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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

The aesthetic principles of soundscape in architectural design and built environment

Wang, Keda 30 September 2004 (has links)
This thesis is an attempt to establish a practical way for architectural designers to take advantage of the relationship between soundscape and architectural aesthetics. The whole study aides in providing a structural framework by which architectural designers could incorporate acoustic elements into their design, with aesthetic concerns rather than for practical purpose. The discussions of soundscape and architecture forms are organized in the order of point, line, plane and space to present my personal observations on the issue. Three graphic systems are developed based on the previous researches of soundscape to visualize the coexistence of sonic identities and visual identities in built environment and how both of them interact to create a multi-sensory experience for visitors. Among the three systems, the Soundscape Map system is particularly introduced to demonstrate some case studies where soundscape elements are successfully employed to strengthen the construction of architectural spaces and forms. The goal of this research is to open a door for architectural researchers to discover the interconnection between soundscape and architecture, with the hope that the graphic systems introduced could be useful for effective designs with soundscape concerns in built environment.
2

Validation of the Tranquillity Rating Prediction Tool (TRAPT): comparative studies in UK and Hong Kong

Watts, Gregory R., Marafa, L. 23 August 2017 (has links)
Yes / The Tranquillity Rating Prediction Tool (TRAPT) has been used to make predictions of the quality of tranquility in outdoor urban areas using two significant factors i.e. the average level of anthropogenic noise and the percentage of natural features in view. The method has a number of applications including producing tranquillity contours that can inform decisions regarding the impact of new anthropogenic noise sources or developments causing visual intrusion. The methodwas intended for use in mainly outdoor areas and yet was developed using responses from UK volunteers to video clips indoors. Because the volunteers for this study were all UK residents it was important to calibrate responses for other ethnic groups who may respond differently depending on cultural background. To address these issues further studies were performed in Hong Kong using the same video recording played back under the same conditions as the study in the UK. The HK study involved recruiting three groups i.e. residents fromHong Kong, Mainland China and a diverse group from 16 different nations. There was good agreement between all these groups with average tranquillity ratings for the different locations differing by less than one scale point in most cases. / The studywas supported by the Bradford Centre for Sustainable Environments at the University of Bradford and by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (RGC/GRF. CUHK 449612)
3

A continued musical and personal dialogue with the waves of epilepsy

Miles, Alan Douglas January 2018 (has links)
In the early hours of the morning several years ago I awoke with paramedics leaning over me. In a state of confusion, my first conscious decision was to enter my music production studio while they attempted to lead me to the ambulance. Music was important to me even in a disorientated post-ictal state (an altered state of consciousness following a seizure). Two weeks later I awoke with paramedics standing over me again. I had started to experience multiple seizures. During the previous weeks, I also experienced numerous incidents of memory loss when delivering presentations at work, feelings of being returned to the room following an absence of consciousness and suffering from temporal disorientation. I also experienced multiple episodes of déjà vu, aromas that were difficult to identify, visual distortions and waves of euphoria like momentary intoxication of an unknown origin. These experiences began to increase in frequency until my first tonic-clinic seizure. Following medical tests, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. It was a confusing period with no history of epilepsy in my family and no physiological causes could be identified. I viewed epilepsy as an overwhelming authority, it takes control of your life and asserts its power upon you, forcibly changing your reality in an instant. When I saw the EEG readouts from my tests I noticed how similar they were to sound waves. As an electronic musician, this project is being used as an artistic and cathartic opportunity to creatively transform the power of epilepsy and reassert my personal identity upon it. Symbolically reclaiming personal control and creatively transforming the psychological perception of personal power that is lost through the experience of epilepsy. Transforming it from an internal destructive force into an external and creative activity in my life. Capturing the cultural and emotional experiences of epilepsy and transforming them into cinematic electronic soundscapes using research and musical experimentation with EEG epilepsy signals. It is an existential exploration, the results will be tangible, accessible and reasonable in the transformation of the EEG epilepsy recordings from the uncontrollable unconscious into the creative conscious. This project will apply transposition, mathematics, research and creative exploration to map epilepsy EEG events into computer synthesized soundscapes, transforming the passive nature of diagnoses and treatment into a proactive and creative process. This thesis shares an individual's research and experiences of epilepsy with a community that have an interest in transforming the passive sufferer into a creatively active and articulate patient. Professor Dan Lloyd (Thomas C. Brownell) Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College states that: “It is observed that fMRI (Brain) activity is more similar to music than it is to language ... ” Lloyd D. (2011). If, as Lloyd suggests, brain activity is more like music than language then what might epilepsy be saying or possibly singing during these events? What are the audible timbres of these events? Researchers such as Wu et al, Psyche et al, Chafe and Parvizi have previously interpreted EEG data of epilepsy EEG events to aid medical research, but it is not exploring the emotional timbre of epilepsy from a patient’s perspective. The previous research derived musical notes from EEG signals to trigger MIDI instruments and modulate non-epilepsy related audio sources for medical identification purposes. This project examines the possible timbres derived directly from the EEG data to explore and creatively describe the emotional and physical experience from a patient’s perspective. This thesis presents the personal experience of epilepsy, the development of electroencephalography (EEG), the sociocultural history of epilepsy. the sonification and musification of EEG data, plus the concepts involved in the design of timbre and sound effect. For this project, a bespoke granular synthesizer called ‘The Oblique-Granizer’ (programmed with Cycling74's MAXMSP) has been constructed that employs EEG signals, converted to digital audio, to synthesize timbres that explore the description of human experience and emotions related to epilepsy. This thesis includes research that has been carried out into mathematical algorithms to generate musical notes and melodic information in electronic music compositions using EEG epilepsy seizure activity. The aim is to take back personal control by creatively transforming the EEG data and my psychological perception of epilepsy into electronic soundscapes and sonic textures through exploration of sonification and musification techniques.
4

