Browsing by Author "Herlihy, Bridget Clare"

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    Re-tuning the mind's ear : an anonymous history of acoustic prosthetic technologies for the ear : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Herlihy, Bridget Clare
    Over the last century the use of wearable personal acoustic technologies for the ear in a variety of different guises has become commonplace in daily life. These devices, such as hearing aids and headphones, have the propensity to reshape auditory experience and in turn, the perception of acoustic space by enabling personalised and immersive encounters with sound that alter the user’s understanding of, and relationship to, their surrounding environment. The aim of this study is to explore how acoustic prosthetic devices modify how sound is experienced, and how ensuing changes in auditory acuity affect the user’s perception of acoustic space. To achieve these aims this study compiled an anonymous history of acoustic space through the lens of various acoustic prosthetic technologies for the ear. It presents an historical analysis of the development and application of these personal devices in key areas of innovation and application, in particular hearing aids, the stethoscope, and headphones. In this thesis, a hybrid methodological approach is offered to expand Siegfried Giedion’s contribution to anonymous history by integrating analysis of a postphenomenology of embodiment. This methodology illustrates the ways in which the technological evolution of these devices across history significantly influenced the user’s experience of mediated sound and, in turn, acoustic space. This research provides further insight into, first, the ways in which hearing aids, devices used to ameliorate a deficit in hearing, historically contributed to a reshaping of the user’s perception of acoustic space. Second, this thesis examines how the development and application of the stethoscope marked the beginning of a movement towards the increasing privatisation of mediated listening experiences. Finally, the influence towards private mediated experiences of sound that began to build momentum in the late nineteenth century is explored to foreground the increasingly widespread use of prosthetic technologies for the ear, in particular headphones, also examined in this thesis. In so doing, this study draws attention to new complexities in the experience of auditory encounters facilitated by acoustic prosthetics. The thesis further reveals the paradoxical nature of these devices as their form and function has continued to evolve over time. Additionally, through the integration of digital technology, this study also explores how acoustic prosthetic wearers are able to facilitate, and control, new hybridised and customised experiences of sound and acoustic space. It is argued that the new and increasing ability to experience what is not possible through the unmediated ear raises new challenges to the ways in which acoustic space has previously been considered. Heterogeneous experiences of acoustic space made possible through rapidly advancing developments in prosthetic technologies for the ear require greater consideration, in particular the potential effect(s) that these experiences of acoustic space have upon the re-tuning of the mind’s ear.
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    Time, terror and the technological imagination : Frankenstein's fictional legacy in the scientific age : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2005) Herlihy, Bridget Clare
    There is a long-standing belief that there is an opposing discourse between science and the humanities in relation to the future of humankind. Attitudes towards the environment have changed radically in the last 200 years from a natural view to one where we dominate and re-order our environment to suit ourselves and to further the material self-interests of human beings, regardless of cultural and ecological consequences. In order for human beings to properly understand what is happening and why, we must begin to restore the balance between our relationship with Nature and our new technological worldview. The Introduction firstly addresses issues relating to the changing relationship between human beings and their environment over the last two centuries, and how literature and film have accurately predicted our collective future. It is my objective to illustrate how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has remained one of the most potent pieces of literature foreshadowing the future of humankind, and the timeless quality of the theme of the controller out of control. The main text focuses on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and how the novel embodied humankind's growing anxieties and fears about our technological ambivalence, and I give an overview of how Frankenstein has paved the way for further literary and cinematic predictions of our future in artificial and synthesised environments dominated by the new frontier of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and beyond, and how these technologies will impact on our cultural worldview and the future evolution of humankind.