Imagine being able to visualize sound as it bounced through a movie or performance theater. What would it look like? What is the best place to sit in a theatre for an auditory experience? Franz Max Osswald studied this long ago in 1930, and took photos of the movement of sound as it moved through performance spaces. Awesome.
Osswald’s research of sound waves through architecture is discussed, as well as much more in the article A Visual Imprint of Moving Air by Sabine Von Fischer.
…architectural sound photography from the 1920s and 1930s is a remarkable and overlooked reference for the noise maps and climate registers circulated currently.
Um, yes! I never thought about photos of sound moving through space to understand the theatre experience. Check out Osswald’s tests for different architectural elements to help sound move through the space:
Fluting, folding, triple pocket moldings, cannelures, cavities, and waveforms were built into the walls of Osswald’s sectional models of round, elliptical, rectangular, and potato-shaped spaces.
Source: A Visual Imprint of Moving Air by Sabine von Fischer | Architect Magazine