A vivid and essential memoir of deafness, disability and identity by Australian writer Fiona Murphy

A vivid and essential memoir of deafness, disability and identity by Australian writer Fiona Murphy

The Shape of sounds is a series of sound and visual art developed by synesthetic artistThe work explores how the invisible world of sound can manifest itself in visually through an overlapping of the senses.

""Reading this volume transported me back to Harvard and MIT lecture halls of the 1960s, where weekly Roman Jakobson would spellbind his audience (this reviewer included), developing his vision of language through impassioned exposition, deft and devastating allusions to critical literature, anecdotes with the force of parables, metaphors of mythic imagery, and above all else overriding verbal artistry: truly in his own phrase, 'In the poetry of grammar'. The Sound Shape of Language, his collaboration with Linda R. Waugh, a scholar who has devoted considerable attention to an exposition and el.

Body and space refer to vital and interrelated dimensions in the experience of sounds and music. Sounds have an overwhelming impact on feelings of bodily presence and inform us about the space we experience. Even in situations where visual information is artificial or blurred, such as in virtual environments or certain genres of film and computer games, sounds may shape our perceptions and lead to surprising new experiences. This book discusses recent developments in a range of interdisciplinary fields, taking into account the rapidly changing ways of experiencing sounds and music, the consequences for how we engage with sonic events in daily life and the technological advancements that offer insights into state-of-the-art methods and future perspectives. Topics range from the pleasures of being locked into the beat of the music, perception–action coupling and bodily resonance, and affordances of musical instruments, to neural processing and cross-modal experiences of space and pitch. Applications of these findings are discussed for movement sonification, room acoustics, networked performance, and for the spatial coordination of movements in dance, computer gaming and interactive artistic installations.

For the past 20 years, Victoria Meyers, a Founding Partner of hanrahanMeyers architects, has crafted an architectural and urban design practice that includes sound as an intimate aspect of the designed environment. Meyers analyses the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban soundscape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence. This sequel to Designing with Light offers new theoretical insights into sound and the spatial experience accompanied by several key case studies. These include Meyers' work with Stephen Vitiello, whose piece A Bell For Every Minute animated the New York High Line project, and her collaborations with composer and sound artist Michael Schumacher. Digital Water i-Pavilion, located opposite Ground Zero in Manhattan, has proved particularly innovative: Schumacher's score, developed especially for the building, has been etched into a glass facade which can be 'played' by the public via an app; onlookers direct their mobile phones at the glass to read and hear the music. Sound is not simply music however, and Meyers reflects upon this in her quest for an understanding of architecture as an auditory environment, through examples of buildings and materials which inspire and possess characteristic sonic properties.