Listening Otherwise: Playing with Sound Vibration

What does « listening otherwise » mean without ears? How to access and put into practice the vibratory domain, for persons who are either handicapped or not? The devices for “listening through touch” transmit sound signals via materials thanks to a custom-designed computer program and adapted interfaces. Henceforth, one can hear sounds through the body. Listening by touch modifies sound and space representations and thus questions perceptual standards of sound signals transmission by air. How to put the practical and technical conditions which favours a sensorial elaboration and provides access to creative practices accessible to all sensory dis/abilities? I will present several aspects of an artistic and pedagogic project which has been realized at the National Institute of Deaf Youth (in Paris). 1. LISTENING OTHERWISE The Listening otherwise sonotactile devices are the result of experience gained from many years in artistic events and educational workshops, in particular when tested during the National Institute for Deaf Youth’s project during the year 2013. Conducted in partnership with Hugues Genevois, this artistic and educational Ecoutes croisées. L’espace de la Conciergerie, une expérience d’écoute, Conciergerie, Centre des Monuments Nationaux, Arts et Médiations Humaines (Labex Arts H2H, Paris 8, Saint-Denis University 2014); Écouter Autrement, GMEA, Centre National de Création Musicale, Albi (2014) ; Museum quai Branly (2014 et 2010) ; Bibliothèque publique d’information, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2013) ; Monuments pour tous, Centre des Monuments Nationaux, Panthéon, Paris (2010) ; Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier et la couleur, CMN, Poissy (2009) ; Ausculter, écouter le son dans l’espace du couvent de La Tourette, Couvent de La Tourette, Eveux (2008), (Art&Fact production, Pascale Criton, artistic director). 2 Histoires sensibles, pedagogic project designed by Pascale Criton (Art & Fact) in partnership with Hugues Genevois (LAM). 3 Hugues Genevois is a research engineer in charge of the team Lutheries Acoustique Musique (LAM, Institut Jean-le-Rond-d’Alembert, UPMC, CNRS), Paris, France. experience, as well as technical and scientific, is identified under the label Ecouter Autrement. Conceived with the aim of acute listening, giving attention to material specificities and caring sensorial diversity of users, the sonotactile devices offer an opportunity to build new relationships with the world of sound by the controlled vibration of objects or movable sets. Acoustic studies and critical experiments we conducted were used to develop rigorous specifications that led to the design of our hardware tools, furniture and software. Figure 1. Sound Table ! Art&Fact These devices were first realised with the support of the Fondation Orange and publicly presented during the “accessibilty days,” organised by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux at the Pantheon (Paris, October 18-24 2010). Today, thanks to the support of the National Research Agency, a program of experimentation and development allows us to continue this experience of "listening through touch” and to work out the multi-sensorial potentiality of this experience through creative and pedagogic uses (individual and collective), together with improving software adapted to handicap situations. These individual and collective practices take into account the constraints and complementarities related to sensorial differences; they cater to all groups and are particularly suited to situations involving disabilities. 4 Ecouter Autrement [Listening otherwise], Pascale Criton & Hugues Genevois, Art&Fact, Paris. 5 Term used by Pascale Criton and Hugues Genevois to describe complex percepts mixing listening (air and solid conduction), and tactile sensations felt in contact with vibrating surfaces. 6 ANR PANAM (Pédagogie Artistique Numérique Accessible Multimodale), Puce Muse, LAM, Art&Fact, Eowave, Paidéia. A. Georgaki and G. Kouroupetroglou (Eds.), Proceedings ICMC|SMC|2014, 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece