Preserving Human Perspectives in Cultural Heritage Acoustics: Distance Cues and Proxemics in Aural Heritage Fieldwork

We examine the praxis implications of our working definition of aural heritage: spatial acoustics as physically experienced by humans in cultural contexts; aligned with the aims of anthropological archaeology (the study of human life from materials). Here we report on human-centered acoustical data collection strategies from our project Digital Preservation and Access to Aural Heritage via a Scalable, Extensible Method, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the USA. The documentation and accurate translation of human sensory perspectives is fundamental to the ecological validity of cultural heritage fieldwork and the preservation of heritage acoustics. Auditory distance cues, which enable and constrain sonic communication, relate to proxemics, contextualized understandings of distance relationships that are fundamental to human social interactions. We propose that source-receiver locations in aural heritage measurements should be selected to represent a comprehensive range of proxemics according to site-contextualized spatial-use scenarios, and we identify and compare acoustical metrics for auditory distance cues from acoustical fieldwork we conducted using this strategy in three contrasting case-study heritage sites. This conceptual shift from architectural acoustical sampling to aural heritage sampling prioritizes culturally and physically plausible human auditory/sound-sensing perspectives and relates them to spatial proxemics as scaled architecturally.

Automated summary

This study examines the practical implications of aural heritage and reports on acoustical data collection strategies in three contrasting heritage sites. The accurate translation of human sensory perspectives is crucial for cultural heritage fieldwork, and this research proposes selecting source-receiver locations in aural heritage measurements to represent a comprehensive range of proxemics. Prioritizing culturally and physically plausible human auditory/sound-sensing perspectives, this research relates auditory distance cues to spatial proxemics as scaled architecturally.