Body, Sound and Space in Music and Beyond: Multimodal Explorations

Body and space refer to vital and interrelated dimensions in the experience of sounds and music. Sounds have an overwhelming impact on feelings of bodily presence and inform us about the space we experience. Even in situations where visual information is artificial or blurred, such as in virtual environments or certain genres of film and computer games, sounds may shape our perceptions and lead to surprising new experiences. This book discusses recent developments in a range of interdisciplinary fields, taking into account the rapidly changing ways of experiencing sounds and music, the consequences for how we engage with sonic events in daily life and the technological advancements that offer insights into state-of-the-art methods and future perspectives. Topics range from the pleasures of being locked into the beat of the music, perception–action coupling and bodily resonance, and affordances of musical instruments, to neural processing and cross-modal experiences of space and pitch. Applications of these findings are discussed for movement sonification, room acoustics, networked performance, and for the spatial coordination of movements in dance, computer gaming and interactive artistic installations.

Clemens Wöllner is Professor of Systematic Musicology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on performance, multimodal perception and the acquisition of expert skills, employing a range of interdisciplinary methods including motion capture, eye-tracking and physiological measures. He has published widely on topics related to musical conducting, perception–action coupling, human movement, imagery and attention in pianists, empathy and research reflexivity.