Sound scenography (also known as acoustic scenography) is the process of staging spaces and environments through sound. It combines expertise from the fields of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, acoustics,

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

and interaction design to convey artistic, historical, scientific, or commercial content or to establish atmospheres and moods.

Definition

Initially developed as a sub-discipline of

scenography Scenography (inclusive of scenic design, lighting design, sound design, costume design) is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography is the combination of technological and material ...

, it is now primarily used in the context of exhibitions, museums, media installations and trade fairs, as well as shops, adventure parks, spas, reception areas, and open-plan offices. Distinct from other applications in

, spatial localisation plays a central role in sound scenography. Sound in contexts such as film soundtracks has a synchronised and standardised listening experience. The sound experience should be the same for every visitor at every position (and in every cinema). Because exhibition spaces are freely traversable and show audio-visual content at various stations across the room, sound scenography aims at providing every visitor with an individual listening experience with distinct start and end points as well as a distinct progression. Thus, the dramaturgy of the sound experience is no longer determined by the timeline of the soundtrack, but by the position and movement of the visitor.

Methods of Sound Scenography

Spaces can be staged with sound in various ways. Rooms have different tonal properties and acoustics depending on their architecture and interior design. Live musicians can spread across the room or play in motion, which is especially common in spatial music. The reproduction of sounds via loudspeakers, offers a wide range of possibilities for integrating sound into spaces and is therefore the most commonly used method. In that context, sound scenography is influenced from various practices in the wider field of sound design and composition, such as

generative music Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system. Historical background In 1995 whilst working with SSEYO's Koan software (built by Tim Cole and Pete Col ...

, sonic interaction design, and sound masking. Loudspeaker systems used to distribute sound range from standard spatial audio setups to the more customised distributions common in

sound installation Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

, such as the Acousmatic Room Orchestration System. The spatial integration of sound delivered via headphones is a defining feature of interactive soundwalks. Leveraging technologies such as

geolocation Geopositioning, also known as geotracking, geolocalization, geolocating, geolocation, or geoposition fixing, is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object. Geopositioning yields a set of geographic coordinates ...

and

head tracking Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

, sounds are used to augment real environments in what the BBC's R&D department calls "Audio AR". In the more controlled environment of an exhibition, this approach has been used to create fully virtual sound environments.

Functions of Sound Scenography

Sound scenography performs many of the established functions of sound in film soundtracks. It gives emotional connotations to spaces, exhibits or even individual interactions through the use of sound. Soundscapes are used to establish atmospheres and moods with varying degrees of realism. Sound content is also used to evoke memories and associations. Soundscapes and musical accents clarify visual content or re-contextualise it. Content can also be conveyed purely sonically without accompanying visual media. Especially in connection with large-scale video projection, sound is used to direct the viewer's attention. In all these application areas, sound scenography relates the different sonic components of an exhibition to one another in order to create a coherent overall soundscape.{{cite web , last1=Scherzer , first1=Johannes , title=Sound Scenography , url=https://taucher-sound.com/Sound-Scenography-1 , website=Taucher Sound , access-date=26 April 2020

Definition

Methods of Sound Scenography

Functions of Sound Scenography

See also

References

Further reading