibility of thinking of music as an object opened up.

of furniture, a sound flow not necessarily expressive, rather functional
integration in a playful and non-intellectualized way of the sounds of the surrounding environment
(a concept often misunderstood and distorted for market purposes, like Muzak)

Since Cage, it is no longer possible to think of a distinction between Sound, Music, and Noise.
It leads us to listen to what surrounds us and to find its musical meaning, shifting
the attitude from composing to listening, telling through sounds.
This inclusive attitude is linked to the thinking of Murray Schafer for the
the acoustic environment in which we live is like a vast composition
music is in perpetual evolution around us and we are directly involved in it
as listeners, authors, and performers.

Inability to listen due to NOISE POLLUTION → loss of

recognition of soundprints. Therefore silence must be thought of.
as an inclusive place: making silence to initiate an attitude of silence is
an activity recommended by Schafer for EAR CLEANING→the respect for silence is
perhaps what could allow us to listen and relate to the world
acoustic.

Elements of Acoustics
ACOUSTICS → physical and psychophysical aspects relating to the perception of sound.
Sound is a vibration (oscillatory displacement of the molecules of the medium, in this
air case). In a vacuum, the creation and propagation are absolutely impossible.
of sound because it is devoid of any effective means.
Vibration is a propagation of energy; the speed of sound propagation.
It mainly depends on the density of the medium (air at 20° = 344 m/s)→the
Temperature and pressure determine changes in speed.

An oscillation is a cyclic movement that repeats in one direction and in the opposite.
inverse; this oscillation is characterized by:
WAVELENGTH
2. FREQUENCY (measured in Hertz)

The term period (T) refers to the inverse of frequency, that is, the duration of a single
oscillation cycle.
→Fq =I/T
The lower the frequency, the deeper the sound; the higher the frequency,
the higher the pitch, the sharper the sound. The sound can be represented
graphically shows an oscillating curve on two axes, the vertical axis
the vertical represents the AMPLITUDE and the horizontal represents TIME.

In reality, sounds are the result of the interaction of different frequencies: the
the superposition of different frequencies is what is defined as HARMONICS
present in a sound stamp → components that generate the present timbral difference
in the sound universe.
• The C note of a piano is different from the C note of a violin because the
the shape of the harmonics determines the timbral difference, even though
 the frequency level would be the same note.

Volume is defined over time in the form of variable amplitude: this path is
composed of an initial zone (attack) followed by a moment where this attack
usually decays (decay), a central area (support) and finally a phase
of the closure of the sound that stops the stress (release, tail).
attack, decay, sustain, release

[Link]: beginning of the vibration that leads to sound.

2. DECAY: how the sound evolves in the moments immediately following
to the attack.
SUSTENANCE: indicates the "held" of the sound.
4. RELEASE: what happens once the sound-generating action is
ceased.

This process of variation in amplitude also occurs in the frequency domain; the
the result of the various harmonics that make up the sound will vary in amplitude and
frequency → the sound spectrum is precisely the set of amplitude, frequency, and time
(because it is thanks to it that the first two components vary).

BEAT: occurs when two extremely similar frequencies, but not quite, occur
they find themselves interacting → when a frequency starts to differentiate from another, we enter into
hit zone, or where the amplification and cancellation of sound occurs in
extremely evident precisely due to the positive and negative sum of the
where.
Continuing in this direction, the phenomenon loses prominence and we enter into what
is called CRITICAL BAND, beyond which the difference between the generating frequencies is
such that it no longer interferes in this form but results in two separate sounds to the ear.
CONSONANT/DISSONANT (following these principles of physics) → the system
tonality regulates the relationships between musical intervals precisely based on tensions and
distortions due to more or less evident dissonances and consonances present in
harmonic-melodic relationships.

