“A Typology for Listening in Place”

Paper presented at ‘Mobile Music Workshop’, Vienna, May 13-15 2008. Written in collaboration with Pedro Rebelo (SARC, UK) and Florian Hollerweger (SARC, UK).

“Sound technologies, particularly mobile and locative media technologies, can provide unique listening experiences within situations that are not themselves exclusive zones for sonic projection, meditation or exploration. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of locative sound design by presenting a framework consisting of three spatial archetypes: the Theatre, the Museum and the City. These serve as metaphors through which we can articulate different types relations between listener, sound and place. The Mobile Music Player has been chosen as an example of a listening condition that both characterizes and traverses the Theatre, the Museum and the City listening archetypes.”