For art historians, the sonic textures of architecture are as much a part of the landscape as they are the art. A few years ago, researchers delved into the acoustic nature of Byzantine churches, helping map their sound that was intentionally a part of its design.
On the podcast Escape Velocity, which is an effort by the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, an art history professor, Sharon Gerstel, discussed her interest and involvement in "acoustic archaeology."
Gerstel, along with Chris Kyriakakis and a massive international team, went church spelunking in Thessaloniki, Greece to uncover the musical textures in these ancient structures. In doing so, they revealed a sonic history that has changed with time as one could imagine.
In describing was led her to undertaking such a task, Gerstel said:
"For me as an art historian, I was interested in the perception of sound and how that perception was informed by the setting. When you walk into these buildings, they're cooler than the outside temperature, they smell different on the inside because they've had incense in them burned for centuries, so there's the palpable change in the atmosphere. They're dark on the inside and you see the painted figures looming from all sides of the building, looking at you."
The podcast is embedded below and delves further into the process. Also, in an issue of the Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance went a little deeper and recorded her process. By using a "chirp" at different points of ingress, LeFrance could help map the differences in each part of the old church.
Be sure to check out a video supplement to follow the podcast also attached below.