The sound wave propagates linearly in all directions, decreasing its

intensity in proportion to the square of the distance, given that energy is diffused
spherically→if the wave encounters one or more obstacles, one or more can occur
reflections.
One must consider sound as a sphere that expands from the source.
A Gothic cathedral is an evident example of diffusion in all directions.
→ OMNIDIRECTIONAL REFLECTION)

Within the human audible range (20Hz – 20kHz), it is the area between 500 and 5000 Hz that
to represent the center, with particular sensitivity between 1000 and 3000 Hz.
Isophonic curves have been determined that describe the average of the
sensitivity of hearing to various frequencies → the further we move away from the range of 1000/3000
Higher power will be needed for the ear to perceive that the volume does not
change→PSYCHOACOUSTICS.
Elements of audio technology
AUDIO TECHNOLOGY → any artifact created to produce sound.

MICROPHONE: main device used for sound acquisition; the sound

the operation is generally based on a membrane that, stimulated by pressure
sonora, transmits this oscillatory movement to a circuit capable of transforming it
in electric signal.

The signal taken from the microphone is forwarded to other circuits and equipment in
degree of manipulating it according to needs.
In a Hi-fi system, the device that directly receives these signals is the amplifier.
integrated, that is a single device that encompasses the preamplification section and
power amplification → MIXER: device that collects sound sources
with preamplification function, signal manipulation, distribution and
attenuation.
1. PREAMPLIFICATION: it transforms different signals into a single format.
2. MANIPULATION: area that allows a certain degree of signal manipulation
different from the pure volume adaptation (capable of emphasizing or dampening
specific frequency bands, ways to improve sound quality.
3. DISTRIBUTION: allows sending various signals to different outputs or
reinsert them at different points of the mixer to undergo further modifications and
treatments.
4. ATTENUATION: area where the actual volume of the channel intervenes,
usually combined with a linear variable resistor (fader)

Sound manipulation also occurs through specific equipment: the

SIGNAL PROCESSORS → these can intervene on the timbre of the sound, altering it
sound spectrum, transposing its pitch, altering the phase relationships among its
components or adding effects related to the perception time (e.g. delay, reverb).
any system, hardware or software that is capable of modifying in some way
it forms the sound, it can be considered a signal processor.

Storing sound is an ancient desire → we can consider the music boxes of the 16th century
century one of the first music storage tools.
Among the analog ones, vinyl records, analog tape, and compact discs still survive.
disk, the minidisk → tape-based digital systems give way to hard disks.
Whatever the system, its function remains always that of storing.
the audio signal and return it on request, interfacing with mixers or other systems
audio management-distribution.

The diffusion is the final part of the process and consists of returning to the ear the
sound, in analog form, by stimulating the auditory system through
the creation of appropriate sound waves: P.A. (public address) →systems of
amplification and transduction systems from electrical to mechanical.
• AMPLIFICATION: necessary to provide further adjustment to
signal size so that it can drive the required speaker.
• DIFFUSION: transducer that converts an electrical signal into vibration
of air through an oscillating action that produces sound pressure in a
half.
the MEMBRANE is the most used diffuser: based on the oscillation
when provoked, the membrane moves forward or backward giving rise to the
compression-expansion of the medium and to the generation of audible sound.
 →VIBRATORS, systems that do not have a membrane and require
the contact placement of surfaces that will serve as a membrane
vibrant.

In the analog world, a channel is equivalent to a dedicated circuit path from the input.
at the exit, because mixing two channels in the same path is equivalent to merging them.
together; in the digital world the channel no longer corresponds to a physical channel, as the
bytes can flow along the same path without the fear of mixing, as long as
bring with it the address to which they must be delivered.
MONO → single channel where the recording point is monophonic.
2. STEREO A-B →recording that involves the arrangement of two oriented microphones
parallel and spaced apart from each other.
3. STEREO X-Y → two microphones placed in a crossed manner (60° or 90°) in which it simulates
a single point of recovery.
4. STEREO MS →middle-side, is based on the use of two microphones applied to the minimum.
possible distance between them.
5. DOUBLE MS → evolution of the MS system that involves the use of two MS systems.
intertwined with each other, thus having a front and a back.
6. SURROUND → pair a number of microphones equal to the number of channels that you
they want to obtain (e.g. a quadraphonic recording requires four microphones).

