David Huron
Dept. of Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication Design,
Ohio State University.
December 4, 2002
With his landmark book, The Tuning of the World (1977), composer R. Murray Schafer offered a manifesto arguging for a new sensitivity to the wealth of sounds and sound-contexts that shape everday experience. Unfortunately, musicians and acousticians have been slow to take up the challenges of industrial, public, and domestic sound design. Nothing comparable to the Bauhaus revolution in the visual arts has occurred among sound artists.
This neglect is fast waning. Deregulation of the telephone industry combined with the explosive growth of the world-wide web have resulted in a huge demands for a better understanding of the principles of sonic design. This talk identifies some of the growing areas of sound-related design, including telephone services, web audio, VoiceXML, sonificatin, sonic user interfaces, earcons, sound signals, background music, automotive and appliance design, as well as games and toys.
I address questions of what makes something sound cute, intimate, aggressive, timid, sexy, or disgusting. I will also describe mood-related attributes, and show how these attributes are used in conventional retailing and other services.