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Sound matters. Our sense of hearing not only helps us detect and decipher acoustic signals moving through space, but also helps us to grasp the contours of the space(s) that we perceive and inhabit. Sound operates as the interface between the individual and the spaces in which they exist, facilitating communication and the development of relationships with the environment and others (O’Callaghan, 2010; Stocker, 2013; Truax, 2001). Auditory cues provide the listener with a plethora of information about their surrounding environment. As sound studies scholar Vincent Andrisani (2010) argues, the study of acoustic space must also take into account the individual’s ability to perceive auditory information. Andrisani argues that the term acoustic space should

Not only [refer] to the sound of the environment, but perhaps more significantly, to the manner in which relationships are created or neglected through the use of the aural modality. Accordingly, the focus of acoustic space is not on the nature of the acoustic

environment per se; rather, it endeavours to address the perceptual capacity of the individual and the extent to which one is attuned to their acoustic environment. Acoustic space thus represents a listener-centred exercise in cognition that draws attention to the level of information exchange between the individual and the environment on the basis of perceptual engagement (p. 2).

This raises the question of how acoustic space is experienced by those with a weakened sense of hearing, specifically how a deficit in hearing contributes to how the individual experiences and perceives the world around them. The perception of acoustic space is fundamentally different for individuals with a hearing

impairment in comparison to those who are of able hearing. Impaired hearing refers to the incapacity of the ear to receive and process sound clearly resulting in a diminished ability to detect sound (Nordqvist, 2017; Schafer, 1994; Schaub, 2008). This occurs due to a shortfall in the acuity of hearing sound in one or both ears. There are different types of hearing loss (conductive, sensorineural or mixed (Schaub, 2008; National Foundation for the Deaf, 2017)), indicating different degrees of auditory weakness. The severity of hearing impairment can range from

mild to severe, each affecting the ability to process sound and the perception of acoustic space in slightly different ways. Mild to moderate hearing impairment result in the individual’s inability to hear and decipher speech and faint sounds. In turn, this has a bearing on their capacity to communicate efficiently with others as well as affecting a sense of space. Severe hearing impairment, on the other hand, implies acute deafness, which is the incapacity to detect sound (Schaub, 2008; Scheuenke, Schulte & Schumacher, 2010), leaving the individual with little to no awareness of, or ability to navigate, their acoustic environment(s). Furthermore, hearing loss encompasses more than simply the attenuation of sound; it also involves the distortion of sound (Kuk & Korhonen, 2014). For hearing impaired individuals, sounds can become muffled, meaning that they have difficulty differentiating between various sounds, which often results in the individual experiencing a cacophony of indistinguishable noise.

An impaired sense of hearing can have a substantial impact on the perception of acoustic space. While a hearing aid that is correctly fitted by an acoustician may assist in the correction of a loss of hearing sensitivity it is much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to correct a physical deformation or disease of the inner ear. In more severe cases of hearing loss, the distortion of sound by the ear mechanism can result in the brain being unable to process sound signals, leading to a confusing auditory experience (Kuk & Korhonen, 2014),

affecting the ability to detect individual sounds. Consequently, a deficit in hearing interrupts the relationship of the individual to their surrounding acoustic space.

The inability to clearly hear the sounds of the immediate auditory environment means that the ‘horizonless’ and ‘boundless’ spatial characteristics of acoustic space, as described by McLuhan and Carpenter (1960), no longer apply. Instead, the perception of acoustic space shrinks and becomes confined within the

significantly narrowed limits of the individual’s ability to detect sound. In the case of hearing impaired individuals, therefore, only sounds of a certain volume and within close proximity to the listener can be perceived. Even then these sounds may be distorted to some degree.

Without the ability to clearly detect the origin and directionality of the sounds of the proximate acoustic environment, the individual’s aptitude to

measure the shape, size, and compactness of the environment, and ultimately their sense of place within, is compromised (Stocker, 2013). According to Truax (2006) the human perception of acoustic space is largely reliant upon how, or if, we are able to interpret the acoustic cues that occur within our environment(s), as it is the perception of this sonic information that creates a sense of acoustic space. For example, German composer Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from a form of degenerative hearing loss from his early thirties until his death in 1827. He

considered his affliction to be particularly cruel given his profession, and wrote to friends on several occasions describing the impact that his loss of hearing had upon his perception of sound. In one instance he wrote, “Often I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tone yes, but not the actual words. Yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable” (Beethoven, Kalischer & Hull, 1972, p. 20). From this

description it appears that at the time the letter was written, as is the case with many individuals with a moderate to severe hearing impairment, exposure to loud noises caused Beethoven physical pain, with his ears becoming increasingly

sensitive to loud sounds. While he was still able to detect some sound Beethoven indicates that he experienced sonic phenomena as a kind of homogenous mass that was either very distorted, painfully intrusive, or both. These sonic signifiers

refused to disappear into their signifieds; rather they lingered oppressively. This not only hindered his ability to communicate but also effectively cut him off from the product of his own works as he became profoundly aware of the confines of his acoustic space.