Space, perception, architecture

The sound universe envelops our perceptual organs continuously and uniformly; it is
fundamentally directional and allows us to identify the direction of origin
of the sound object.

Nicholas Negroponte conducted an experiment to understand the connection between sight and
audio = two identical films, viewed with identical video equipment, but with the audio
distributed in a different way→where the audio was high quality, viewers reported
that the images of the film were of better quality.
We have a synesthetic situation that combines the physical properties of hearing with the
more psychological properties of the other senses.

Theoretically, recording systems work like our ears, two

channels, where the reproduction takes place strictly adhering to this arrangement and
therefore it should be extremely faithful to the original.
The four-channel system (four microphones arranged in a cross) produces a
more realistic effect than the two→our ears allow us to
to discern the origin of each source within the sound ensemble.

If the figure of a sphere involves an infinite number of possible sound points, in reality
this applies to describe the environment around us from a very perspective of
acoustic physics (considering sound space as a sound field).
our brain is able to separate the figure from the background, to distinguish the environment from
sound subject that interests us.
1. ENVIRONMENTAL SIMULATION → similar methods to the concept of surround are applied,
that is, you surround the available space with many channels and proceed to create a
sound situation through phase differences, sound intensity ratios, the
positioning and other psychoacoustic effects.
2. POINT DISLOCATION → the choice of channels and their positioning
they imply a different method, where the system is unique and suitable only for the place in
to whom it is created.
 these two methods complement each other because they can still
to live together.

"14 Stations" by Robert Wilson → concrete construction with an eight-channel system

along the walls from which a voice recites a series of text fragments; in the center of the
a room has a well that contains a vortex of water (real) and an audio system made up of
subwoofer diffuser that emits fake sound → environmental system constituted
from the narrator's voice and point system from the well.

The sound space is a three-dimensional field and the spatialization of sound can only be
tend to recreate an adequate three-dimensional field.

"Fort Asperen Ark" by Peter Greenaway → the installation space is distributed over three floors.
circular; the sound is partially enclosed in various planes, as the walls of the river fort
they have a huge thickness, but mix freely through the communicating grates,
the open central space and the communication stairs → a single score on multiple levels.

Theatre of Italian Creativity by Gae Aulenti → circular shape with 22 diffusers

embedded at the base of the staircase structure that supports and displays the video monitors;
from these audio speakers, a soundtrack composed of numerous
audio fragments extracted from music, voices, and representative sounds of various eras
exposed in chronological order.

The participatory museum

The computer culture has changed the conditions, methods, and actors involved in
production and transmission of culture and has initiated an incredible generation of
information and knowledge → in particular, the internet is becoming a gigantic container
of widespread knowledge, expressed through multimedia and thus contamination
of written, kinetic, and sound language.
Need to create value and experience together with users through co-processes
design and participatory dynamics → ability to fit into this flow
fragmented, simultaneous information and manage it.
Indeed, in the exasperation of this flow, a contradiction arises that concerns
on one hand the extraordinary potential that new technologies have to
storage and interconnection of a large amount of images, sounds and
tests, on the other hand, introduces instability and precariousness, combined with the difficulty of
storage and search that complicates management and selection of the
memory.

We need to start from the analysis of existing and emerging technologies, and then
imagine them as vehicles of cultural relationship → museums are institutions based
on a model of linear and unidirectional communication, of transmission of the
information from an authoritative source to an uninformed and passive contact; now
they tend to experiment with the use of interactive multimedia that have
emphasized the potential of the museum as a habitat for informal learning.
The evocative and experiential components can be strengthened and
what informative decongestant, perhaps to be further explored in
most suitable spaces, such as virtual extensions online → the visitor
becomes the active protagonist of discoveries and experiences, implementing a
constant comparison of one's perception together and in relation to others
visitors.
There is a shift of attention from form to relation → it consists in moving
the attention from the object to the story around it, enhancing the contexts that surround it
environmentally rooted, representing the gestures that accompany his story,
recompose a life around it that contextualizes the find, bringing it out of its
immobile sacredness.
In this way, an exhibition can be configured in a dual dimension: one
immutable material, the other mutable and fluid immaterial.
Two dimensions that must arise from design dynamics to function
parallel and joining → we need to imagine a space that is also made up of
"immaterial" structures such as lights, sounds, images, and voices, in which matter
lightness of the virtual can be mixed with the physical to give life to one
emotional space otherwise invisible→invisible design: composed of charge
emotional and cultural to which the object is a historical witness and from the interpretations and the
dialogic relationships that are established with users.

