Aural Representation of Room Tones in Architectural Space

Abstract

Architecture is not only a visual and physical phenomenon but also an instrument that tempers and constructs our sound perceptions of the world. My recently completed PhD contains a number of projects drawing attention to the significance of what I have termed 'aural representation' as being a contribution in forming an understanding of a work of architecture and how architectural space conditions not only how we see the world but also how we hear it. My PhD asked the question 'Can sound be used to tell audience things about space that, perhaps, images cannot?' The findings from this question interact with, and extend, an internationally recognised body of scholarly work. The PhD projects led to a final project involving a substantive body of creative work to help to make the knowledge gained in the PhD more explicit. This paper will present composed music, 'aural representations' for selected spaces based on my perceptions of their spatial sound characteristics. Each individual piece of music is based on the aural characteristics of the spaces it is created for, and in some cases, within. The pieces wrap themselves around the 'room tone' of the space. This process demands that the space is 'listened' to and this paper describes different modes of listening and how this was approached in the creation of the 'aural representations'.