Page 81 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

children around the museum, providing informa- tion about the paintings. If to these ingredients we add binaural sound, the experience is highly realistic. The consortium Eurecat16 already makes it possible to apply 3D sound as an immersive experience in museums and is also being used in countries like Great Britain.17 Lastly, we can add movement to any pictorial or sculptural work
so that Silvia can view the story represented. Bringing a painting to life is an experience that has already been conducted in a few museums, such as the Rijksmuseum.18 But no doubt this
is more complicated, less imaginative and costlier than sound. At any rate, these initiatives can be complemented with an audio podcast about a particular painter or work analysing the characteristics of the work in greater detail or interviewing specialists. The podcast can, of course, contain dramatised scenes. Or a radio station can be set up offering complementary information or sound experiences for visitors to download in podcast format, as the radio station of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona does.19
We know that information is remembered better when image and sound complement each other
We can likewise animate a comic strip using sound. For example, the BBC20 has already created graphic novels with binaural sound. In this regard we can let our imagination fly by giving a voice and life to drawings, paintings and sculptures. Imagine if Abraham Lincoln were
to greet us when we came to his monument in Washington. An art association21 of Philadelphia has started up a similar initiative whereby users listen to a story produced by a radio station on the outdoor sculpture they are looking at. We know that information is remembered better when image and sound complement each other, and in this case sound can be a major ally.
Performing arts: theatre, dance, music, cinema
The relationship between the performing arts and orality is very clear and based on sounds
and voices. Needless to say, the theatre is the pure essence of orality, the expression of the body and the voice used to perform a story. The theatre has benefited and still benefits from the radio and podcasts in its relationship with orality. One of the channels through which many people have had access to dramatised works in the past is the radio plays which were widely broadcast
in Spain between the 1950s and 1970s (Rodero and Soengas, 2010). Back then many people without money to spend could meet to enjoy plays broadcast on the radio, as well as novels. Even today Radio Nacional de España22 still produces audio dramas. There are also indepen- dent initiatives in podcast format for listening to audio plays, such as TEAFM,23 or for attending live radio plays at La Casa Encendida24 and the performances of Audiodrama.25
Dance is perhaps further removed from the spo- ken word because it is a more visual art, though it is also affected by sound through music. Technology now makes it possible to synchronise sound with movement or to vary rhythms in accordance with this movement. Although the spoken voice is absent when the melody has
no lyrics, we might imagine a dance scene with incursions of sound and even a voice-over that explains certain concepts which are unclear without interrupting the performance. Another idea is to create a podcast for people to listen to after enjoying the performance.
Music is one of the most important elements of the language of sound. It is the one that most arouses emotions and elicits mood changes because it is processed emotionally rather than rationally (Rodero, 2015). Two functions can
be distinguished in music: music as a creative work, as an autonomous element, and the music used to accompany other cultural creations, as
a complementary element. In the first case, it
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
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Digital Trends in Culture