Knowing how the audience navigates within the presented content could open
new design scenarios → imagining informational spaces that expand into the areas more
frequented and is annihilated in the less frequented.

"Briks" by Studio Azzurro → the archives of memory, displayed and presented in an exhibition
they have the ability to detect experiential metadata, that is, the marks left by
public interaction mode → this data collection makes a new one possible
organization of the mass of information derived from lived experience
collectively.

The design of interactive processes can hint at a new and

unknown creative dimension→to recall or associate content sought by users
and to memorize and give value to new information entered.
With collaborative interactivity, one could imagine a work that exists and
acquires meaning within and through the process of collaboration itself→the
creation would be based on dynamics and interaction strategies that operate on relationships
interpersonal, collective mechanisms or any other pattern of relationships.
This new horizon has primarily developed in the network: WEB 2.0
set of innovations that are both social and technological based on a strong
push for the democratization of content production (the users of
they have become the largest producers of web content in recent years.

A paradigm for sound in the contemporary museum

The transition from a museum understood as a closed space that contains objects to a museum
as an open and inclusive space, capable of narrating and promoting relationships and
interaction has seen a gradual articulation of languages borrowed from the artistic field.
The symbiotic relationship between sound, image, and environment is becoming increasingly important.

Nicholas Negroponte defines the sensitive museum as a place made up more of bits than
from atoms (atoms = tangible matter; bit = pure information) → in the sensitive museum the bit
becomes not just digital information that composes virtual audiovisual objects, but is
also information that structures a particular way of experiencing the museum itself.
The museum is no longer just an architecture to be filled with static objects, but it is a
a lively and immersive place: it becomes an active and interactive dimension in the relationship
museum-goers → bit = not only carriers of didactic information, but of a
particular way of experiencing it.
The creative, performative and playful act typical of the so-called art world merges, in
a new form, belonging to the so-called world of pedagogical and didactic action
museal→SYNESTHESIA and SYNESTHETIC united in a relationship of engagement of multiple senses
inserted in a strongly expressive and engaging context.

The immersiveness of an audiovisual installation can also affect an environment that

welcomes this same installation.
"The Theater of the Lands" at the Turin Archive → a place of history where they are
keep documents; the aim is to open the rooms to the places they were originally created.
those documents through images and sounds→distribution of the soundtrack
multichannel made of voices, environments, and musical cells that offered a lively perspective and
unusual.

The sound-image connection is taken for granted → less taken for granted is being able to
to represent, through pure sound, something that until now has been
painfully tried to describe visually.
"Gallery of Shadows" tells the depopulation of some valleys in the Cuneo region.
post-World War I (dispersion of memory, loss and fragmentation of language, of uses)
the costumes)→long articulated sound flow made of sound objects that stand out along
a corridor and they converse in parallel with a simple but visual setup
engaging.

"Wars of the '900" (same museum as the Galleries of Shadows) → series of voices, mixed with sounds of
shells and mortars, trains, fragments of musical and radio broadcasts of the time tell, in
form of spontaneous testimonies, the war experienced firsthand by the peasants
torn from their land and sent to distant borders to confront unknown enemies.
Sound testimonies collected by Nuto Revelli express feelings directly.
and the feelings, to make feel and explain.

"Symphony of Energy" → a musical composition that tells the story of the energy cycle.
starting from the condensation of water, the transformation into rain, the creation of
rigagnoli, of apogean and underground rivers → circular composition (like the cycle
described). The balance is given by the fact that everything originates with timbral coherence and
harmonious→data diffusion from a multichannel system that runs throughout its
length the space of the former hydroelectric plant of Cedegolo, while the boxes are
positioned five meters above the ground so that Symphony of Energy encompasses all the individual
situations present in the room → spatialization with the aim of moving and orienting
the visitor's attention, suggesting to him at certain moments the key points of
focusing within the pathway.

