Article on the phatic function of sound interfaces

[Hadar Levy-Landesberg]

Dear Sound Studies colleagues,

I hope this email finds you well.

I have recently published a paper titled "Listen Up! Phatic thresholds and sound interface design" in New Media & Society. 

The article illustrates the significant role that the sound interface plays in shaping the ways we attend to media and points to the increasing hold of the digital sound interface over the user's attention. In the paper, I propose the term "phatic alignment" to describe how audible media and hearing-abled humans are arranged in space and adjusted to communicate with one another. I sketch historical transformations in the regimen of attention produced by sound media to date and analyze the scientific and industry discourses of digital sound interface design. I argue that in abstracting the human ear as an automated "traffic police" that regulates the user's attention, digital sound interface design situates the user in constant attentiveness to media. I conclude by linking the rationale of sound interface design with other trends in user interface design, suggesting that digital sound interface design set the stage for next-generation communication technologies such as AI voice assistants. 

The article is available here. 

I hope you will find it of interest! 

Best,

Hadar Levy-Landesberg

PhD Candidate

Dept. of Communication & Journalism, 

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

https://www.hadarlevylandesberg.com/