Use of immersive sound in a museum exhibition
Peter Coulter · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1999
Studies have shown [Schaffer, World Sound Project (1997)] that in our environment, which includes our community, traffic and motorized sounds are growing at a faster rate than nonmotorized human sounds, suggesting that because motorized sound is low-information, high-intensity, it tends to desensitize the populace and results in less social interaction. One role of museums is to preserve a balance of sounds, as a sanctuary from our environment, and explore the consequence of our motorized culture. At the Powerhouse Museum, an exhibition has opened, December 1998, entitled ‘‘Cars and Culture’’ which examines the consequence of cars. In the exhibition there is an immersive sound space that has been created using an ambisonic sound system. This soundscape is discussed. An experiment was devised where the degree of sound immersiveness was varied for a number of visitors and their reactions were measured.