Active, interactive
TIMELINE: characteristic of interactive works/objects (beginning - development -
fine)→unlike a cyclical work that repeats infinitely without having a beginning or
fine, a NON LINEAR work does not follow a fixed development and probably does not have either
neither a beginning nor an end and can develop by branching connections infinitely (e.g. hypertext).

Interacting means primarily sharing a code (a series of shared symbols,

verbal and non-verbal language) → includes both outgoing and incoming messages.
FEEDBACK: feedback related to the communication system where the speed of
the response is the cornerstone of understanding→feedback is essential for the
sensory perception; the entire surface of the body is a large system of sensors
that warns us of every contact that occurs.
In a situation of interaction where the language is not obvious, it becomes necessary to a
element of INDUCTION in order for an action to take place by the subject.
This induction is not always clear, therefore it becomes necessary to introduce an element
that pushes the interaction in a certain direction.

Most interactive systems are for individual use (e.g. computers)

however, only in recent times do we find attention to the development of software environments
where the interaction between multiple individuals occurs with real simultaneity and whose result is not
the simple sequentiality of personal fragments as in a chat.
The interaction of a community implies that the mark left by a person
influence what you perceive or act upon a second person.

The rafts of feelings by Studio Azzurro → interactive video setting with three
sensitive tables and three audio-video diffusion systems: the tables each have their own characteristics
give a particular sign of breakage, becoming symbolic rafts on which the bodies of
mysterious castaways can find refuge → only contact with the public can offer
they have a chance of salvation.
Musical fragments, elements of sound memory narrate the tragic moment of the
drift and the possibility of a newfound landing→absolutely soundtrack
non-linear consisting of interconnectable micro-compositions according to the interaction
with the audience, thus forming a complex and variable continuum.

Interactivity plays a stimulating role in the completion of what we are witnessing,

transforming something we see into something we do → allows for greater
attention and an active role from the user.
• NET-ART or DIGITAL-COMMUNITIES propose projects created by multiple people
related to each other only by the object itself in construction → the ideation in
it is already part of interactivity.

Dialogues on sound: the acoustic space of Studio Azzurro

Studio Azzurro is a field of artistic research that expresses itself through the languages of the new
technologies. Founded in 1982 by Fabio Cirifino, Paolo Rosa, and Leonardo Sangiorgi, to whom it
Stefano Roveda, an expert in interactive systems, was added in 1995.
For more than twenty years, Studio Azzurro has investigated the poetic and expressive possibilities of these
means that have such a significant impact on relationships in this era. Through video environments,
sensitive and interactive environments, theatrical performances and films, has marked a path that
it is recognized worldwide, by numerous and important artistic events and
theatrical. The group's activities are also linked to more informative experiences such as the
design of museums and themed exhibitions of recognized cultural value.

Dialogues on Sound: Codes, Method; Conversations with Franco Donatoni

Franco Donatoni is undoubtedly one of the leading figures among composers in
international panorama of the second half of the twentieth century, with a stylistic path
extremely personal that has led it to be performed by the most important conductors
the contemporary musicians. He has always combined his activity as a composer with that
teaching, training at least three generations of composers, among whom notable names stand out today
universally recognized.
Dialogues on sound: sound visions; interview with Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway is a painter, director, screenwriter; considered one of the most significant
contemporary British filmmakers. His works range from experimental cinema to
feature films, installations, theater, painting (recently combined with some
true audiovisual works created with and about the paintings themselves of great painters of
past). The blending of theater and is equally particular.
installations, often expanded to entire buildings, where the public, actors, objects, images and
sounds share the same space in a choreography with a tight rhythm.
THE TOOLS OF COMMUNICATION – Marshall McLuhan

After the advent of electricity, our central nervous system is

technologically extended to connect us with all of humanity. This era is
characterized by the aspiration for wholeness in the awareness of depth: our
the era expresses rebellion against imposed patterns.

