The Space of Sound

May 26th, 2007 Fred McVittie

The operation of the visual sense is dependent upon the movements of the body such that the perception of an object involves not the simple passive viewing of that object but the active engagement of the muscles and motor nerves. Seeing is ‘enactive’ (Noe, Regan et al 2005)in the sense that, without movement and the kinesthetic awareness that accompanies movement, no seeing would take place. This understanding of visual perception allies it to another sensory mode, that of olfaction, which also requires that movement take place in order for it to function fully. If we smell something, typically we move our head and neck, craning to find, not the essence of the odour, but its source or its ’shape’. These features of a smell, the shape and the trail to its source, are completely real features which are completely inaccessible if we remain still and ‘let the smell come to us.’ Both vision and olfaction therefore lose part of their nature if we do not interact physically and kinesthetically with them, and the part that they lose is their presence in extended space. Without moving our own bodies through space, the objects that we see and smell are themselves evacuated of space and extension.

The acoustic sense is somewhat different however. It is possible to remain completely passive, not making any external movement of the body whatsoever, and still experience sound in a spatially extended way. Sitting quietly in a room with good music system, or an old Dansette record player, or with the TV on and children playing noisily in the garden outside. With eyes closed and only the rise and fall of breathing, the space of sound is everywhere, all around.

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