Essay #3

            According to Barry Blesser's and Linda-Ruth Salter's Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Aural architecture refers to the properties of a space that can be experienced by listening (Blesser and Salter, 5). In other words aural architecture is anything is a space that changes the way a listener will perceive sound. In the way that cathedrals are built to help the sounds of music reverberate off the walls or how towns have an aural architecture that arises from its natural topography and buildings. Apparently aural architecture is not always planned out and is sometimes just a coincidence. Aural architecture isn’t really a profession or practice, but rather a tool that can be used for different purposes.

            “A related kind of social grouping is the professional subculture whose members study, design, or manipulate special attributes for the purpose of creating aural experiences for others. Often these professionals do not realize they are functioning as aural architects,” (Blesser and Salter, 8). One of these subgroups is obviously cinema. Sound is important to film. Knowing how to use space to create sound is important to film.

            An aural architect, who is both an artist and a social engineer, is someone who selects specific aural attributes of a space based on what is desirable in a particular cultural framework (Blesser and Salter, 5).  An aural architect is not always a person and even when it is a person, they are not always concerned with what sounds best, but rather what looks best (ie: city planners).

            I hope to be able to use the idea of aural architecture in my future work. Both with this class and future classes.