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En av Bellman & Symfons produkter är den så kallade samtalsförstärkaren. Samtalsförstärkaren är ett hörselhjälpmedel, som genom digital signalbehandling förstärker ljudnivån samtidigt som oönskat bakgrundsljud dämpas. Via ett 3,5 mm jack på enheten kan vanliga lyssningstillbehör anslutas, såsom hörlurar och öronsnäckor. De lyssningstillbehör som Bellman & Symfon erbjuder idag är av enkel modell, och lämnar mycket att önska vad gäller ljudkvaliteten. Genom detta projektarbete har jag studerat förbättringsalternativ till dessa lyssningstillbehör, men har fokuserat främst på så kallade stetoclips. Via mjukvaran Smaart v.7 Di simulerade jag upplevd frekvensgång hos olika lyssningstillbehör. Dessa uppmätta värden kompletterade jag sedan med lyssningstester. Testresultaten ledde fram till utvecklingen av en prototypmodell. Via två olika testgrupper jämfördes prototypmodellen med de befintliga lyssningstillbehören. Testgruppernas tankar och åsikter ligger till grund för många av de slutsatser som dras i slutet av rapporten. / One of Bellman & Symfon’s products is the so–called personal amplifier. The personal amplifier is a hearing aid, which uses digital signal processing to amplify the sound level, while unwanted background noise is attenuated. Standard listening accessories, such as headphones and ear buds, can be attached to the device via a 3,5 mm jack. The accessories offered by Bellman & Symfon today are simple and doesn’t match the quality of the personal amplifier. In this project, I have examined which improvement can be made on these listening accessories, to make them better suit the needs of hearing impaired persons. My main focus has been on the so-called stetoclips, which lacks a lot of details in terms of sound quality. I have simulated perceived frequency response via the software Smaart v.7 Di, and I combined these results with the results from different listening tests. The test results lead to the development of a new prototype model. Two different test groups compared the prototype to the current models, and gave me some very useful thoughts and opinions about the project. Many of the conclusions drawn at the end of this project are based on the results from the two test groups.

Cette étude propose une histoire des pratiques qui, à Paris, entre 1946 et 1969, ont lié poésie et performance et fait de la profération leur champ d’investigation principal. À partir de l’observation des manifestations publiques d’Antonin Artaud en 1946-47, de l’irruption en ces mêmes années du mouvement lettriste à Saint-Germain-des-Prés, de l’arrivée de la Beat Generation à la fin des années 1950, et des différents événements organisés par Jean-Jacques Lebel, Jean-Clarence Lambert et Henri Chopin durant les années 1960, cette thèse analyse les pratiques qui ont agité le champ artistique durant deux décennies et préparé l’imaginaire et le terrain revendicatif de Mai 68.En reprenant le flambeau des avant-gardes du début du XXe siècle, ces expériences, traversées par le faisceau de problématiques et de propositions ouvert par Artaud après guerre, aspirent à une poésie définie comme action et cherchent à relier art, vie et politique à travers une seule et même forme d’engagement. Ouvrant plusieurs chantiers qui prennent appui sur autant de refus : celui du livre, celui du spectacle, celui du langage comme propagande politique et publicitaire, elles placent l’ « engagement physique » du poète, à la fois auteur et performeur, au centre de leurs préoccupations et mettent en place un vaste champ d’expérimentations, notamment à travers l’utilisation du magnétophone qui marque la naissance de la « poésie sonore », avec les cut-ups de Brion Gysin et William S. Burroughs, les audiopoèmes de Henri Chopin, les mégapneumes de Gil J Wolman, les crirythmes de François Dufrêne, les poèmes-partitions de Bernard Heidsieck.En retraçant les trajectoires mais aussi leur croisement et en analysant les prises de position et les différentes stratégies, ce travail observe et questionne l’émergence et l’évolution de la figure du « poète-performeur », son savoir-faire scénique et ses aspirations ; il s’attache à des pratiques – encore méconnues (voire évincées) du domaine des Études théâtrales – qui continuent à irriguer de leur inventivité la scène performative et théâtrale d’aujourd’hui. / This study examines the history of practices in Paris between 1946 and 1969 that brought poetry and performance together and made proféraction their main field of investigation. Beginning with observations on the public performances of Antonin Artaud in 1946-47, and the sudden appearance in those same years of the Lettrist movement, continuing with the arrival of the Beat Generation at the end of the 1950’s, followed by the various events organised by Jean-Jacques Lebel, Jean-Clarence Lambert and Henri Chopin in the 1960’s, this work analyses practices that stirred the world of the arts over two decades and influenced the collective imagination, sowing the seeds of the social activism of May 68.By taking up the torch of early 20th Century avant-gardistes, these endeavours, illumined by the array of questions and proposals that Artaud ignited after the war, sought to create poetry as action and to link art, life and politics in a single form of engagement.Work went forward in several fields, often based on rejection of the conventional: in regard to books, to performing arts, to language as a tool for propaganda and advertising. The “physical engagement” of the poet, both author and performer, became the centre of their preoccupations and created a wide open space for experimentation, in particular: through the use of the tape recorder, bringing about “sound poetry”, with Brion Gysin’s and William S. Burroughs’ cut-ups; Henri Chopin’s audiopoèmes; the mégapneumes of Gil J Wolman; the crirythmes of François Dufrêne; and Bernard Heidsieck’s poèmes-partitions.By marking out the different trajectories and the points where they intersect, by analysing the statements and positions and different strategies, this work observes and questions the emergence and evolution of the figure of the “poet-performer”, his theatrical skills and aspirations; it sheds new light on practices – as yet little recognized by (even banished from) the field of Theatre Studies – that continue to provide a source of innovative inspiration to the world of performance and theatre today.