Iconic American writer and activist Helen Keller also provides some insight into the experience of acoustic space in the face of profound deafness. Having been rendered both deaf and blind as an infant, Keller evocatively describes how the complications of deafness can reach far beyond a physical inability to hear. She explains

The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus – the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company of man [sic] (Keller, 2016, p. 47).

While underscoring the widespread importance placedon vision as the dominant human sense, Keller laments her inability to hear the sounds of the human voice and the mental stimulus of conversation. She gestures towards a feeling of displacement from her surroundings, as her relationship with acoustic space, unlike that of able-hearing individuals, is one of exclusion. The misfortune that she speaks of is not simply a severely reduced capacity to hear the human voice but also her exclusion from the experience of acoustic space and the ability to maintain a relationship with her environment, and others, through sound. These accounts given by Beethoven and Keller indicate that the experience of sound, and therefore acoustic space, is markedly different from that of individuals of able hearing. Our reliance on the ability to hear is such that the impacts of impaired hearing can be extreme. The diminished ability to clearly perceive sound creates a different reality for the individual, contributing to a sense of displacement and exclusion from their encompassing acoustic environment.

As Beethoven’s and Keller’s respective accounts also suggest, the experience of acoustic space for the profoundly deaf is more complex and complicated than for those with mild or moderate degrees of deafness. In many cases the moderately deaf may be able to identify the presence of sound in the form of the vibrations of louder noises occurring within their physical environment, however, “profound deafness excludes all sound contact” (Le Breton, 2017, p. 92). In such cases, the individual is unable to hear via air conduction (although they may be able to detect the occurrence of loud sounds from their surrounding environment through bone

conduction). Yet depending on when the profoundly deaf individual was rendered deaf, they may be able to recall the memory of certain sounds. Le Breton argues that “the age at which deafness sets in is a decisive element in the individual’s development, either opening or closing the door onto language and, especially, onto knowledge of the world’s possible sounds” (p. 92). Therefore, this gateway into the world of sounds was largely reliant upon whether or not the individual was old enough to remember the sounds they had experienced or not. Ihde (2007), following Merleau-Ponty’s (2013) claim that perception is the primary mode in which the world is revealed to us, argues that the imagination is dependant upon perception. Therefore, in order to imagine the different elements of our

surrounding environment we must have first perceived them. In the case of profoundly deaf individuals, such as Helen Keller, the memories of the

characteristics of different sounds may allow the individual to ‘hear’ imagined sounds as their psyche recalls the memory of auditory phenomena that they once experienced. In such instances it was possible for the hearing impaired to perceive a phantom acoustic space made possible through the auditory imagination, an acoustic space populated by recollected, rather than real-time, sounds.

Therefore, for those among the profoundly deaf who had been able to hear at some point in their life, this phantom acoustic space is perceived as being interior rather than exterior. In other words, acoustic space is not experienced as stretching out indefinitely in every direction. Rather, a perceived interior acoustic space, which Ihde (2007) refers to as the auditory imagination, operates as the

foundation of their experience of an apparent acoustic space. While everyone who has experienced sound in some capacity has an auditory imagination, in profoundly deaf individuals who once had the capacity to hear, this phenomenon may be amplified as it becomes their primary source of sonic reference. Perhaps the most common experience of the auditory imagination at play is inner speech, a form of thinking that occurs when we read or think to ourselves. In this instance the auditory imagination entails us hearing our own voice in our head, an inwards voice confined to our own imagined interior acoustic space. This acoustic

phenomenon is perceived by profoundly deaf individuals with some memories of the characteristics of sound. Berendt (1988) notes that composers often practice what he refers to as inwards listening, whereby they can imagine the notes they write in their head, and how they sound together to form a piece of music. It appears likely that such a method was used by Beethoven as his hearing continued to deteriorate in later life, as he was able to recall the different notes and sounds produced by his piano and could ‘hear’ them in the interior acoustic space of the mind as he played through his auditory imagination.

It appears that the experience of acoustic space for the profoundly deaf prior to the late twentieth century was largely defined by the extent of their auditory imagination, as there were no hearing aids suitable to ameliorate acute deafness. Yet, for individuals with a mild to moderate hearing impairment who possessed some ability to detect and experience their encompassing acoustic environment,

the use of a prosthetic offered the potential for greater auditory access to their immediate external acoustic space.