Infrasound refers to a low-frequency sound: sound that has lower frequency, lower than the hearing range for human – which is 20 KHz. However, with enough volume, it can still be heard or felt. Hope (2009, p. 52) mentioned, “…sounds below 16Hz can be audible if there is sufficient volume.” and “a listener is more likely to become aware of other objects vibrating, feel the air from a speaker, experience physical responses…”. The difference between listening and hearing: Listening is when it triggers an activity in the brain upon hearing a sound. While hearing is when no activity is triggered in the brain. According to Hope (2009, p. 51), she mentioned “That is, listening requires a certain type of additional engagement from the brain that hearing does not.”. Infrasonic sounds can be in a form of music, where it does not need to be deafening or bold kind of music (Hope 2009, p. 52). Infrasonic music gives a unique structure to produce music through materials that cannot be seen, heard or reached (Hope 2009, p. 53). Hence, we can produce infrasonic music via various ways: creating a music that allows the listener to visualise an object or bring the listener to a different ‘place’ (Hope 2009, p. 53). A good example would be using bass as the source of sound, putting it in a hidden area in a room, playing vibrations from an earthquake. Then, the participant can enter with headphones and a blind fold. This is when the participant visualises a scenario of an earthquake in the mind – this is also a good example of listening, where a brain activity is formed.

This reading reminds us the importance of studying sound by knowing when we can use the different kinds of sounds efficiently and creatively in various ways: In films: It can help a film maker make his scenes realistic – an example would be creating catastrophic natural disasters such as earthquakes in the movie, 2012.  When we watch a film, we are constantly moved by the sound produced in the film.  Sound in movies come in various forms – music, effects or voice audio (The Los Angeles Film School 2017). These are crucial forms of sound in order to allow the audience to feel the realness in the film. Sound effects helps with this by designing soundscapes to add a meaning to what’s rolling on the screen (Pacific Cinémathèque 2012, p.1). As mentioned by Pacific Cinémathèque (2012, p.1), “For instance, high-pitched sounds, including screams or squealing tires, help to create a sense of anxiety, while low-pitched sounds, including the sounds of waves or the swinging of a door, can be used to create a sense of calm or mystery.”. Hence, the filmmaker plays with the pitch, tempo and volume to get a particular response from the audience. Infrasonic sound is frequently used in horror films, developed from novel-like descriptions (Morrow 2017). We can say that infrasonic sound has its significance and one of which is in films.

Personally, I have never heard of the term “infrasonic sound” until I was given a chance to read this text. It has helped me understand how infrasonic sound can be useful in various forms. While infrasonic sound may not be heard (understanding that it cannot be heard when played), but it can be felt physically. While doing my own research, I have also learnt that infrasonic sound can be used (when applied correctly) as ‘weapons’ in the military context (Littlefield 2016). In other words, infrasonic sound can be used aesthetically or dangerously.

One significant aspect I found important from the reading is when Hope (2019 p.56) mentioned, ‘A common description is that the music creates a “sensual” and “warm” experience in the body. In media making, whenever we want to create something, it shouldn’t be just for the sake of creating it but inducing feelings into our audience. For example, an Abe Sada performance received reviews from the audience such as “teeth chattering” and “chills” (Hope 2019 p.55).

With the emerging technologies that offer today the opportunity to capture high quality, high definition images and sound, and the editing computing technology available, offered by specialized services understanding your need, it is no excuse creating unique audio/visual works. We should not be limited to what we see but as media making professionals, research is important and that we should make use of the resources we have to create media.

References:

Hope, Cat 2009, ‘Infrasonic Music’, Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 19, pp. 51-56

The Lost Angeles Film School 2017, accessed 25 August 2019, <https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/the-importance-of-sound/>

Pacific Cinémathèque 2012, ‘The Language of Film’, inPoint, pp. 1-3

Morrow, Justin 2017, ‘The Science of Silence: Disquieting Uses of Infrasound in Movies’, No Film School, accessed 25 August 2019, < https://nofilmschool.com/2017/06/disquieting-uses-infrasound>

Littlefield, Ryan 2016, ‘The psychoacoustic effect of infrasonic, sonic and ultrasonic frequencies within non-lethal military warfare techniques.’, littlefield.co, accessed 25 August 2019, < https://littlefield.co/the-psychoacoustic-effect-of-infrasonic-sonic-and-ultrasonic-frequencies-within-non-lethal-cf05e1fd8673>

Reflection:

I used sonic elements from home because I wanted to incorporate the common things I used at home. The various elements were water from the tap, stirring my cup of tea, switching on the stove, opening and closing the lid of the boiler, my creaking door and switching on the dishwasher. These are everyday sounds I listen to when I go about my day and also the most common things I operate in a typical day. These sounds are what Michel Chion call ‘Casual Listening’ also referred as “listening to a sound in order to determine what is producing it” (Chion 2019). I wanted to add familiarity to my piece.  Each time an element is played, it triggers an area of the brain that sounds out words when the ear hears something familiar. Reseachers concluded that a brain activity happens when a sound is played (Preidt 2007).

In my final piece, I wanted to compose a music out of the recorded sounds I’ve came up with. I had made used of the effects like delay and echo. This sums up most of the edits other than using cropped out audio from the recorded sound and repetitively pasting one after another. I have done audio layering for my final piece too. I have also made used of noise reduction to have more clarity in the focused audio.

At first, I did not understand how Adobe Audition works. The first challenge was challenge was trying to level the audio in all of the tracks. I then manged to find the audio level knob on the left-hand side of the track window. The next challenge was when I struggle to apply the effects, I couldn’t apply just to one recorded audio. This might be a rookie mistake because I learnt through YouTube tutorials that when applying effects, it has to be on different tracks. Hence, I had to redo the audio piece and split them accordingly into different tracks. Finally, I had problems rectifying the ‘noise’ in the audios I have recorded – but eventually found a useful tool called the noise reduction tool.

References:

Preidt, R 2007, Brain Area Recognizes Familiar Sounds, viewed 8 August 2019 <https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/brain-area-recognizes-familiar-sounds/story?id=4509484>.

Chion, M 2019, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, Columbia University Press, New York.

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Reflection

Kurt Cobain’s Art: Sound Collage

I was looking up on YouTube and came across Kurt Cobain’s sound collage. Kurt Cobain is one hell of a gifted artist. I liked how he used various audio sources and compiled them into a collage. Examples of audio sources he used: 1) Raw recordings like someone pissing, vomiting, chattering. 2) Songs from well-known artists like Nirvana and The Beatles. The songs were carefully picked based on the mood he was going for. The whole collage gave me goosebumps for sure, simply because all the audio compiled together became like a 70s horror movie – well, at least that’s how I see it. Kurt’s work gave me some idea on the various original sources I can use. Let’s see how this works!