This thesis examines the circulation of physical music media (78rpm records, LPs, CDs, tape) in the independent music marketplace. It is based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Austin, Texas, amongst the producers of goods for the independent marketplace, independent music stores and consumers of these goods and services. Against prevailing constructivist interpretations, I will argue for the value of authenticity as an analytical anthropological concept because it unites what my research participants value about materiality, technology, and marketplace relationships. In the independent marketplace for physical music media, authenticity is a multi-local, multi-vocal phenomenon. A nexus of economic rationales, design, reproduction-technologies, histories and personal conduct interact in an ongoing process that authenticates music commodities and their marketplace. This means that particular commodities are sought out over others on account of the multi-local authenticities they anchor. The thesis firstly demonstrates how the independent music scene safeguards claims to authentic identities by constructing an opposition to the mainstream, drawing on discourses of ethical production and consumption, sound technologies, spaces of consumption and cultural production. Secondly, I will uncover how physical music media and sound-reproduction technologies are assessed as effective providers of authentic musical reproductions according to their historical contingencies and performative material capacities. Thirdly, I develop the notion of the scene (Shank 1994) from its previously genre-fixed perspective to encompass multiple musical styles operating within a common social network of producers, retailers and collectors. The pluralistic scene I describe utilises multiple musical genres and nuanced notions of materiality and authenticity to establish their complex hierarchy of sonic and technological experiences.

Waste resulting from healthcare activities is hazardous due to its potential risk of infection to healthcare workers, waste workers and the public. Many tools and approaches have been applied in waste management in developed countries, but are not suitable for application in developing countries due to their complexity and extensive data and resource requirements. WasteOpt was therefore developed and applied as an appropriate decision-making tool in the developing country context. WasteOpt comprises of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), costing and Life cycle management (LCM). The purpose of this study was to identify environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) that minimise the risk of infection by healthcare waste (HCW) in rural clinics. Rural clinics were selected because apart from financial constraints, they are challenged by the lack of procedure, infrastructure and technologies to develop reasonable waste management plans that can be implemented within a practicable time frame. WasteOpt was applied to aid in identifying ESTs in relation to the infection risks and costs of the technologies. Experts in waste management in Lesotho were involved in a workshop for the ranking of technologies. The overall weighting values of the rankings were converted to risk factors for individual options and for alternatives (combination of options). Risk factors were classified as low, medium and high risk. The technologies within a single class were differentiated by analysing the cost of acquiring and running the technology to qualify as ESTs. The ESTs identified for Lesotho are Engineered containers, Refrigerated engineered facility, engineered wheeled transport, detailed procedures, multi chamber incinerator, engineered pit and landfill. Ten (10) clinics in Lesotho were also assessed as case studies using the WHO RAT. The RAT was first modified to include questions on financial management at the clinics. The calculated risk factors were applied to the case studies to assess the risk under which healthcare workers operate in those clinics. The additive minimum risk for the overall life cycle of waste was 4.0 (excluding central treatment and disposal). The clinic workers were found to be at a risk of between 1.1 x 10-4 and 7.8 x 10-5, which proves that rural clinics in Lesotho are still using inappropriate technologies. In terms of financing for waste management, public clinics were found to have little decision-making powers over funds and had less accountability measures. CHAL clinics which are managed by churches in Lesotho had more control of funds and exhibit more accountability. All clinics had no targets for saving funds from waste management activities. WasteOpt can be applied as a decision-making tool for HCW in Lesotho since it overcomes the barriers that inhibit environmentally sound management of HCW in developing countries. In conclusion: WasteOpt can be applied as a decision-making tool for different types of waste by replacing HCW options with respective ones and designing a relevant questionnaire for qualitative data capture. WasteOpt can then be applied in a developing country to aid sustainable waste management decision-making. Informed decision-making helps resource poor managers to select cost-effective but low-risk options, which will be sustainable in the future. / Dissertation (MSc (Environmental Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

