Playing the Inner Ear

Abstract

Conceiving of an evocative synthesis engine from our imagining of sound is the substance of Simon Emmerson’s chapter. Emmerson surveys recent neurological experiments in the synthesis of speech and music, and he focuses his attention on how our imagining of sound might be synthesized at some future date. The purpose of this speculative chapter is not to map out the design and interface of such a system but rather to conceive of what the act of imagining sound is and how the tool to extract such sound imagery might be used for musical purposes and to externalize these formally private sounds.