Karmen Franinović, Stefania Serafin (eds.): Sonic Interaction Design (2013)

“Sound is an integral part of every user experience but a neglected medium in design disciplines. Design of an artifact’s sonic qualities is often limited to the shaping of functional, representational, and signaling roles of sound. The interdisciplinary field of sonic interaction design (SID) challenges these prevalent approaches by considering sound as an active medium that can enable novel sensory and social experiences through interactive technologies. This book offers an overview of the emerging SID research, discussing theories, methods, and practices, with a focus on the multisensory aspects of sonic experience.

Sonic Interaction Design gathers contributions from scholars, artists, and designers working at the intersections of fields ranging from electronic music to cognitive science. They offer both theoretical considerations of key themes and case studies of products and systems created for such contexts as mobile music, sensorimotor learning, rehabilitation, and gaming. The goal is not only to extend the existing research and pedagogical approaches to SID but also to foster domains of practice for sound designers, architects, interaction designers, media artists, product designers, and urban planners. Taken together, the chapters provide a foundation for a still-emerging field, affording a new generation of designers a fresh perspective on interactive sound as a situated and multisensory experience.”

Contributors: Federico Avanzini, Gerold Baier, Stephen Barrass, Olivier Bau, Karin Bijsterveld, Roberto Bresin, Stephen Brewster, Jeremy Coopersotck, Amalia De Gotzen, Stefano Delle Monache, Cumhur Erkut, George Essl, Karmen Franinović, Bruno L. Giordano, Antti Jylhä, Thomas Hermann, Daniel Hug, Johan Kildal, Stefan Krebs, Anatole Lecuyer, Wendy Mackay, David Merrill, Roderick Murray-Smith, Sile O’Modhrain, Pietro Polotti, Hayes Raffle, Michal Rinott, Davide Rocchesso, Antonio Rodà, Christopher Salter, Zack Settel, Stefania Serafin, Simone Spagnol, Jean Sreng, Patrick Susini, Atau Tanaka, Yon Visell, Mike Wezniewski, John Williamson.

Publisher MIT Press, 2013
ISBN 0262018683, 9780262018685
376 pages

Publisher

PDF

John M. Picker: Victorian Soundscapes (2003)

“Far from the hushed restraint we associate with the Victorians, their world pulsated with sound. This book shows how, in more ways than one, Victorians were hearing things. The representations close listeners left of their soundscapes offered new meanings for silence, music, noise, voice, and echo that constitute an important part of the Victorian legacy to us today. In chronicling the shift from Romantic to modern configurations of sound and voice, Picker draws upon literary and scientific works to recapture the sense of aural discovery figures such as Babbage, Helmholtz, Freud, Bell, and Edison shared with the likes of Dickens, George Eliot, Tennyson, Stoker, and Conrad.”

Publisher Oxford University Press, 2003
ISBN 0195151917, 9780195151916
220 pages

Publisher

PDF, PDF (updated on 2017-3-2)

R. Murray Schafer: The New Soundscape: A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher (1969)

“Overheard in the lobby after the premiere of Beethoven’s Fifth: ‘Yes, but is it music?’

Overheard in the lobby after the premiere of Wagner’s Tristan: ‘Yes, but is it music?’

Overheard in the lobby after the premiere of Stravinsky’s Sacre: ‘Yes, but is it music?’

Overheard in the lobby after the premiere of Varèse’s Poème électronique: ‘Yes, but is it music?’

A jet scrapes the sky over my head and I ask: ‘Yes, but is it music? Perhaps the pilot has mistaken his profession?’ ” (Preface)

Publisher Berandol Music Limited, Scarborough, Ontario, and Associated Music Publishers, New York, 1969
67 pages
via Charles Turner

PDF (updated to OCR’d version via John Erik Kristensen on 2016-11-11, 2 MB)