Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Music

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This dissertation explores the concept of atmosphere and why it becomes perceptible at the junction of body, space, and sound. A phenomenological framework in architectural discourse is articulated, in which atmosphere is investigated as a shared, in-between condition realized through embodied audition. Through the concepts of attunement, aura, performance, uncanniness, and intervention, the research investigates how atmospheres are shaped by perception and reorganize the senses. Within this framework, this study investigates how spatial audio technologies alter the concept of acousmatic space and how acousmatic place emerges through consistent relationships between perceptions and the body's tacit knowledge.

Using the architectural discourse, this research investigates the limitations of unit-sphere approaches in spatial audio technology that privilege the sweet spot and introduce a distinction between non-holophony and holophony. It investigates Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) as a distinct holophonic system that reconstructs sound fields that remain stable under listener movement, rather than producing cue-based spatial images optimized for a fixed listening position. To evaluate these claims in practice, AURA, a 192-channel loudspeaker array, was designed and constructed alongside the research. To control the array, a dedicated WFS authoring and rendering tool --- PanWFS --- was developed to place, move, and control virtual point sources for field-based reproduction. Implemented together, AURA and PanWFS demonstrate room-scale wave-field reconstruction that supports stable parallax and shared localization for multiple listeners moving within the listening region, within the array’s aperture and bandwidth constraints.

This account of atmosphere extends to virtual and extended reality. It distinguishes hyperreal and simulacral scenes, and proposes design guidelines for reality to maintain legibility, preserve shared horizons, and use synthesis to reveal architectural affordances rather than merely simulate them. The result is a cohesive framework that links the phenomenology of atmosphere to sonic practices in spatial audio and XR applications treating atmosphere as a deliberate and shareable element of architectural experience.

Date

3-17-2026

Committee Chair

Allison, Jesse

LSU Acknowledgement

1

LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment

1

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