I'm Inger Ekman, researcher, designer. I hold a MSc. in Computer Sciences and am half way through a PhD in sound design. For some time now, I've worked mainly on interaction design, game research and, more recently, emotion psychology. I'm interested in audio in (not all but) many of its forms: sound design, sound-based interaction and sonic experiences. Particularly I look into how people create meaning with and around sound and how emotions are influenced by non-musical means, using discrete sound effects or by soundscapes/auditory ambiences.
The PhD project. In it I try and answer a few questions about sound design particularly in games. They are:
- How do people understand, listen to, approach and evaluate the sounds they hear in the game world? This question ties into several issues underpinning design. How does the context of listening influence what we hear? In fact, what is this context in games, and what is the relative impact of different contextual factors: the player's physical surroundings, the virtual surroundings (in-game), actions that relate to the sound, etc. And how can a designer choose to alter the interpretations people make of sounds and bend the medium into their aesthetic intentions?
- From the meaning-making process comes the impact sound has on the player. This link ties the questions of meaning-making to the more experiential level of feeling. I investigate emotions in relation to game sound, seeking to find within the emotional effects people have while playing the aspects of these reactions that relate precisely to sound. Questions such as what kind of sounds are linked to which type of emotions and, particularly, finding underlying parameters that can be used in making emotional sound designs. Part of this research is also developing methodology for empirically evaluating emotional effects to sound. Particularly, there is little methodology available for the investigation of interactive sonic experiences, where the listeners are themselves causing the sound.
- Finally, slightly off-topic for my PhD but related to sound in general, I'm exploring tools and techniques to be used by designers. This work involves finding ways of transporting expressive techniques from the linear domain of film sound design into the procedural domain of game audio. It also involves creating and teaching work practices and prototyping techniques for using sound, in an unedited, unmediated or improvised form to communicate about design intentions in early stages of the design process.