Unwanted wanted sounds : Perception of sounds from water structures in urban soundscapes

Rådsten Ekman, Maria January 2015 (has links)
Water structures, for example, fountains, are common design elements in urban open public spaces. Their popularity is probably explained by their visual attractiveness. Less is known about how the sounds of water struc-tures influence the urban soundscape. This thesis explores the potential ef-fects of water sounds on urban soundscapes based on the character of water sounds. Three psychoacoustic studies were conducted in which listeners rated the perceptual properties of various water sounds. Study I found that water sounds had a limited ability to mask traffic noise, as the frequency composition of the sounds resulted in road-traffic noise masking fountain sounds more than the reverse. A partial loudness model of peripheral audito-ry processes overestimated the observed masking effect of water sound on road-traffic noise, and it was suggested that this was related to central pro-cesses, in particular, target/masker confusion. In Study II, water sounds of different degrees of perceived pleasantness were mixed with road-traffic noise to explore the overall effect on soundscape quality. The overall pleas-antness was increased substantially by adding a highly pleasant water sound; however, less pleasant water sounds had no effect or even reduced overall pleasantness. This result suggests that the perceptual properties of water-generated sounds should be taken into consideration in soundscape design. In Study III, this was explored by analyzing a large set of recordings of sounds of water fountains in urban open spaces. A multidimensional scaling analysis of similarity sortings of sounds revealed distinct groups of percep-tually different fountain sounds. The group of pleasant fountain sounds was characterized by relatively low loudness and high fluctuation strength and tonality, generating purling and rippling sounds. The group of unpleasant fountain sounds was characterized by high loudness and low fluctuation strength and tonality, generating a steady-state like noisy sound.. A joint result of all three studies is that sounds from water structures with a high flow rate (i.e., a large jet and basin in Study I, a waterfall in Study II, and large fountains in Study III) generating a steady-state noisy sound should be avoided in soundscape design. Instead, soundscape design might better focus on more fluctuating water sounds, which were considered more pleasant in both studies II and III. A general conclusion from this thesis is that water-generated sounds may be used to improve the soundscape, but that great care must be taken in selecting the type of water sound to use. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>
5

Phonographies : practical and theoretical explorations into composing with disembodied sound

Drever, John Levack January 2001 (has links)
This is PhD submission is both practical and theoretical. The practical element consists of nine electroacoustic compositions. The dissertation acts as a discursive accompaniment to the compositions, addressing many of the contextual and philosophical issues that have arisen during the compositional process and the perfannance of the works. It charts out discourse surrounding the different genres of electroacoustic music that the works relate to as well as examining models of work in the respective genres (i.e. sonic art, text, sound, acousmatic composition, inusique concrite and soundscape composition), and places them into a broader cultural and historical context. Chapter 2 is concerned with the impact of the advent of, and subsequent rapid development of electroacoustically mediatized sound on society and the individual. It relates a diverse mix of conjectures on disembodied sound from different fields, practices and cultures, including sonic art. Chapter3 explorest he emerging genre of soundscapec omposition. After dealing with the genre's lineage and accompanying discourse by composers of soundscape, it develops a relationship between the practice of soundscape composition and contemporary ethnographic practice and theory on ethnographic methodologies. The final section develops a soundscape compositional process with the practice of thefldneur. Chapter 4 relates the aesthetics of acousmatic music to philosophical, physiological and spiritual notions of the sublime throughout the ages. It concludes that acousmatic music has a distinct role to play in imparting sublime experiences. Chapter 5 documents and comments on those projects, which were undertaken with the following performers/ writers/ collaborators: Alaric Sumner, Alice Oswald and Tony Lopez. These projects demonstrate a number of different collaborative relationships between composer and writer and different configurations of acousmatic music and poetry
6

