Acoustic perception and emotion evocation by rock art soundscapes of Altai (Russia)

The major goal of psychoarchaeoacoustics is to understand the psychologybehind motivations and emotions of past communities when selecting certainacoustic environments to set activities involving the production of paintings andcarvings. Within this framework, the present study seeks to explore wheth...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: López-Mochales, Samantha, Aparicio-Terrés, Raquel, Díaz-Andreu, Margarita, Escera i Micó, Carles
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/220893
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/220893
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Psicoacústica
Acústica
Arqueologia
Pintura rupestre
Emocions en l'art
Acústica arquitectònica
Sibèria (Rússia)
Psychoacoustic
Acoustics
Archaeology
Rocks paintings
Emotions in art
Architectural acoustics
Siberia (Russia)
Description
Summary:The major goal of psychoarchaeoacoustics is to understand the psychologybehind motivations and emotions of past communities when selecting certainacoustic environments to set activities involving the production of paintings andcarvings. Within this framework, the present study seeks to explore whether agroup of archaeological rock art sites in Altai (Siberia, Russia) are distinguished byparticular acoustic imprints that elicit distinct reactions on listeners, in perceptualand emotional terms. Sixty participants were presented with a series of naturalsounds convolved with six impulse responses from Altai, three of them recordedin locations in front of rock art panels and three of them in front of similarlocations but without any trace of rock art. Participants were interrogated abouttheir subjective perception of the sounds presented, using 10 psychoacoustic andemotional scales. The mixed ANOVA analyses carried out revealed that feelingsof “presence,” “closeness,” and “tension” evoked by all sounds were significantlyinfluenced by the location. These effects were attributed to the differences inreverberation between the locations with and without rock art. Despite resultsare not consistent across all the studied rock art sites, and acknowledgingthe presence of several limitations, this study highlights the significance of itsmethodology. It stresses the crucial aspect of incorporating the limitationsencountered in shaping future research endeavors.