Acoustic contextualization of sound files: auralization of theatrical phonograms based on impulse responses

• Grant number: 25/04816-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Jose Augusto Mannis
• Grantee: Paulo Assis Barbosa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/15032-4 - Sound archives of theater: implementation of a basis for research on the sound dimension in performing arts, AP.JP

Abstract

Audio resources in recorded media, inscribed in a scenic or musical narrative, are not in themselves a completed sound or musical element, as they still have to undergo various operations before being reproduced in performance, i.e. projected to the audience in theaters. The content fixed in the media is designed sonically and spatially in the sound designer's performance, covering various aspects relating to each sound or musical element: how it starts, how it ends; how it evolves, how it floats, how it varies; where it appears, where it goes, how it moves or where it is fixed. Furthermore, in sound design, all these details interact with: lines, movements of bodies or scenic elements; the dynamics of light; the attitudes of performers, etc. Stage sound design, therefore, is not limited to choosing, manipulating, defining and reproducing sound media, but also encompasses how to make this happen in the scenic space, extending throughout the complex and extensive trajectory of sound phenomena until it reaches the audience's ears. In this context, this research aims to: (1) study how these audio resources, defined and inscribed in scripts, integrate a stage performance, and (2) develop an auralization tool to simulate the phenomena of sound projection in a performance hall. To this end, we will use the rich collection of sound designer Tunica Teixeira and set up a bank of acoustic measurements of some of São Paulo's most prominent theaters, from which we will be able to hear how the sound resources kept in theater collections would sound in performance in these rooms, thus providing an unprecedented acoustic contextualization of theater soundtracks. (AU)