Photo credit: Martin Belam licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Science Daily reports that many attempts have been made “to explain how past people experienced their wider world,” but those attempts have primarily “focused on sight at the expense of sound.” But things are changing, as “researchers from the University at Albany and the University at Buffalo have developed a tool that puts sound back into the ancient landscape.” The researchers “use[d] GIS technology to advance a largely theoretical discussion into a modeled sensory experience to explore how people may have heard their surroundings throughout an entire archaeological landscape, or soundscape.”
Science Daily writes that the “attempt to infuse character into the material world and incorporate the relationship between people and their surroundings is part of what’s called phenomenology.” Says Kristy Primeau, an archaeologist, PhD candidate, and employee at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation:
From a phenomenological perspective, the difference between a space and a place is critical. People don’t live in a vacuum and we have to look at all aspects of the lived experience.
Do click the link above to read the entire piece. It’s a fascinating topic and well worth your time.
Originally posted at Silencity.com.
