{"id":254,"date":"2021-12-02T13:10:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/digitaldisabilitystudies\/?post_type=chapter&p=254"},"modified":"2022-02-28T16:38:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T21:38:54","slug":"module-6-overview","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/digitaldisabilitystudies\/chapter\/module-6-overview\/","title":{"raw":"6.2 Module Overview","rendered":"6.2 Module Overview"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction<\/span><\/h1>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]\"\"<\/a> A sunny trail through the forest. Image Source: Pixabay.<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nImagine you are traveling down your favorite nature trail with a [pb_glossary id=\"1317\"]podcast[\/pb_glossary] to keep you company. Maybe you are experiencing the rhythm and flow of spoken word poetry. Perhaps you are at a concert and you can feel the bass throughout your body. Our minds and bodies are guided by sound on a daily basis. Let\u2019s try a warm up exercise to get us thinking about sound and audio. Use the one minute essay function to describe your definition of sound.<\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"28\"]<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat sorts of things did you think about when you worked to define sound? Was it hard to define sound? Did you associate sound with particular body parts or bodily functions and abilities? There is an entire interdisciplinary field of sound studies interested in exploring what sound is, what sounds does, and how we experience sound.<\/span>\r\n

\"Background\"<\/span><\/h1>\r\nIt is useful to start our journey into audio and sound by exploring how we interact with and experience audio. Sound scholars argue that we don\u2019t experience sound with just ears and hearing. Instead, sound scholars think about the ways that sound is experienced in an embodied fashion. Steph Ceraso (2014) writes that,<\/span>\r\n
\u201cidentifying the ear as the body part that enables listening does not capture all that is involved in experiencing a sonic event. Listening is a multisensory act\" (p.102)<\/span><\/blockquote>\r\nLet\u2019s return to our earlier example of a concert to illustrate the ways sound is experienced beyond the ears. If you have ever been seated near the speaker system, you will know that the beat and vibrations of the music can be felt throughout the body. Maybe you are in-tune with a beat and think about the ups, downs, highs, and lows as a line with dips and peaks. You already know what it means to experience sound beyond ears and hearing.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn Shakin\u2019 all over\u202f: popular music and disability<\/em> (2013), George McKay draws attention to the ways disabled people are impacted by and agents of influence in the world of sound. McKay pays homage to the long list of disabled music innovators and the ways they shift the sonic environment. Yet, McKay does not stop at mere recognition of influential figures. In fact, he celebrates the ways that disability can enhance one\u2019s musical sound making capacities and points to the ways that qualities often arising from impairments, such as a so-called \u201cdamaged, imperfect, deviant, extraordinary body or voice\u201d (2013, p. 1). McKay further explores this mutual relationship between the disabled body and sound through pointing to the ways that sound itself can be disabling. One example is the loud sounds common in live music venues (p. 11). Constant exposure to loud sounds and other environmental hazards work to shape, and in some cases create, impairment for those who occupy the space. Further, McKay doesn\u2019t separate music and disability as two different fields of experience and inquiry that can be mashed together for the sake of analysis. Instead, he points to something deeper between disability and sound, arguing that, historically speaking, important developments in disability history and rights intertwine with important moments in modern music and popular culture. For example, McKay links the increase in war-related visible disabilities at the end of World War 1 and the rise in access to and popularity of music, suggesting that these two major moments of social change have influenced one another (p. 3).<\/span>\r\n\r\nNow that we have thought more deeply about what sound is and how we experience sound, we are better positioned to understand what sound does.<\/span>\r\n
\r\n

The Four Effects of Sound<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nSound scholar Julian Treasure suggests four effects of sound: <\/span>\r\n