Chapter 1. The medium is the message

In all MEDIA, it is discovered that the content of a MEDIUM is always another medium (e.g.
written word → printing content) and that the message of a medium is in the change of
proportions, rhythms and patterns that it introduces in human relationships (e.g. railway that has
he invented neither transportation nor the wheel, but he accelerated already existing human functions.
If at first glance electric light seems devoid of content, its nature as a medium...
appears when it makes certain actions possible → they are its 'content', a
another medium.

Mechanization is a paradox → electricity makes processes immediate for us and this

immediacy is evident in CUBISM which renounces perspective illusion, showing
simultaneously all the dimensions and all the sides of the subject.
Immediacy and simultaneity indicate that the medium is the message, but before the
the speed of the electric era seemed to suggest that the message was the "content".

Tocqueville studied the grammar of the press→the typographic principles of uniformity,

of continuity and linearity to overcome the complexity of the ancient feudal society
and oral. Based on this I understood the changes that were taking place in France and America
of the nineteenth century → the printed word had made the nations homogeneous (which instead
it did not happen in England because it is linked to the oral dynamics.
America is now experiencing an internal conflict: electric technology is posing a threat
the importance given by the alphabetic culture to uniformity, exerted at every level
of social life→the effects of technology constantly alter reactions
sensory or forms of perception.
The analysis of 'content' does not explain the subliminal charge of the media → they must be taken into account.
as raw materials and society must take them adequately into account (they must not
repress or negatively influence the human psyche.
• Arnold Toynbee → concept of ETERIFICATION = principle of simplification
progressive and efficiency in any technological organization (ignore
effects of the challenge of these forms on the reactions of our senses.

Chapter 2. Hot and cold media

Warm media: radio, cinema.
Cold media: telephone, TV.
they require a different participation leading to different effects.

The MEDIUM CALDO extends a single sense to a high definition, that is, it is filled with
On the contrary, the COLD MEDIUM, in low definition, contains a small amount of
information and require a high level of participation from the receiver who must integrate the data
lacking.
• Intensity = high definition → generates specialization and fragmentation
Any experience in order to be learned/assimilated must be censored.
is reduced to a very cold condition.
Everyone has an internal Freudian censor, not so much for moral function, but
essential condition of learning → protects our central system of
values, cooling the assault of experience.

Any specialist acceleration of exchanges and information (money, wheel, writing,

etc..) ends up fragmenting tribal culture. Similarly, an acceleration
much more intense (ELECTRICITY) can restore a tribal scheme of understanding
involvement. Specialist technologies de-tribalize, such as technology
non-specialist electric re-trades.
• Kenneth Boulding: "The meaning of the message is the change that it
determine in the image" → the interest in the effect rather than the meaning is a
fundamental novelty of the electric age as it plays into the situation
total and not only at the level of information.
In fact, the less mechanized and specialized companies understand and tackle
better electric technology: we can define the backward nations
"cold", while we are "warm".

A warm medium (radio) is used in a "cold" culture with a low literacy level.
it has a greater effect when used in a society that is already 'hot' (America).
Conversely, the 'cold' medium (TV) was radically shocking for our world.
"broth" at a high level of literacy.
When we exclude all senses except one, we attempt an operation of
completion of the senses which is pure hallucination. In short, the warming of a
the only sense until taking control of the situation tends to generate hypnosis,
while the cooling of all senses leads to hallucination.

Chapter 4. The Love of Gadgets – Narcissus as Narcosis

Like the myth of Narcissus, captivated by contemplating his image in the water, humans
they are subject to the immediate charm of every extension of themselves reproduced in a material
different from that which they are made of.
numbness

Seyle and A. Jonas: all extensions are nothing but attempts at preservation.
of balance → the body 'self-amputates' when it cannot perceive the cause
of irritation.
• In the physical tension caused by any type of overstimulation, the system
The central nervous system isolates (i.e., amputates) the bothersome organ (i.e., the function) to protect itself.

