ABSTRACT

Aural Diversity addresses a fundamental methodological challenge in music and soundscape research by considering the nature of hearing as a spectrum of diverse experiences.

Bringing together an interdisciplinary array of contributors from the arts, humanities, and sciences, it challenges the idea of a normative listening experience and envisions how awareness of aural diversity can transform sonic arts, environments, and design and generate new creative listening practices.

With contributors from a wide range of fields including sound studies, music, hearing sciences, disability studies, acoustics, media studies, and psychology, Aural Diversity introduces a new and much-needed paradigm that is relevant to scholars, students, and practitioners engaging with sound, music, and hearing across disciplines.

chapter 1|12 pages

Aural Diversity

General Introduction

chapter 2|11 pages

Aural Diversity

A Clinical Perspective

part I|98 pages

Acoustic Environments and Soundscape

chapter 3|15 pages

Sound Before Birth

Foetal Hearing and the Auditory Environment of the Womb

chapter 4|13 pages

Phonating Hand Dryers

Exploits in Product and Environmental Acoustics, and Aural Diverse Composition and Co-Composition

chapter 5|9 pages

The Auditory Normate

Engaging Critically with Sound, Social Inclusion and Design

chapter 6|9 pages

Listening with Deafblindness

chapter 7|9 pages

Soundscapes of Code

Cochlear Implant as Soundscape Arranger

chapter 8|8 pages

chapter 9|11 pages

Autistic Listening

chapter 11|3 pages

Alphabetula

chapter 12|8 pages

Textual Hearing Aids

How Reading about Sound Can Modify Sonic Experience

part II|103 pages

Music and Musicology

chapter 13|9 pages

The Show Must Go On

Understanding the Effects of Musicianship, Noise Exposure, Cognition, and Ageing on Real-World Hearing Abilities

chapter 14|9 pages

Diverse Music Listening Experiences

Insights from the Hearing Aids for Music Project

chapter 16|8 pages

Socialising and Musicking with Mild Cognitive Impairment

A Case Study from Rural Cornwall

chapter 17|10 pages

Thomas Mace

A Hearing-Impaired Musician and Musical Thinker in the Seventeenth Century

chapter 18|9 pages

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Some Creative Approaches to Sharing and Simulating Diverse Hearing

chapter 20|10 pages

The Aural Diversity Concerts

Multimodal Performance to an Aurally Diverse Audience

chapter 21|4 pages

Music-Making in Aurally Diverse Communities

An Artist Statement

chapter 22|3 pages

Attention Reframed

A Personal Account of Hearing Loss as a Catalyst for Intermedia Practice

chapter 23|7 pages

Lost and Found

A Pianist's Hearing Journey

chapter 24|6 pages

Composing with Hearing Differences

chapter 25|3 pages

Composing ‘Weird' Music