ct 21(27): e4

Research Article

Evoking the Mythic: Hearing the Sound of Sukhāvatī

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  • @ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.31-3-2021.169171,
    author={M.D.F. Evans and S. Hall and J. Dooley},
    title={Evoking the Mythic: Hearing the Sound of Sukhāvatī},
    journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies},
    volume={8},
    number={27},
    publisher={EAI},
    journal_a={CT},
    year={2021},
    month={3},
    keywords={Interactive audiovisual composition, image and sound interaction, transcoding},
    doi={10.4108/eai.31-3-2021.169171}
}
  • M.D.F. Evans
    S. Hall
    J. Dooley
    Year: 2021
    Evoking the Mythic: Hearing the Sound of Sukhāvatī
    CT
    EAI
    DOI: 10.4108/eai.31-3-2021.169171
M.D.F. Evans1,*, S. Hall1, J. Dooley2
  • 1: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 200 Jennens Rd, Birmingham, B4 7XR
  • 2: The Open University, Walton Hall, Kents Hill, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
*Contact email: matthew.evans2@bcu.ac.uk

Abstract

Buddhism has a rich visual history of ancient paintings and sculpture used to evoke spiritual and archetypal concepts. One of the key figures in Mahayana Buddhism is the celestial Buddha Amitabha, also known as the Buddha of Infinite Light. Several Buddhist texts describe the “Sukhāvatī” the land that that Amitabha inhabits. The texts not only describe the physical characteristics of this environment but also the soundscape. This paper discusses the process of transcoding an image of Amitabha into sound to create an interactive sonic environment. This process explores how choosing sounds based upon the literary description, can be a way of creating a link between an image and the literary counterpart.

Keywords
Interactive audiovisual composition, image and sound interaction, transcoding
Received
2020-12-14
Accepted
2021-03-17
Published
2021-03-31
Publisher
EAI
http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/eai.31-3-2021.169171

Copyright © 2021 M.D.F. Evans et al., licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.