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Conclusion
The acoustic environment of architectural structures is comprised of complex social and physical sonic characteris- tics. The human auditory sounds represent the sounds of the world around us based on our own acoustic viewpoint, whereas infrasonic vibrations represent the inherent move- ment and vibrations of the structure. Together they create an acoustic epiphenomenon, an energetic ecology based on time, human presence, and vibrational acoustics—a spectro- temporal aesthetic. Using our senses to integrate the physical vibrations, social acoustics and auditory psychophysics extends our knowledge of how we perceive. The sound of a structure, a transparent yet primary component injects phys- ical, social and time-based concepts into it, thus adds a human-related construct to the art that is produced from it. And, although the Eiffel Tower has no formal inside and out- side, it is through usage of the structure that these ideas are established. As Roland Barthes said: “The tower is there incorporated into daily life...it is as literal as a phenomenon of nature whose meaning can be questioned to infinity but whose existence is incontestable.”8
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Seth Horowitz, Neuroscience Department, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, for his willingness to go on this strange and wonderful adventure to the Eiffel Tower, his extensive technical assis- tance, being cool when moments got rough and his tireless comments on the manuscript. I would like to thank Andrea Megela Simmons and James A. Simmons, Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, Brown University for their consultation and the use of their equipment without which I could not have done this project. In addition, I would also like to thank Andrea Simmons for her recommendation that I write this piece; without her recommendation it would not have been published. I would like to thank France Languérand for her spectacular photographic work and to Cyril Lecomte for his videography. Both results are excep- tional especially given the limited space, time and complexi- ty of the sites that we visited. I would also like to thank the technicians—Matthieu André, Sylvain Daval, Tony Regazzoni, Florian Sumi, and Paul Welsh as well as our guide, Olivier Picard, for the wonderful technical strengths that they contributed to the project. Finally I want to extend a great thanks to the members of the Societe d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel who made this all possible and kept les gen- darmes at bay.
References
1 James A. Simmons, Kyler M. Eastman, Seth S. Horowitz, Michael J. O’Farrell, and David N. Lee, “Versatility of biosonar in the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus,” Acoustic Research Letters Online 2, 43–48 (2001).
2 Frans A. Bilsen, “Huygens on pitch perception; staircase reflec- tions reconsidered.” Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap Journaal, Nr. 178 (2006).
ferred through the iron, in addition to those in the air
around it. By adding the subsonic range to our acoustic per-
ception, we uncovered another dimension to consider in lis-
tening to a building: the unheard subsonic sounds that are
reactions to environmental forces on the materials. This
activity is what gives the Eiffel Tower the characteristic of a
living fluxing organism: a dynamic system. And yet, its
dynamic qualities are not based on just being a passive
receiver of vibrational energies. The heavily-visited Eiffel
Tower is not just a resonator of physical forces but impacts its
environment by acting as a local attractor of human atten-
7
tion. This effect is achieved by the increased density of
observers and of local behavior both reactive, through the vibration of their feet on the surfaces and evocative and in the form of their exaltations. These physical and social sonic characteristics are ongoing ambient and subsonic noises that also play a part in the perception of a space. They also need to be considered in assessing the psychoacoustics of our envi- ronment. Even though these are the sounds that we selective- ly edit out as noise in our normal experience of a space these sounds are critical to our overall sense and perception of our world and part and parcel to our experience of the Eiffel Tower. This combination of the social impact operating in conjunction with the structural acoustic elements creates a complex and dynamic sonic ecology that helps to extend our knowledge of how we perceive our sonic world.
Fig. 10. China Blue monitoring the recording equipment placed on the railing on the summit. Credit: Seth Horowitz.
36 Acoustics Today, July 2009