Throughout this course, I learned about the properties of sound that explain some of the feelings we have towards objects, interfaces, products among other things. To expand on this, R. Murray Schafer showed us how the overexposure to the soundscape that exists in large cities can wear us down and allow us to lose our sensitivity to sound (Schafer). In addition to this, Pierre Schaeffer showed us the similarities in audio experts’ last names… All kidding aside, he showed us how these same sounds that Schaffer was claiming are nothing more than pointless noise, can be used for music, like musique concrete (Kane 15).
I was also able to learn about how human hearing works, how we can lose it and why it is so important that we protect it even when we’re young. (Beckstead Week 1)
What I found very interesting was the content on sonic branding and UI sound design. A field that I learned expands far beyond sound design for apps, such as sound design for cars (Beckstead Week 7).
I definitely expect to apply the concepts of sound design and sonic branding in the future as that is one of the areas of audio that interests me the most. I am especially interested in how the products of the future will sound as we move into an increasingly digitized world.
The content directly related to my field of study as I came to Ryerson to learn as much about audio as I can.
I think that the overall takeaway from the course is that there is more to sound than just what we hear. There are a plethora of psychological and physiological effects and potentially consequences of abusing sound (Beckstead Week 2). Lastly, sound must be respected, which we learned about through UI sound design, if sound is neglected and rushed, it has the potential to ruin an experience with annoying, overbearing sounds (Material Design Editors).
Works Cited
Beckstead, Lori. (2020). RTA907 Week 1,7 . Presentation, Ryerson University.
Kane, Brian. Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Material Design Editors. “Applying sound to UI” Material Design Accessed April 11, 2020 from https://material.io/design/sound/applying-sound-to-ui.html#ambient-sounds
Schafer, R. Murray (1977, 1994) The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred Knopf/Randan House. Pp. 71-99
Sound Media 