We are delighted to have contributed a chapter on fetal hearing and the auditory environment inside the womb in the upcoming Aural Diversity edited by John Drever and Andrew Hugill at Routledge. It will be available from September.
We love being in a book that challenges the idea of a normative listening experience and suggests how an awareness of aural diversity can create new creative practices.
We hope you’ll let us know what you think!
We are delighted that our our article in the current issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology is freely accessible until November 14th:
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1Zo8Rgm3hHnA
Make sure you watch the video at the bottom of the page!
We are closely watching this fascinating research:
As announced in January, for our collaboration with UCL GIFT-Surg, we are looking for a brilliant research associate to work on modelling the Sonic Womb.
Here is the job description: http://www.gift-surg.ac.uk/new-research-collaboration-develop-next-generation-neonatal-incubators/
We are delighted to announce that we are collaborating with GIFT-Surg at UCL on our research to increase our understanding of the role of sound in-utero in order to create the next generation of neonatal incubators:
New Research Collaboration between GIFT-Surg and Sonic Womb Productions
This is incredibly exciting for Sonic Womb as the GIFT-Surg project, which aims to push a major development in fetal surgery through better in utero imaging and surgical tools, spans an incredible array of disciplines and technologies which Sonic Womb will be able to draw on, from modelling (the main initial focus of our collaboration), to robotics, via 3D printing (of organ mimicking tissues), smart glasses and more.
We will also be contributing an updated Sonic Womb immersive experience to GIFT-Surg’s public engagement strategy… coming to you before the end of 2017 in London!
Our very own Julian Henriques was a guest on BBC Radio London Listed Londoner. He talks about the sounds of the Notting Hill Carnival and shares his favourite London haunts:
BBC Radio London Listed Londoner with Prof. Julian Henriques (from 12′)
Philippe Mercure, the science reporter of Canada’s La Presse wrote this great article about us yesterday. Thank you Philippe!
To celebrate the success of our first presentation of the Sonic Womb Orrb at the Brain Forum two weeks ago, Julian, Eric and I booked at Dans Le Noir, a restaurant in Clerkenwell where you are served dinner in a pitch black dining room. We wanted to experience what it was like to switch off the sense of sight. Would our hearing become somehow acutely heightened?
We were welcomed in an ante room and bar, and asked to select our menu (vegetarian, non vegetarian or “surprise”) and drinks. Then we were led to a corridor to wait for our blind guide to take us into the dining room. Our guide was the dynamic Fabio, from Palermo. He asked one of us to place our hand on his back, and the others to follow in the same way in a mini conga line as he took us into the darkest environment I have ever encountered. Not a single flicker of light for your eyes to latch onto. The noise of the other diners and their conversations was strangely unhelpful as a means of orientation to the size and shape of the room.
As we sat down, it took me some time for an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia to subside. The aggressive cacophony of diners around us gave rise to an irrational fear of being trapped in the dark forever. As I strained my voice to be heard above the noise level, it sounded to me as if it were disembodied. The three of us found ourselves seeking the reassurance of touch by linking our hands together across the table. After a while, and the distraction of the first dish being brought to the table, the habituation to the new environment set in.
If one had to decide which sense takes over from sight in this environment it would definitely be touch, not hearing. Trying to put food inside your mouth you find that using your fingers enhances the taste, as it helps define what the ingredient is. Simple ingredients are easily identified: orange zest, chocolate, strawberries. But any mixed ingredients become impossible to figure out, and indeed we know that food and drink are predominantly identified by smell and sight, not taste.
The most enjoyable part of the evening was at the end of the meal, when we remained the last table of diners, the noise of others having disappeared, and the waiters and waitresses started clearing up. Surrounded only now by the light sound of clatter and our own conversation it starting feeling more like the sound of one’s own home.
Second day at the Brain Forum and I think we can confidently say we are one if the main attractions on the exhibitor’s level. Our booth is mobbed with people interested in experiencing the Sonic Womb and we have to set up a queuing system.
Reactions are incredibly varied:
“Interesting and shocking”
“A connection with the environment more truthful than the outside world”
“Meditative, calming, psychedelic”
“Awesome and curious”
Here is the impression of Hafida:
It was great for us to speak to people about their impressions just as they came out of the Sonic Womb Orrb, some of which we’d never have anticipated.
A young man said he experienced feelings of weightlessness. He felt he was coming back into his body when the filter was turned off at the end of the soundtrack.
One lady comes out crying. Her late father during her pregnancy used to tell her “be respectful of the baby in your womb, don’t fight with your husband, sing to your baby, and listen to music.” Hearing the simulated sound world around her viscerally brought back her father’s advice to her.
We are grateful to all those who shared their feedback with us. They will help us create great new soundtracks for the Sonic Womb Orrb.
Sonic Womb 