車掌の口、乗客の耳 : 車内放送のメディア文化史 / Conductors’ Mouths, Passengers’ Ears : Media History of Announcement in a Train

小勝, 健一 25 March 2010 (has links)
脱稿後、筆者はWebサービス「Twitter」上でアカウントを取得し、車内放送に関する情報収集・発信を行っている(http://twitter.com/shanai_hoso)。興味のある読者はアクセスされたい。 / 鉄道の車内放送をメディア史の視点から分析することを通じて、人びとの聴覚性の変容を考察することが本研究の目的である。その意義は、(1)主にラジオなどのマスメディアを対象とした従来の研究とは異なり、公共空間における「雑多な放送」の問題を扱ったこと、(2)これまで視覚的な考察が中心であった車内空間の身体性について、聴覚(視覚以外の五感)の面から分析したこと、の二点である。哲学者の中島義道は『うるさい日本の私』(1996)で、日本の街頭で流される挨拶・注意・宣伝のためのスピーカー音(例:「足元にご注意ください」)を「文化騒音(日本的騒音)」と呼び、それらが「甘え」「優しさ」「お上意識(他律性)」などの日本的な美意識に支えられていると指摘した。しかし、文化騒音に対する苦痛に立脚した中島の主張が社会的にも学術的にも看過されつづけている一方で、彼のいう「音漬け社会」化の傾向に歯止めのかかる兆しは一向に見られない。筆者は、日本(人)論以外の手法によって文化騒音問題を論じることで、中島の問題意識を継承したいと考えた。そこで本研究では、われわれが日常的に耳にする「雑多な放送」の典型である鉄道の車内放送を観察用のサンプルとして設定し、メディア史研究の立場からこれを考察した。以下、論文の構成と各章の概要を記す。第一章は序論である。上述の背景をまとめ、先行研究の整理を行った。第二章では、本研究の理論的枠組みを提示した。まず、車内空間の公共性を社会学の視点から定義した。次に、車内空間を構成するアクターを①車掌、②乗客、③車内放送機器の三つに分類した。最後に、三者の役割や関係性について論じた。第三章では、車内放送の歴史を試験導入期(1920’s~)、普及期(1950’s~)、多角化の時代(1980’s末~)の三つの時期に分けて考察した。その後、国鉄分割民営化(1987年)前後の新聞投書欄に掲載された、車内放送に関連する投書の内容比較を通じて、民営化が“口”と“耳”にどのような変化をもたらしたのかを検討した。なお考察にあたっては、オーディエンス研究に代表されるメディア論の手法はもちろん、音・声・音楽など聴覚に関する理論を幅広く参照している。第四章は結論である。研究の成果や限界、今後の課題について総括した。 / This paper aims to analyze the history of announcement in trains in Japan and show the transformation of "how to speak/vocalize" and "how to hear/listen" by referring to resources such as newspapers, magazines and books that were written by "Ear-witness" all over the country.From 1920’s to 1950’s, radio broadcasting device for in-car announcement had been equipped with trains in Japan. Since then, it has been used for multiple purposes; letting passengers know its direction, name of the next station, side of the opening doors, encouraging them to have good manners inside a car, advertising the new products of railway companies etc... At the same time, it has caused disputes among people hearing it; some appreciating its convenience and courtesy as part of the new service, and others annoyed with repetitious, monotonous, wordy buzz of speech from overhead speakers. This paper, using the methods of media studies, reveals the history of in-car announcement and establishes the steps to examine the role of "miscellaneous broadcasting” in modern society.I first argue how publicity and communication in urban traffic are constructed in terms of sociology. Secondly, I illustrate changes of orality in both speakers (conductors) and listeners (passengers) through a comparison of broadcasting contents and reactions to them between before-and-after Privatization of Japan National Railways (1987). Finally, I clarify the relationship among three actors; train conductors, passengers and in-car announcement device in order to draw changes in body techniques (acquisition of the technique of “half-listening” in particular) affected by cost-efficiency-centered, laborsaving and service-oriented way of railway management after the Privatization.This is a study of “cultural noise,” or public sound by loud speakers, which has been paid minor attention to in modern Japanese soundscape. / Hokkaido University (北海道大学) / 修士 / 国際広報メディア学
7