L’art sonore et la musique apparaissent plus régulièrement dans la programmation de musées d'art depuis le tournant du 21e siècle et provoquent des transformations majeures au sein des pratiques de l'exposition. Toutefois, aucun modèle expositionnel n'a permis jusqu'à maintenant de réinvestir le sujet à partir des enjeux spécifiques au sonore, de ses technologies et de ses possibilités d'écoute, qui sont souvent négligées, ni de réévaluer intrinsèquement les limites des modèles oculocentristes qui ont orienté les discours et les pratiques des institutions muséales. Cette thèse revisite l'exposition du musée d'art, soit l'ensemble des espaces discursif et physique qui interagissent avec le lieu, en démontrant l'épuisement d'une logique rappelant les codes du white cube et de la black box, en proposant le studio de son et le concert de musique comme nouveaux modèles d'exposition, issus des modèles de production et de diffusion de l'industrie de la musique. Pour ce faire, cette recherche défend le postulat selon lequel le développement du sonore dans l'exposition est tributaire des sons enregistrés produits grâce aux technologies de reproduction et de diffusion sonores ainsi que des pratiques – individuelles et collectives – d’écoute de la sphère quotidienne. L'étude s'appuie sur une série d'expositions dévoilant différentes déclinaisons de la relation entre le discours muséal et la mise en espace selon des points d'ancrage sonores spécifiques : l'exposition d'art sonore Soundings: A Contemporary Score (2013) au Museum of Modern Art ; Ragnar Kjartansson (2015) et Anri Sala (2011) au Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal ; la musique électronique de Sonic Process (2002) au Centre Pompidou ; et finalement, la musique populaire au sein de l'exposition David Bowie Is (2013) développée par le Victoria & Albert Museum. De là, cette thèse démontre, en s'appuyant sur les théories des sound studies et de la phénoménologie de l’écoute, la manière dont le son exposé renvoie à des enjeux qui lui sont propres, à des éléments de mixage qui favorisent des régimes d'écoute au musée d'art et qui reconstruisent la posture du visiteur par l'errance. Au-delà de la dimension sensorielle, le son dans le contexte du musée d'art déplace les modèles théoriques et disciplinaires de manière à abolir les hiérarchies et à reconfigurer l'idée du musée sous l'angle de la résonance. / Sound art and music have appeared in art museum programming with increasing regularity since the turn of the 21st Century and have caused major shifts in the exhibitory practices. However, no exhibition model has so far been able to properly account for the multifarious issues raised by sound in the museum space. There has been a failure to adequately address both the technological and audible opportunities of sound and, concomitantly, an inability to re-evaluate the intrinsic limits of oculocentric models that have guided the discourses and practices of museum institutions. This thesis revisits the exhibition practices of the art museum—the set of discursive and physical spaces that interact within these locations. It demonstrates the limits of a logic built on codes reminiscent of the white cube and the black box, proposing instead the idea of the sound studio and the music concert as new exhibition models, which are related to the production and distribution models of the music industry. To do so, this research initially argues that the development of sound in an exhibition context depends on the recorded sounds of reproduction and distribution technologies as well as the practices—individual and collective—of listening in everyday. The study is based on a series of exhibitions that reveal variations in the relation between the museum discourse mapped out above and the organization of the exhibition spaces according to sound-specific pieces: the exhibition of sound art Soundings: A Contemporary Score (2013) at the Museum of Modern Art; Ragnar Kjartansson (2015) and Anri Sala (2011) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal; the electronic music of Sonic Process (2002) at the Center Pompidou; and finally, popular music in the David Bowie Is exhibition (2013) developed by the Victoria & Albert Museum. From here, the thesis will demonstrate—based on the theories derived from both sound studies and listening phenomenology—the ways in which the sound within the exhibition space raises specific issues, how mixing encourages regimes of listening in the art museum and how the visitor's posture is transformed by the possibilities of wandering through the museum space. Beyond the sensory dimension, sound in the art museum context brings about a shift in theoretical and disciplinary models; abolishing hierarchies and reconfiguring how we understand the idea of the museum from the concept of resonance.