Composing entanglement: Temporal structures of audio augmented reality

Speakman, Duncan

Abstract

Through an integrated portfolio of practice and writing, this research proposes a compositional framework for audio augmented reality (AAR). In articulating the relationships between time (experiential and measurable), geospatial movement and sound it signposts how AAR might offer a critical and aesthetic response to contemporary ecocritical debate. Though focused on the specifics of the mediated soundwalk, it grapples with tensions between authorship and indeterminacy generated when designing experiences for uncontrolled environments. The tools proposed will be of relevance to practitioners and researchers across performance, sound studies, critical geography, immersive experience design and ecocriticism. The methodologies developed are applicable in investigations seeking to simultaneously capture quantitative and qualitative data from an audience’s journey through time-space within experiential artworks.

The practice element consists of two major artworks combining print, walking and mediated sound that encourage a form of eco-critical attention in the audience. The written thesis is built around three core chapters. The first establishes historical and critical contexts for the practice, situating it on a thread connecting Allan Kaprow’s performances, mobile audio experiences and concepts of time drawn from music, philosophy and critical geography. It eventually lands in the ecocritical thinking of Ursula Heise and Timothy Morton. The second chapter details the rigorous cyclic methodology used to create and analyse the practice. Key to the methodology is the application of Torsten Hägerstrand’s concept of time geography. Its use as a tool for understanding the production of creative experiences is a key contribution of this research. The third chapter presents an analysis of the practice viewed through frames of measurable time, subjective time and ecocriticism. Each one combines qualitative studies of participant experiences with quantitative data capture, imbricated with critical theory. The final section explores how the interface of spatial, sonic and temporal elements create a form of entanglement between the participant and the world, speaking to how it might feel to confront the Anthropocene.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jan 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2022
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6969144
• Award Date: Jan 11, 2022