The principle of AUTOAMPUTATION applies to the origins of all media of

communication when it prohibits self-recognition (e.g. wheel = extension of the feet).
With the advent of electric technology, man extends (creates outside of himself) a
living model of the central nervous system → every invention is an extension or
amputation of our body that imposes new relationships or new balances between the organs
corporate and non.
As an extension of sensory life, every medium influences
contemporaneously the entire field of the senses, and so with electrical technology the
our central nervous system becomes numb when it is extended and uncovered: it is
a defense against the excess of perceptions.
Chapter 7. Challenge and control – The nemesis of creativity
The great discovery of the 20th century is the SUSPENDED JUDGMENT TECHNIQUE (Bernard Russell)
consists of the technique of total permissiveness, extended as a mental anesthetic,
which is accompanied by a systematic elimination of full adherence to erroneous ones
judgments and the moral consequences that may arise from them.
Introducing new media into society is a surgical operation in the social body.
performed without anesthesia → even if the incision area remains numb, it will be
the entire system to change. Immunity can be found in art, the artist is in
degree of grasping the implications of science and the actions of his time, with
an integral awareness.

The most obvious psychological consequence of a new technology lies in the fact that it arises
question (no one needs a driver until there are cars).
The need to use our available senses is as persistent as breath, and it is
this leads us to keep the radio or TV almost constantly on → impulse
independent of the content of the programs (as we cannot 'turn off' our ears).
Once we hand over our senses to the manipulations of those who seek to
make a profit, we no longer have rights to it.

The capitulation of man in the West in the face of technology, with its
a crescendo of specialist questions has seemed to many observers of our time
a kind of slavery → the fragmentation that resulted from it was voluntary and
enthusiastic, unlike the deliberate specialized strategy of those who
they were reduced to captivity by a military conquest.
• According to Toynbee, periods of rapid changes produce militarism.
the empire→the expansion.
Militarism is a form of industrialism, but it is also an organization.
specialist and explosive of social energies.

Chapter 12. Clothing – The Extension of Our Skin

Clothing is an extension of our skin, but it is also a means of control.
temperature and to define the person socially. It helps to store and channel
energy. With the rise of industrialism, the upper classes adopted fabrics and lines
simpler, according to the universal alphabet and mass production → means for
define the social status of a person.
Nudity can only be a source of excitement for a visual culture that has
isolated from the audio-tactile values of less abstract and more tribal societies → there is also
a growing tendency towards the ritual exposure of the body: after centuries of "enclosure"
All skin is involved in our life.

Chapter 16. The press – How to understand it

The main feature of printing is REPEATABILITY → old prints were a
cold media and the reader was forced to participate by contemplating and interpreting the
little information offered by lines and contours.
TYPOGRAPHY: showed how to store any manual work with the
segmentation and fragmentation of a total action.
The press was welcomed as a means to impart information→incentive to the
pity and meditation.
Chapter 18. The Printed Word - Architect of Nationalism
Typography put an end to trialism: it changed the old models of culture.
The press originated nationalism, industrialism, and universal education and gave
to man the power to act without reacting -> separating thought and emotion, man
he detached from the tribal world.

Every medium is never an addition to the old; it modifies and reworks it into new forms.
(e.g. horse→car). The press pushed for correct spelling, towards the
separation of song and poetry, from the language of the common people to that of educated individuals.
• NATIONALISM: the people felt united by a common language.

Chapter 29. Cinema - The World on Reel

CINEMA: non-verbal form of experience (like photography → form of declaration
without syntax); a combination of old mechanical technology and new electrical technology,
it relates to the press for its ability to evoke fantasies in the viewer (the audience
accept as rational the sequence of images and the movements of the objective, as for
the books the linearity of the narrative).
It has the power to store and transmit a large amount of information.
Not only did it accompany the first great era of consumer goods, but it was a
incentive, a means of propaganda.

The biggest successful films were derived from novels, but the illiterate had
difficulty in enjoying it because they did not conceive of space as continuous and uniform nor
the perspective effects.
With a single frame, the film can convey more information than many pages of a
book, but it cannot compete with the depth of symbolism in literature
film, expression of the mechanism, offers the viewers dreams and illusions that it exports to
the whole world.
It is not a medium in itself, but a form of collective art to which they contribute.
various individuals, responsible for color, sound, acting and
direction.

