(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
Our field; a landscape grown of natural and man-made structures, forms an omnipresent, vivid, and interactive sonic environment. This temporal field is ephemeral in nature; collected by listeners as passing moments are heard. Captured and projected field recordings can be received as the reanimation of sound into a new time and location, with ambisonics (three-dimensional 360-degree audio) capable of enhancing listener experience through the creation of digital 3D reimagined environments. Historical recreations in the form of musical compositions, sound effects/ Foley, and dialogue, can be presented as solo sounds or entire sculpted soundscapes; accessible on a personal mobile device. Locative mobile audio provides an opportunity for curated audio storytelling in the heritage sector, spatialised in an outdoor setting through GPS, 9-axis motion sensors, and headphones. Requiring minimal on-site infrastructure, mobile audio experiences are well suited to augmenting public interactions with listed, ruined and outdoor heritage sites. Other potential benefits to mobile audio experiences are their compatibility with a current/post pandemic environment, offering an opportunity for heritage sites to provide immersive public engagement for solitary or group listeners, using personal devices in low-risk outdoor settings. This paper will examine the advantages and limitations of ambisonic recording techniques for heritage-specific audio content creation, in relation to part of the compositional process of current PhD project prototyping in the outdoor urban heritage location of Brunswick Square, Brighton & Hove, UK. It will address the artefactual nature of sound, explore audio capture and replication into a heritage-specific ambisonic composition, and discuss the tangibility of this heritage work from heard composition to physical mobile presentation in our current environment.
Anna Celeste Edmonds is a sound artist, field recordist and PhD researcher at the University of Brighton, School of Media. Her research spans the areas of sound studies, digital media and technology, archaeology, heritage science and conservation. She is part of the SEAHA (Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology) EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training, working with industry partner Echoes (echoes.xyz), a geolocative audio platform, and heritage partner The Regency Town House in Brighton & Hove, UK. Her current work explores the impact of mobile locative 3D immersive audio as a tool for audience engagement in urban outdoor heritage sites; through public and archival research, sound collection, composition, and design. She previously completed an MA in Sound Arts at LCC, UAL, exploring the sonification of buildings at risk and near-ruins through ‘acoustic care-taking’; to highlight their attributes and celebrate their history within local communities. This expanded to work with mobile applications and urban outdoor heritage sites, when she began her research with SEAHA-CDT through an MRes at UCL. She is currently based in Brighton, UK.
1:45 pm - 3:15 pm
Wednesday 15th June, 2022