Stress recovery during exposure to natural sounds and environmental noise

Alvarsson, Jesper, J. January 2009 (has links)
<p>Research suggests that physiological stress reactions may be reduced by visual impressions from natural environments as compared to urban or built-up environments. The present experiment tested whether similar effects might be found by auditory stimulation. Forty university students were tested in an experiment with four consecutive recovery sessions after stressful mental arithmetic tests. The independent variables were type of sound during recovery. The sound was either a natural sound environment (sounds from water and birdsong, at 50 dBA), or three types of noisy environments (traffic noises at 50 or 80 dBA or ambient background sound at 40 dBA). The main dependent variables were physiological recovery from stress, as measured by decrease in heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL) after the stressful arithmetic test. The main result was that SCL reduction was faster during nature sounds than during the various noises. For HR, no systematic effects of experimental sounds were found. The result for SCL lends some support the hypothesis that exposure to natural sounds facilitate physiological stress recovery.</p> / Sarcade
8

Stress recovery during exposure to natural sounds and environmental noise

Alvarsson, Jesper, J. January 2009 (has links)
Research suggests that physiological stress reactions may be reduced by visual impressions from natural environments as compared to urban or built-up environments. The present experiment tested whether similar effects might be found by auditory stimulation. Forty university students were tested in an experiment with four consecutive recovery sessions after stressful mental arithmetic tests. The independent variables were type of sound during recovery. The sound was either a natural sound environment (sounds from water and birdsong, at 50 dBA), or three types of noisy environments (traffic noises at 50 or 80 dBA or ambient background sound at 40 dBA). The main dependent variables were physiological recovery from stress, as measured by decrease in heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL) after the stressful arithmetic test. The main result was that SCL reduction was faster during nature sounds than during the various noises. For HR, no systematic effects of experimental sounds were found. The result for SCL lends some support the hypothesis that exposure to natural sounds facilitate physiological stress recovery. / Sarcade
9

The role of variable oceanographic and environmental conditions on acoustic tracking effectiveness

Bedard, Jeannette 11 December 2019 (has links)
Examining fish behaviour through acoustic tracking is a technique being employed more and more. Typically, research using this method focuses on detections without fully considering the influence of both the physical and acoustic environment. Here we link the aquatic environment of Cumberland Sound with factors influencing the detection effectiveness of fish tracking equipment and found multi-path signal interference to be a major issue while seasonal variabilty had little impact. Cumberland Sound is a remote Arctic embayment, where three species of deep-water fish are currently tracked, that can be considered as two separate layers. Above the 300 m deep sill, the cold Baffin Island Current follows a geostrophic pattern, bending into the sound along the north shore, circulating before leaving along the south shore. The warm deep water is replenished from the recirculated arm of the West Greenland Current occasionally flowing over the sill and down to a stable depth. This influx of water prevents deep water hypoxia, allowing the deep-dwelling fish populations in the sound to thrive. To complement the work done in Cumberland Sound, a year-long study of the underwater soundscape of another Arctic coastal site, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, was conducted over 2015. Unlike other Arctic locations considered to date, this site was louder when covered in ice with the loudest times occurring in April. Sounds of anthropogenic origin were found to dominate the soundscape with ten times more snowmobile traffic on ice than open water boat traffic. / Graduate
10

Soundscape Evaluation on Mississippi State University Campus

Yildirim, Yalcin 13 December 2014 (has links)
The term soundscape, used for the first time at the end of 1970s, refers to the sum of the sounds that can be heard and perceived by people in a specific environment. The concept of soundscape has recently received attention in planning and design disciplines. Recent studies on soundscape have shown that the acoustic environment plays an important role for the comfort of site users. Hence, this research investigates how objective measurement of soundscape might be different from subjective perceptions of users in the Mississippi State University Campus as a public open space due to demographic and climatic variations. The public open spaces studied in the Mississippi State University Campus include four locations: the Mitchell Memorial Library, the Colvard Student Union, the Bell Island, and the Sanderson Center. These locations were evaluated through objective measurement, and subjective evaluation.

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