Concert for deaf people: good vibrations
p2pnet news view Music | Cool:- A concert for deaf people?
p2pnet blogged about that in February in a post on the Emoti-Chair, a “cross-modal, audio-tactile” display chair that lets deaf or hard of hearing people to feel the vibrations of music and sound.
It was also featured in a Toronto performance in March.
Now Chris Lachine, research assistant at Ryerson University’s SMART Lab, tells us the Emoti-Chair is slated for event in October starring it and the Array Music Ensemble.
How does it work?
It’s a, “sensory-substitution technology designed to provide greater access to music for all people,” says Ryerson’s Smart Lab, explaining »»»
This is accomplished by converting sound into vibrotactile information that is displayed along the back. The basic design, referred to as the model human cochlea, presents discrete bands of frequency as independent points of vibration, allowing for spatiotemporal encoding of the incoming auditory signal.
The back is thus treated as a basilar membrane, complete with its own tonotopic map, oriented vertically so as to align with common conceptions of pitch height. When this dynamic vibrotactile information is accompanied by congruent visual information (from a performance or through music visualization), deaf listeners appear to experience structural and emotional aspects of music in a manner that resembles the experience of hearing listeners. The experience for hearing listeners is best described as immersive.
The performance, at the famous Music Gallery in Toronto on October 24, features six chairs and includes a world premiere of a work for solo percussion, composed and performed by Array Ensemble percussionist Rick Sacks, as well as three compositions closely associated with Array.
music and sound - Good vibrations concert for deaf people, February 6, 2009
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