There is not much information on artefacts used by Stone Age humans to make sound and music – but the first comprehensive survey is a good start.
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Articles on Sounds
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With people staying in, the world around them is becoming more quiet. In one Canadian city, natural sounds are being heard more often.
The music we choose to listen to not only allows us to retreat into a place of peace and privacy, but also helps frame our daily routines and interactions with others.
The human scream – a response we share with our primate relatives – is more nuanced than you might think.
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The sounds our ancestors made are important because they teach us about spaces and behaviour and rituals of the time.
Working with bone artefacts from archaeological sites in South Africa's southern Cape region, we've been able to show that some implements might have been used for sound production in the past.
When a sound is made, it spreads. And when it hits a hard surface that is far away, it bounces back and comes back to where the sound was made. That's what we call an echo.
Sound, as a still relatively unexplored medium of urban design, provides an obvious starting point in the search for new relationships and identities in the contemporary city.
Communities have an increasing desire to be informed and included in local art, design and infrastructure projects. This has inspired new ways of dealing with noise-afflicted areas.
Unlike vision or touch, sound is much more difficult to control or avoid; music in particular spills across thresholds and intrudes into situations where it is unwelcome.
Listen to some weird space sounds and help identify crunches, whistles and other odd effects. It could help save our satellites.
From Long Range Acoustic Devices used to disperse protesters to ear-splitting military drones to songs blasted on rotation to prisoners, ours is an age in which sound has been repositioned as a tool of terror.
Your own choice of music in a restaurant, your preferred language in a cinema, and a personal tour in a museum. All are possible if you can control the sound in almost any place.
Unexpected calls to prayer from mosques in Turkey caught many off guard on the night of the attempted coup. An ethnomusicologist explains the political and social power of sound.
Shortly after Glen MacPherson started hearing strange humming noises, he created the World Hum and Database Project so people around the world could document their own experiences with the Hum.
Why do certain songs and colors make us feel a certain way?
Patterns are simple sequences that repeat over and over again in a certain order. Supporting children's ability to recognize patterns can improve mathematical skills.
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PhD Candidate, University of the Witwatersrand
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Associate Professor, University of Canberra
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Honorary Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong
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Research Fellow, School of Design, RMIT University
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Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
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Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University
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Professor of the Graduate School, University of California, Berkeley
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Assistant Professor of Research, Brown University
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Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox College
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Associate professor, University of Wollongong
