Why do we listen to music together? Today's technology allows consuming music outside of the performance venue. We can listen to recorded music and even live broadcasting to our homes. New streaming services allow the life-like reproduction of sensory impressions using binaural rendering and virtual reality goggles. Why are people hurrying back into concert venues? Is it just the technical fidelity, or is there an experience that can only be found in person? Previous research has found that an audience experiences collectively - their bodily responses synchronize by being in the same place. Room acoustics is considered a key mediator of the shared soundscapes and it gives context, fuse musical elements, and induce emotional states. In this project, we study the collective experience of the audience and musicians and how the room acoustics impact it. We develop augmented acoustics that can seamlessly alter the room acoustics to alter the soundscapes during a concert subtly.

2023

2027