Matthews, Emma Kate;
(2025)
Spatiosonic constructs: Exploring resonance in-between architecture and experimental music.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This practice-based research explores the intersection of spatial and sonic fields, developing poetic and practical resonances through site-specific experimental composition and performance. Architecture and music have long shared a symbiotic relationship, with architecture shaping musical expression and buildings adapting to accommodate musical desires. However, this interaction has been increasingly constrained by rigid frameworks of acoustic measurement, diminishing the intuitive and creative engagement between the two disciplines. In the mid-20th century, composer Henry Brant challenged this trend by treating space as an active compositional parameter. Whilst his approach moved beyond simple mappings between geometric and musical structures, it left open questions about how space and sound might interact beyond established conventions. This thesis revisits some of these questions, offering a progress report in its conclusion. In response, this research introduces spatiosonic practice, a transdisciplinary mode of working that reframes space and sound as fluid, interdependent fields that actively inform and shape one another. Through the composition and performance of spatialised, acoustically responsive music, this work explores how architectural and musical tools, vocabularies, and methodologies can be co-opted, hybridised, and expanded to cultivate collaboration. It prioritises insights drawn from tacit knowledge, sensory perception, and embodied experience, challenging the tendency to overlook intangible phenomena that resist quantification. Musical timbre articulates abstract spatial relationships, whilst architectural tools such as 3D scanning, digital modelling, and acoustic simulation are repurposed as compositional aids. The outputs are examined through 3D audio recording, listening practices, and spectral analysis. The core contribution of this research is the formulation of spatiosonic practice as a conceptual and methodological framework. By rethinking how music ‘makes space’ and how architecture ‘listens’, this research proposes a new paradigm for spatial composition—one that encourages architecture and music to engage in reciprocal, co-creative dialogue.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Spatiosonic constructs: Exploring resonance in-between architecture and experimental music |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211337 |
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