Sounding Interiors: Daydream, Imagination, and the Auscultation of Domestic Space

Abstract

Auscultation is the process medical doctors use to listen to the interior spaces of the body with a stethoscope and by knocking and tapping on the body’s exterior. The ambiance of interior domestic spaces is not only determined by surfaces and light, but also by their aural architecture (Blesser & Salter 2007). Each room’s unique configuration of surfaces and objects colours all sounds introduced into the space in a unique way. Acoustic feedback can be used to sonically embody or actualize the normally silent resonant frequencies of any room. Auscultation of my own domestic space was achieved by creating feedback with an amplifier and microphone, and by virtually introducing recordings of music into these spaces using the digital signal processing (DSP) technique of convolution. Recordings of these sounds were the basis of my soundscape composition Resounding Reverie, which embodies and investigates the place of the imagination and reverie within the aural architecture of a domestic space.