Collateral sonics: fictive membrane

I was first invited to present a paper Collateral Sonics: Fictive Membrane by Professor Wenger at the IN3 International Scenographer’s Festival, Basel. As Basel University has a growing global reputation for its cutting edge arts (the hub of Swiss Graphics in the ‘60s} – it was an ideal platform to air this new theorem. For some time I have worked in the field of multi-space acoustics and am one of the few practitioners to design sound and imagery for Full Dome immersive experiences. There are few if any design theorems on this new and emerging media form whilst those within the discipline design to a conventional surround criteria. In conventional cinema, music embraces the fictive world of the screen, where audio and visual cues define perspective and viewpoint is fixed by imagery. In immersive vision the role of sound and imagery are reversed, sound controlling both viewpoint and spatial perception. Collateral Sonics redefines our perception of sound by placing the point of audition within a multiplicity of simultaneous acoustic spaces through an amalgam of psychoacoustics and pure physics. In evolving this work I had access to the NSC Full Dome Theatre where radical spatial concepts were field tested and assessed against a sample public. The results will ultimately inform the evolution of a lexicon for immersive sound for new arts practice and entertainment. As far as I know, this is original and pioneering research within an international context that explores the boundaries of 360 degree sound and vision and the first attempt to innovate a spatial sound language and establish a sound design theorem that addresses the perception and cognition of frameless cinema. Many of the outcomes can be seen as applied research in ‘Astronaut’ with further presentations for 2008 at Reno Interdisciplinary Conference, USA and Futuresonics UK