Listening to the Cold War: The Nuclear Test Ban Negotiations, Seismology, and Psychoacoustics, 1958–1963

Volmar, Axel

doi:10.1086/671364

Cited by 46 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(9 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Of course, correctly interpreting the enemy's sound was often crucial for survival in war situations. From understanding the impact of acoustic shadows-hills, bushes, snow, and wind refracting or absorbing sound so that one might not hear an enemy attacking-to detecting and locating hostile artillery or uncovering secret atomic testing; sound could be the difference between life and death (Ross 2004: 275;Schwartz 2012: 573;Volmar 2012Volmar , 2013Volmar , 2014. The wide range of technologies to enhance listening in World War I was mentioned in the previous chapter, but occasionally, sound was even used to fake military actions.…”

Section: Hazy Sounds: Verbalizations and Descriptions Of The Audiblementioning

confidence: 99%

Sonic Signs: Turning to, Talking About, and Transcribing Sound

Bijsterveld

2018

Sonic Skills

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter focuses on processes of representing and sharing sound in the sciences. How have scientists, engineers, and physicians talked about sound and transcribed sound into legible signs? What did they do to ensure the acceptability and standardization of their verbalizations and notations? Why did embodied forms of notation survive despite a wider trend toward mechanical objectivity? And in what contexts did scientists become interested in the epistemological relevance of sound in the first place? This chapter also introduces most of the case studies and listening technologies in more detail. Keywords Sonic signs • Representing and sharing sound • Embodied notation • Automatic registration • Mechanical objectivity IntroductIon In 1954, Lawrence N. Solomon earned his doctoral degree in psychology at the University of Illinois with a study on complex auditory stimuli. The stimuli he examined were underwater sounds. These were highly relevant in undersea warfare, giving sonar operators information on whether, for instance, battleships from their own country were coming home or enemy submarines were approaching. Solomon wanted to know how sonar operators made sense of such sounds, and he was especially intrigued by the informal "sonar vocabulary" the operators had CHAPTER 2

show abstract

Section: Hazy Sounds: Verbalizations and Descriptions Of The Audiblementioning

confidence: 99%

Sonic Signs: Turning to, Talking About, and Transcribing Sound

Bijsterveld

2018

Sonic Skills

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Seismic data analysis naturally lends itself to audification: a particularly simple form of sonification which consists of accelerating seismic signals (whose frequency is lower than that of audible sound) before playing them through an audio reproduction system. Auditory display of seismic data was first explored during the Cold War, when the ability to distinguish underground nuclear tests from natural earthquakes acquired a political relevance [Speeth, 1961;Frantti and Leverault, 1965;Volmar , 2013]. Audification was eventually discarded, in this context, in favour of seismic-array methods [Volmar , 2013]; in recent years, however, it has been revived by seismologists, mostly for purposes of teaching and dissemination [e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Auditory display of seismic data was first explored during the Cold War, when the ability to distinguish underground nuclear tests from natural earthquakes acquired a political relevance [Speeth, 1961;Frantti and Leverault, 1965;Volmar , 2013]. Audification was eventually discarded, in this context, in favour of seismic-array methods [Volmar , 2013]; in recent years, however, it has been revived by seismologists, mostly for purposes of teaching and dissemination [e.g. Dombois and Eckel , 2011;Kilb et al, 2012;Peng et al, 2012;Holtzman et al, 2014;Tang, 2014].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Perception of Audified Seismograms

Boschi

Delcor

Carrou

et al. 2017

Seismological Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hence, most available literature is focused on the developments since the 1960s onward. For the discussion of the developments before the Test Ban Treaty, see Barth (2000) and Volmar (2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen Seismology, Stalinist Science, and Vladimir Mannar’s Cold Wars

Aronova

2017

Science, Technology, & Human Values

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay takes a historical view on “citizen science” by exploring its socialist version via the case of a Soviet amateur seismologist Vladimir Mannar. In the wake of the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, which coincided with Lysenko’s victory in his campaign against genetics, Mannar launched an aborted campaign for a participatory “socialist seismology.” Mannar co-opted Lysenkoist language of science for the people and gained professional status within professional seismology but was shut out by the experts capitalizing on a “big science” imperative of cold war. Mannar’s personal experiences of navigating competing pulls of cold war seismology and his vision of “people’s seismology,” marginalized within increasingly technical and instrumental cold war science, shed light on oxymoronic nature of citizen science, and the clash between participatory vision of science and an increasing reliance on high-level technical expertise. This case provides a vantage point from which to examine the dual nature of citizen science with its dual loyalties, ambiguities, and the constantly renegotiated status of data—the raison d’être and the most tangible outcome of the initiatives unfolded on the outer fringes of academic science.

show abstract

Listening to the Cold War: The Nuclear Test Ban Negotiations, Seismology, and Psychoacoustics, 1958–1963

Cited by 46 publications

References 13 publications

Sonic Signs: Turning to, Talking About, and Transcribing Sound

Sonic Signs: Turning to, Talking About, and Transcribing Sound

On the Perception of Audified Seismograms

Citizen Seismology, Stalinist Science, and Vladimir Mannar’s Cold Wars

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About