[APPLAUSE]

>> We're going to concentrate on material frame for the corporate.

The honk, of course, is the main instrument,

and is producing sound when we're looking at corporates.

The interesting about itself is that the honk is played

by different cars at different times, and so the overall sound gets complex.

But also the different honks have different tones.

So that also makes a little bit of an interesting sound.

But also one last thing is that honking, of course,

the sound of a honk usually has a function.

It alarms people that something's happening, but

it's redefined by the corporate saying we're having a party.

>> Rush hour, on the other hand,

while we can still use the same framework of material culture, and we will, so

you can think on your own about how that's at play.

Rush hour is actually a great way to understand this idea of frequency, right?

In most cities around the world, rush hour has very specific times,

that's why it's called rush hour.

In most case, it's not just one hour, it's longer than that.

But it tends to happen in morning and evening or late afternoon, right?

In the cities that have the highest level of congestion that can,

the rush hour can become three to four hours.

And then there's the cities where there's basically constant rush hour.

But in my city we'd really associated with rush hour with a twice per day event.

>> Right, Adam.

>> And as such we can analyse it in terms of sound.

>> Right, and the frequency of what, how it happens.

And of course if you're unlucky and you get stuck in one of those very

prolonged rush hour jams, then you got the traffic jam.

And we think that it's very neat to think about concurrency when

stuck in a traffic jam.

Just think for a minute,

what is it that you're listening if you're caught in a traffic jam?

You're listening to yourself.

Maybe the passenger is on a same car.

Then you go listening to the engine, probably the radio.

At the same time, you're listening the honking or

somebody is getting already stressed out.

And then eventually, in certain parts of the world,

the honking increases to become a very consorted event.

So there is several layers of things happening simultaneously

that are not related to one another.

Because the speaking, the conversation, the cars and the honking might,

don't have anything to do but they happen at the same place at the same time.

So concurrency is very innately described.

>> And as was the case with the and the body and the gestures of the body being

important also for that sound so we don't isolate sound from the rest of experience.

Of course most of us are not happy in a traffic jam, so

you have to think of all these sounds and

how your body's perceiving them in a very annoyed if not angry state of mind.

>> Exactly.

Regarding, well, not regarding the passerby but be very amused about it.

>> Right.

We now have a case study or example for a sound that in itself is actually

irrelevant, even if some of us may find it interesting.

That's not why we bring it to you.

We bring the sound of applause to you, because applause,

while we all can identify the sound of it, is only meaningful because of

the associations we have with it culturally, right?

>> Right.

>> And so, let's think a little bit more about those associations.

>> Right.

So, first of all, clapping, the action of clapping has

a function that could be considered to be group binding.

So just think about it, you might be clapping for something you agree, and

then people clapping alongside you are the same opinion of you.

But if somebody is not clapping and you're clapping,

that makes a clear distinction between you and the other.

>> And at the same time, like other group mechanisms it can be used through its

social conventions as a control mechanism.

So clapping can do that, it can,

especially loud clapping can silence- >> Right.

>> Specific groups or specific individuals in a group.

It also can be used as a mechanism of dissent,

to show dissent in a particular context, and that in itself, while it wasn't

its original social function, it can be used like that through consensus.

We're going to be talking about perspective because we have left

that one criteria a little bit aside.

But with clapping it's very, very clear, or

it's very interesting to look at it from the point of view perspective.

So think about the individual confirmation of a clapping situation,

like in a concert or whatever it is.

So clapping in the intimate can be the expression of your own opinion.

Your very private opinion.

You might agree or disagree but you're expressing your own private opinion.

>> And at the same time during the same event, if you are clapping along with

the entire audience or half of the audience, it is perhaps still your opinion

but most importantly you are expressing an agreement with that group.

You are clapping together.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> So just in that shift of perspective,

you have a shift of meaning for the same sound.

>> Right, which ties up to trying to reconsider clapping as a carrier

of meaning, and also its functionality and its variant of functionality.

>> And you could even go another level to finalize this.

Where if you had recorded clapping,

which we're actually exposed to all the time on TV and recordings of music.

But in that context, where the clapping actually happened at the live occasion,

or it was added later in the studio.

That clapping tells us that this is an important worthwhile event because there

was clapping.

>> Right, right, right, right.

>> So it becomes a signifier.

>> Right.

>> Very abstract and very global.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Sound Rules are a cultural phenomenon,

and they are global rules and there are local rules.

We're going to talk about first the global ones.

>> Each venue, space, location that we may interact with individually or

collectively comes with its own sound rules.

Whether they're told to us or

not, these are learned through behavior and imitation.

Restaurants have their own sound rules.

So does a space like this one.

>> To even here, there are some rules.

>> Were you talking to me?

>> Especially this place has very specific sound rules.

>> So hey, quiet.

>> Particularly rich area of sound rules because it's so

different across the world, and even in one place of the world that's been so

different in history is eating rules.

>> But it would be a local one.

>> Yeah. So how,

what's worth bringing out from eating rules?

>> Well, eating rules, some of us consider things to be extremely awful or

nasty, and other parts of the world those sounds are just simply all right.

There's this very old saying that if you did not burp you didn't like it,

and then of course many people would say burping after meal, [SOUND] no way.

>> What about global, this can be local rules, right?

But in terms of the global aspect of these sound rules what's a good example?

>> Well, that's those that we all agree on, like in a library, you are silent.

Even if there's not a sign saying silent, you would go around it.

And there's a tolerated amount of sound that you could produce in a library.

And this is around the world.

But then there are those that are very, very local, like, for

instance, cleaning your nose.

[NOISE] Artists of the world, clean your nose.

It's a horrible sound.

At other parts of the world not cleaning your nose and

sniffing becomes comes with this horrible sound.

>> Right.

>> The same thing with spitting and not spitting.

>> And most of the examples that we've given into those sound rules

are related to the human body, but of course this type of sound

behavior can apply to instruments, all kinds of sound producing.

>> Objects.

>> Objects, and where they're acceptable or not.

Or with what volume, or with what frequency.

>> Exactly.

>> Given to the sound rules of that space.

>> It's not only when you are in a context of a group where sound rules apply.

They're also sound rules that you may use, or

you might feel, for instance, going alone in the woods.

You're not going to be shouting out like crazy,

you probably are going to listen more than you produce.

>> [NOISE] >> But you could think of

them also as being a sound rule.

Social Conventions & Sound Rules

Art of the MOOC: Experiments with Sound

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