Unlike TV, the movie requires a psychologically 'solo' attention and is

Difficult for a hot medium like cinema to accept the cold message of TV.
Changes brought by cinema in society:
• It influenced Eastern societies attracted by consumption and by products they did not have.
• "stream of consciousness" or "interior monologue" → strong identification with
characters of the novel.

Chapter 30. Radio - The Tribal Drum

Europe, less influenced by the visual organization typical of industrialism, was more
suggested by the radio regarding America. This medium deeply engages the
people and TV has transformed it from a medium of entertainment into a kind of nervous system
of information exploiting its aspect of private experience.
TV → a cold medium that rejects warm characters, burning issues and the
people imposed by the hot media.

Radio provided the first great experience of electric implosion, but only in societies
literacy → literacy originated an extreme individualism but the radio evoked a
great tribal involvement: an extension of the central nervous system to which it can
to be matched only to human speech (words in the dark take on a new
substance).
Radio is a pluralistic and decentralizing force, contrary to nationalism, like energy.
electric.

Chapter 31. Television - The shy giant

TV is the 'shy giant' because it is unsuitable for hot and controversial issues.
Being a cold medium, it repels marked personalities and finished products.
Even though it tackles sensitive topics, TV imposes a certain self-censorship.
politically correct: if the content were reheated with dramatizations,
it would work less. On the contrary, radio, being already a hot medium, emphasizes it.
the intensity would be more effective.

The influence of TV has changed all areas of human relationships, with its structures,
from art to entertainment → does not know the third dimension, which is at most
an illusion due to the scenery: the camera does not have its own angle
visual like the camera.
SYNESTHESIA→TV and radio have made it possible and exercise their effects
daily breaking down the separation of the senses caused by the
specialization and literacy.
• In the electric era, 'uniqueness' and 'diversity' clash against the values of
uniformity and social homogenization due to mechanical technology.

The low definition of TV allows the viewer to complete or finish.

the image thus participates in the inner life of the protagonist, the character, while at
Cinema and fans are interested in the reality of the actor.
A cold medium leaves much more space for the user than a hot one (high intensity,
low participation) → successful programs present a process and not a
finished product and the focus is on REACTIONS more than on ACTIONS.
does not provide linearity in the way of living (assembly lines, structures
hierarchical) and the best-selling products are not homogeneous but 'customized', they are
It affirms the 'unique piece', and this confuses the economy that is based on fixed prices.

In America, the dominant value is RESPECTABILITY, the ability to withstand

a visual inspection, but today the TV viewer is eager for tactile sensations and seeks them out.
everywhere (utilities, clothing, etc.).

Differences between visual space and mosaic space:

• SHAPE A MOSAIC → can be seen, but it is not visually structured; it is not
uniform and repetitive, but discontinuous and non-linear. It requires participation and
involvement.
TV has such an engaging power that it creates participation phenomena.
collective in the population similar to ritual processes.

Chapter 33. Automation - Learning a Way of Life

While in the mechanical era of fragmented free time there was a lack of work,
pure idleness, in the electric age is the true opposite, because it requires the simultaneous use of
all our faculties.
AUTOMATION = INFORMATION → puts an end to jobs and disciplines
differentiate.

AUTOMAZINE→is not an extension of the principles of fragmentation and separation of

operations, but it is the invasion of the mechanical world by electric instantaneity.
Invests all units and components of the industrial and commercial process and brings
a true mass production, not in terms of size but of an embrace
simultaneous and all-encompassing. Such is also the nature of mass media, a definition that
it does not refer to the size of their audience, but to the fact that everyone finds themselves there
simultaneously involved.
Influenza not only production but every phase of consumption and trading.

Electric technology extends the instantaneous process of knowledge through a

relationship between its components similar to that which has always been ongoing within our
central nervous system.
Men have returned to being gatherers, no longer of food, but of information, with
decentralization schemes and interdependence relationships.