Heritage Acoustics Task Force

About

For millennia, humans have been interested in utilising and creating acoustically interesting spaces. For example, Greek amphitheatres, Romans theatres, cathedrals and even halls of parliament all took into account how sound interacted with a space’s architecture. Over the last century the field of scientific acoustics research evolved. This research was quantifiable, used to understand and improve the behaviour of musical or spoken sounds in spaces to create the best possible listening experience. 

Until recently, the acts of measuring, documenting and recreating the acoustics of spaces has been extremely difficult and expensive. However, in the past decades, costs for equipment, software and analysis tools have become lower and the field has become considerably more accessible. Researchers have a much better understanding of the way a physical space reacts to sounds produced in that space. In short, by placing a microphone(s) in specific places within a space and recording how the space responds to an impulse— a short noise burst like a balloon pop, starting pistol, etc.—one can create a model that represents how any sound will act in that space. More detailed measurements can also be made using swept sine-waves. Non-experts will have experienced a crude version of this when clapping or whistling in a space and hearing the colouration of the produced sound, the reverberation particular to that space.

Over recent years there has been a growing interest in heritage acoustics research, i.e. the act of measuring, analysing, documenting and recreating how sound reacts, or even reacted, in historically important spaces. Better research in these areas is crucial to assuring better preservation, restoration and recreation of historical spaces:

1. Preservation: documenting the acoustics of a space capturing the wholly unique intangible identity of the space.
2. Restoration: having models are essential for accurate restoration of physical spaces that are damaged or altered (for example, Notre Dame).
3. Recreation: accurate acoustic models of a space or object have the potential to be incorporated into 3D/VR/AR experiences, giving researchers and audiences, access to these spaces at a distance, and even to spaces that no longer exist.

Experiencing heritage places acoustically is essential to properly understand the nature of these places. However in the cultural heritage sector at large, there is an absence of broad research into the standing of the subject, and the needs from heritage professionals, archivists, presenters, acousticians and those working in the creative industries. That is to say, there is a lack of understanding relating to how best to standardise, store, preserve, and provide access and use of gathered data.

The purpose of this Task Force is to bring varied stakeholders together to collectively assess the current state of affairs and to identify key needs moving towards a unified approach to these preservation and presentation of acoustic heritage related metadata and content. The group would create a report detailing the who, what and where of acoustic heritage, and present recommendations on how to standardise, store, preserve, access and use the data.

Dissemination plan

Task Forces are required to publish their recommendations in sector-related journals or submit them as conference papers. They are furthermore encouraged to disseminate and promote their recommendations in additional ways, such as through (Europeana Pro) news posts, circulation to stakeholders and relevant communities, Twitter campaigns, etc. This work can be coordinated with the support of colleagues in the Europeana Foundation. This Task Force will create a final report, a webinar presentation, and a condensed news post summarising the key findings of the Task Force. 

• Pamela Jordan (University of Amsterdam),
• Aglaia Foteinou (University of York) 
• Eoin Callery (UL Irish World Academy)
• Yannick Sluyts (KU Leuven)