Hearing in Numbers. Virtual Sound as Next Nature.. Presentation for 'Balance-Unbalance' March 27, 2015. Full references and transcript available. This presentation is based on experiments within The Sonic Lab, a virtual world project that involved sound design on a multi-layer sim within Second Life for teaching skills and concepts in listening, design and sound/music history and culture as they converge across time and space.

1. Balance Unbalance 2015
Water, Climate & Place
[Reimagining Environments]
1

2. Hearing in Numbers
Virtual Sound as Next Nature
Phylis Johnson, PhD
Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, IL USA
Jay Jay Jegathesan, PhD Candidate
University of Western Australia,
Australia, Perth
2

3. Sonification:
Art & Science
3
Barass & Vickers (2011) point toward an open-
ended process that includes perceptual &
ethnographical data, and perhaps speculative
theatrical representation of ecological sound and
abstract data, and most relevant to virtual world
designs those that incorporate first person avatar
immersion as exhibited in computer games and
platforms.

4. 4
Figure 2. The architecture of our real-time interactive system
follows the sensing/processing/response paradigm. (LeGroux
et al. 2007)

5. 5
Figure 9. This diagram shows the different type of
data we are dealing with during the sonification
process. (LeGroux et al. 2007)

6. The Virtual Theater
Cinema of
the Future
Morton Heilig,
1955
6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. Sound Design in Second Life
10

11. Prim – Unit of Measurement
11

12. Scripting the Prim
12

13. Welcome to Virlantis
13

14. Virlantis
14

15. Virlantis
15

16. Perceptual Placement
16

17. 17

18. 18

19. Positioning Sound
19

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23
VIRTUAL WORLD SOUND DESIGN
Sound Prim Measurement
Sound Time
Ambient Loop
Object Unit

24. 24

25. Koert van Mensvoort
25

26. 26

27. 27

28. Shopping for Virtual Sound
28
Acoustic Alchemy
in Second life

29. 29

30. Sound Objects
30

31. 31

32. SL Sound Barriers
10 second limitations per clip
Every avatar hears sound differently
Client Settings – System & Client
ISP performance
Lag
Limited Playback options
32

33. Break Sound Barriers
Hear sounds all around
No Time Limit on clips
Randomize volume - 11 Presets
Playback flexibility (day, night options)
3D placement flexibility -variable borders without
subdividing land into parcels (N, S, E, W, up,
down)
33

34. 34

35. 35

36. 36

37. 37

38. 38

39. 39
Sonic Continuum (Toward Invisibility)
 World Virtual Reality
 POV Avatar Human
 Placement Data Perceptual
 Locative Studio Field
 Purpose Archive Action
 Source Non-Present Present
 Dimensional Linear Layered
 Emotive Non-Referential Referential
 Memory Fragmented Immersive
 Medium Headphone Ear
 Sound Paths Waves
 Nature Visible Invisible

40. 40

41. Schaeffer to Schafer
41

42. Reich, Cage, & Cardiff
42

43. The Cage Museum
43

44. Imaginary Soundscape
44

45. Sonic Luggage
45

46. Across Time & Soundscapes
46

47. 47

48. The Art of Noise
48

49. Sonic Role Play
Why should we care?
How will it help, hinder?
Revisit, Reimagine, and
Speculate on What’s Next
for Sound?
49

50. Virtual Reality
Other Virtual Worlds and
Environments
Audio Avatars
50

51. Virtual Dublin
51

52. Discover Ireland
52

53. 53
John Cage

54. 54
 Sources (cited in presentation)
 Barrass, S., & Vickers, P. (2011). Sonification Design and Aesthetics. Sonification Handbook (pp. 145-171).
 Johnson, P. ( 2011), A Second Life for Sound: Crossing Sonic Paths in Virtual Worlds. Soundscape, 11 (1), 52-56.
 Kramer, G., Walker, B., Bonebright, T., Cook, P., Flowers, J. H., Miner, N. and John
Neuhoff, N. (1999). Sonification Report: Status of the Field and Research Agenda. Technical report, ICAD/NSF.
 McLuhan, M. (2005). Visual and Acoustic Space. In Christopher Cox & Daniel Warner (eds)., Audio Culture.
Readings in Modern Music, New York: Continuum, 67-72.
 Ong, W. J. (2012). Orality and Literacy: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.
 Ribeiro, F., Florencio, D., Chou, P., and Zhang, Z. (2012). Auditory Augument Reality: Object Sonification for the
Visually Impaired. MMSP Proceedings: IEEE, September.
 Sample, Ian. (2015). 'Noise pollution makes us oblivious to nature.' The Guardian Weekly, February 27.
 Schafer, R. M (2004). The Music of the Environment. In Christopher Cox & Daniel Warner (eds.), Audio Culture.
Readings in Modern Music, New York: Continuum, 29-39
 Schafer, R. Murray (1992). Music, Non-Music and the Soundscape. In John Paynter et al. (eds)., Companion to Contemporary Musical
Thought, London: Routledge, 34–45.
 The Interactive Sonification Workshop (ISON), 2013.
 van Mensvoort, Koert. (2012). Next Nature. Barcelona, Spain: Actar.
 Additional references available upon request.

55. 55