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Huoston Rodrigues Batista, RMIT University Vietnam, VietnamAbstract
Contemporary audio visualization technologies predominantly reduce sound to amplitude-based representations, obscuring the multidimensional complexity of timbre. This paper examines “Inside Sound,” a room-scale virtual reality installation that transforms spectral audio analysis into navigable three-dimensional space, proposing that physical locomotion through acoustic data constitutes a distinct mode of sonic knowledge. Drawing on Gibson's ecological approach to perception and theories of embodied cognition (Clark, 1997; Varela et al., 1991), this work argues that walking through constellations of spectral features (Spectral Centroid, Flux, and Spread) reconfigures the epistemological relationship between listener and sound object. Rather than passive audition, participants engage in what we term “navigational listening,” where the body becomes an instrument of timbral analysis. This paper investigates how the transposition of typically invisible acoustic properties into spatial affordances challenges conventional distinctions between listening and looking, creating what we characterize as an “inverted synesthesia.” The analysis reveals implications for sound studies, immersive experience design, and accessibility, arguing that spatial navigation offers cognitive access to sonic dimensions otherwise restricted to computational or expert musical listening.
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Conference: ACAH2026Stream: Arts - Media Arts Practices: Television
This paper is part of the ACAH2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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