Intention

I heard about  Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)  last year when a friend played the sounds through his headphones. It made my skin crawl as I heard the sounds of the comb shifting from earbud to earbud and almost felt as if the inside of my head was being combed. The cause of the sensation is still speculative, but it is " a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or cognitive stimuli" (Wikipedia). I find the use of sound to create or observe a sense of space a very interesting topic to look into, so I wanted to see how this is used in art and in the world.

Examples in the world

HEADPHONES

Have you ever noticed that when you put your earbuds in backwards, not only is it the wrong shape in your ear, but the sound is completely different for some songs  for the left and right ears? Headphones are made to handle not only mono signals, which result in both ears hearing the exacts same sound, but stereo signals also. This results in the emphasis of the bass and the performer(s)' instruments in the left ear and the singers in the right. This produces a fuller sound than mono signals which is often the intention of the music industry because headphones and earbuds are very limited in the sound they can reproduce. Headphones help create the illusion of a bubble around the user, and the use of stereo signals help create a more in depth experience for users.

SONAR  

Sound is also used to create the illusions in 3D space through the bouncing of sound waves.  It gives not only animals such as whales and bats an idea of where things are in three dimensional space, but it also is used by oceanographers to map out the bottom of the ocean. As opposed to photographs which are able to give the exact details of the real world, sonar is only useful on a macro scale because it is able to because it can give an idea of space because of the time and angle of the reflection of sound waves.

Examples in Media/Art

Using sound as a means to experience and understand space has been a new theme in some indie games and remains as the entire concept behind the ASMR community.

 ASMR

ASMR is a fairly new phenomenon that is slowly taking rise over the internet. This community is characterized by whispering or remaining completely silent, with the viewer relaxing to the sounds. It  focuses on sound to manipulate the other senses. The people in these videos role play as many working class types so that they are more relatable as they quietly set up common scenes, such as going to the hairdresser or talking to a receptionist, using props to set up an audible scene. 

Capitalizing on the use of the Oculus Rift and ASMR, artists Max Hawkins and Robb Godshaw  collaborated with ASMR recording artist, BrittanyASMR to create an installation, ASMR NPC, for the VIA Festival in Pittsburgh. Guests lay on a bed in a spacious room inside the giant bubble in the center of the festival to enjoy a "spa" hosted by a fairy masseuse played by BrittanyASMR. 

VIDEO GAMES

Like movies, video games use music and sound effects to tell the player how to feel, but some games take it further and and use sound to help the players understand the three dimensional plane they are in, such as the horror games Dark Echo and Lurking-game which capitalize on our fear of the unknown and the understanding of space through the reflection of sound.

Reflection

I learned a lot about how just the position of sound can provide an illusion of space, even if it is going straight from my headphones to my ears. It is also interesting how sound can cause other sensations indirectly. I personally am not familiar with sound manipulation, so I know that I probably wouldn't be able to use it for my own works, but the sonar imaging is an idea I can try to illustrate.