Stonehenge Ritual Sound

This project has combined 3D modelling, music and sound to create a phenomenological experience. It has used a digital 3D graphical model of Stonehenge to create an acoustic model of its soundfield. Study of this acoustic model, as well as a wider forensic study of the acoustics of the site, has been used to derive musical and sonic content, which has provided the basis of this compositional work. This has included tempo derived from echoes, reverberant field built from a calculated impulse response, and filtering and timbral information extrapolated from resonances. In addition maps of acoustic parameters such as envelopment (LG80) have allowed us to predict positioning of participants. Such information has been combined with what we know from archaeological, ethnographic and other sources, to try and recreate an ecological perspective akin to what might have happened at a ritual at Stonehenge in prehistory. This is experimental multimedia archaeology