Swimming in space: exploring spatial sound through underwater experience

Abstract

Spatial sound is under-theorised, in terms which combine the aesthetic with the practical. Practical aspects of sound space are universalised through technologies, though these tools have a limited range of affordances, and a tendency to direct our conceptual engagement. Yet much theory is too abstract to be of pragmatic value to practitioners. This article takes the phenomenological experience of being underwater, as a means of exploring the gap between the aesthetic and practical, for spatial sound. Watery orientations can avoid habitual, terrestrial ways of engaging with phenomena, and offer medium-specific correspondences which can be helpful for those making work.