Conference_programme: 20.2 - Perception based models of acoustic environment

Lecture: Tracing past perceptions – soundscape as a discovery tool on Mt. Lykaion

Author(s): Jordan Pamela

Summary:
Soundscape approaches are often used predictively; assessing human responses to road traffic in one location can predict similarly planned situations elsewhere. The consistency of human hearing physiology results in the ability to specify not only what is perceived as a sharp sound, for example, but what will be perceived as a sharp sound in the future. Why then not also apply this logic looking backwards, using perceptive models of the present acoustic environment to predict past perception? \n\nBased on recent experimental fieldwork in Mt. Lykaion, Greece, this paper offers a new model for assessing the acoustic environment of historic places in order to understand the acoustic environment (and the perceptive reality) of the past. In ruin today, the sanctuary to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion hosted public athletic games and ritual practices in antiquity; present-day acoustic anomalies point to a persistent acoustic environment that may have assisted direct communication between far removed locations. To evaluate whether the sanctuary took advantage of the acoustic environment in its layout, modified impulse response tests using pure tones and human speech were employed between prominent site locations, with the received signals recorded with binaural microphones. Subsequent psychoacoustic analysis enabled comparisons such as differences between measured dB levels and perceived loudness. Relative Approach analysis also proved particularly effective by providing visual and measurable comparisons of aurally-accurate perceptions, enabling previously anecdotal impressions to be quantified and studied. \n\nThe above data collecting methodologies and analysis strategies will be discussed in detail along with their application in mapping the historic acoustic environment via contemporary information. Initial conclusions from sanctuary findings demonstrate the potential of retrospective soundscape assessment to unlock a new layer of information at any historic place where sound was once critical, no matter how large the site or how far in the past it was used.

Corresponding author

Name: Ms Pamela Jordan

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Country: Netherlands