forum: Interview with Damian Murphy: Virtual Audio and Past Environments

Well, perhaps a fairer question, which reflects how the workshop originated, is what do virtual audio and acoustics have to offer history and heritage that goes beyond the visual domain? I attended the Methods Network Event on Theoretical Approaches to Virtual Representations of Past Environments in February 2007 and this explored how graphics, virtual reality, and 3D interactive environments were all being used to represent past environments, artefacts, landscapes etc. and what struck me (as a researcher in audio) was that the use of sound had hardly been considered. Of course sound is always the poor relation to the visual domain, but it doesn't have to be, and it has a key role to play in developing high quality, immersive, interactive virtual environments (in any application area). Additionally, our aural memory can act to provide powerful cues that enable us to experience an event in a very different way. Think of how film makers use sound to convince us that spaceships are flying over our heads, that something threatening lurks around a corner, that a narrative or dramatic climax is imminent. Sound is a rich and powerful medium in which to work, and if we want to be able to develop new virtual environments for experiencing and interacting with the past then high quality, well designed and implemented sound is a key component.

So, sound is important when developing such environments, but what happens when sound stops being the tool, but becomes the subject of the research? We must also think about the aural world we inhabit - we take so much of everyday noise for granted (think about all the legitslation in place to stop there being too much noise). How has this sonic environment changed over the many thousands of years of our evolution, and how have humans experienced and interacted with the sound of the environment around them and the sound that their environment will make? What can we learn from this and what can it tell us about ourselves? This is perhaps the fundamental question being asked in terms of our workshop on audio and acoustics and their role in history and heritage. This is reflected in the wide variety of topics that have been discussed - from the sound of neolithic chambered tombs, Greek/Roman theatres, medieaval churches, to the sounds of ancient or classic instruments, or the sounds that bear witness to the work of scientists at Jodrell Bank. Also being discussed is how the sounds particular spaces influence our interaction or peformance within them. And of course, sound can be used to make a permanent (we hope) record of specific events that might be otherwise lost forever (the classic example being the unique sound of the last castrato recorded in 1902) - this was also discussed on the day - and this in turn leads to potentially new methods for exploring the use of text - but as performed or spoken/sung or recorded, rather than on the page. So text is in there somewhere after all!