Psychoacoustics Experiment
A four-channel audiovisual work that uses psychoacoustic phenomena to create a spatially dynamic soundscape — producing sounds that are not physically present in the space, but emerge through the listener's auditory perception.
4-Channel Visual and Sound Diffusion is an audiovisual work that uses psychoacoustic phenomena to create a spatially dynamic soundscape.
In the first section, four independent sound sources placed in close proximity emit frequencies just slightly apart. Their interaction in the air produces a beating effect analogous to amplitude modulation — a pulse that belongs not to any single speaker, but to the space between them.
In the second section, four individual clapping tracks are each assigned a slightly different tempo, separated by 2 BPM. The result is an irregular rhythmic texture that shifts continuously over time — phasing in and out of alignment without ever settling.
The third section explores the theory of sum and difference tones: when two frequencies sound simultaneously, the auditory system may perceive additional tones not physically present in the space. When 600 Hz and 900 Hz are presented together, for instance, listeners may perceive both the sum tone at 1500 Hz and the difference tone at 300 Hz. The audibility of these tones depends on frequency selection, critical bands, masking, and amplitude relationships.
This work uses a carefully calculated frequency matrix to maximize the perceptual effect of sum and difference tones — creating sounds that are not physically present in the space, but emerge through the listener's auditory perception.