Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Digital Media
First Advisor
Adela Goldbard
Second Advisor
Francesca Liuni
Third Advisor
Alban Bassuet
Abstract
Music.
For me, music has always been a constant. In my happiest moments it lifted my joy into other realms; in my darkest, it consoled me and offered refuge.
Over time, however, this constancy has grown predictable. Recorded music, once capable of transforming a day, has faded into background sound - familiar but dulled. This project begins with my loss of wonder: how might the act of listening regain its power to move me?
I ask: how does the experience of listening transforms when music is encountered as an environment that can be entered and navigated rather than as a fixed temporal sequence.
What new forms of attention, emotion, and intimacy emerge when my music is dispersed into space, vibrated through the body, and approached as landscape rather than as track?
To explore these questions, I will create an immersive installation: a space to wander through with the curiosity of a child. The floor will vibrate beneath the listener; musical objects can be held and embraced; sonic “creatures” will drift through the space. This environment will function both as an artwork and as a research instrument for studying how setting shapes perception.
The project draws on ideas from acoustic ecology, eco-musicology, spatial audio, and the phenomenology of listening - fields that consider how sound, environment, and embodiment are intertwined. By situating my recorded composition within a tactile, spatial setting, I seek to revive a mode of listening that is emotional for me rather than mechanical.
Music.
Recommended Citation
Gur, Yuval, "Music as an Environment" (2026). Masters Theses. 1578.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1578
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Audio Arts and Acoustics Commons, Composition Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Music Theory Commons, Sculpture Commons