AUDIO
CHRISTIAN MUSICIAN SUMMIT 2023 : SESSION RECAP | Jeff Hawley
I had the pleasure of presenting two sessions at the Christian Musician Summit conference in Tacoma , Washington recently . One session focused on immersive audio from a historical and ‘ philosophical ’ perspective , and the second session presented techniques for selecting the proper digital audio console for different church audio applications . Both of these sessions were based on articles that I published here in the pages of Worship Musician in the past , with some additional thoughts and recent trends added into the mix . In this article , I ’ ll share a few insights that popped up for me as I had the opportunity to interact and engage with real-life humans — something I don ’ t always get to do with ‘ academic ’ projects of this kind .
IMMERSIVE WORSHIP EXPERIENCES AND CHURCH TECHNOLOGY — A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE The first session of the morning presented a thesis that I ’ ve been working on for a few years , namely the idea that the goals and methods of immersive audio haven ’ t substantially changed since early experiments in audio design by ancient Greek and Roman architects and thinkers . My research has expanded since the article ’ s original publication in May 2022 , adding references to Vitruvius , the 1st century BC Roman architect and engineer . You may recognize Vitruvius from the ‘ Vitruvian Man ,’ the drawing from Leonardo Da Vinci crafted back in about 1490 . Vitruvius might be considered an early audio consultant for the Greeks and Romans , presenting the most cutting-edge ideas in building design and acoustics for the time .
In our discussions around immersive audio , I claimed that the goal Vitruvius had in mind in the first century BC is likely very similar to our current goal regarding immersive audio . What might this goal be ? Here is where the discussion became much more lively . Borrowing from a concept popularized in Philosophy of Religion by the German theologian Rudolf
Otto , we played with the idea that the goal of immersive audio has always been to bring about a ‘ numinous ’ experience . Just what is a numinous experience ? As Otto phrases it , the numinous is “ the “ gentle tide , [ the ] pervading [ of ] the mind with a tranquil mood ”— arguably the ‘ feeling ’ of worship itself . Sure , we can look at worship experiences fully empirically and attempt to reduce the experience to a psychological or purely neurological measure . Still , there does seem to be something beyond the everyday physical experience that a reductive materialist account fails to capture . This remaining ‘ transcendent ’ gentle tide is ( and has been ) the goal of immersive worship experiences from the start .
Two concepts that I shared in the presentation grabbed a lot of attention from the attendees . First off , related to the more empirical study of experiences within acoustic spaces , a report from Algargoosh and her colleagues demonstrated how “… acoustic environments can impact the occupants ’ emotions and enhance their experience and connect the experience and emotional impact with the cultural background ” ( Algargoosh et al ., 2022 , ‘ The Impact of the Acoustic Environment on Human Emotion and Experience : A Case Study of Worship Spaces ’). Basically , we can show that when presented with a more ‘ immersive ’ audio experience ( a ‘ wet ’ mix and room vs . a ‘ dry ’ signal ), respondents typically describe the experience as more ‘ spiritual ’, ‘ inspired ’, and ‘ cheerful ’. The science is on the side of immersive audio . Based on the number of folks
92 November 2023 Subscribe for Free ...