INFRASONIC
SELECTION OF QUOTES FROM RESPONDENTS

31 May 2003
Purcell Room, London

READ THE FULL REPORT ON THE CONCERT

Quotes – Piece A (5pm performance)

MALE
Slight nausea, difficulty swallowing, fat head

MALE
Felt like being in a jet before it takes off

FEMALE
Pre-orgasmic tension in body and arms but not in legs

FEMALE
Heightened sense of smell

MALE
Slight throbbing at side of chest

FEMALE
Sudden memory of an emotional loss

FEMALE
Slight rush of adrenaline, strange feeling in back

Quotes – Piece B (3pm performance)

FEMALE
Sensation of warm or shiny thing on chest and under throat

FEMALE
Feeling of compression around head and neck

MALE
Pressure on side of hand and pulsing pressure on myself

FEMALE
Hot and cold

MALE
Felt unusual depth to the sound, lightheaded and compression in chest

MALE
Strange blend of tranquility and unease

Quotes – Piece C (5pm performance)

MALE
Like I was looking out of a train into a tunnel, like every memory was running through my head

MALE
Slight tingling on my arms

FEMALE
Intense feeling of paying to be in an experiment

MALE
Excitement, chest flutter, disorientation, pressure in ear, drumming

Quotes – Piece D (3pm performance)

MALE
Goosebumps, could feel oscillations

MALE
Shivering on my wrist, odd feeling in stomach

MALE
Increased heart rate, ears fluttering, anxious

FEMALE
Chill down left side, sense of panic and confusion

FEMALE
A gentle dance, back in the past

Quotes sent after the concert (email correspondents)

MALE
We were at the concert, but felt no effects from the infrasound at the time. However we have noticed that my partner has almost no recollection of the concert until reminded: for example on the way home she said we had been walking all day until I reminded her of the concert. The next day we were telling friends about our weekend and she just missed out the concert, not deliberately. This is not a joke, and seems sufficiently unusual for us to report it.

MALE
It made me feel sleepy though it could be just too many late nights.

MALE
It looks like my body is very bass-sensitive. I'm quite proud of that actually.

Credits
This project was funded conducted by a multi-disciplinary team, headed by engineer and composer Sarah Angliss. Team members included psychologists Ciarán O’Keeffe (Liverpool Hope University) and Professor Richard Wiseman; acoustic consultants.

Dr Richard Lord and Dan Simmons (the National Physical Laboratory), pianist GéNIA and film artist Ravi Deepres.Professor Richard Wiseman; acoustic consultants Dr Richard Lord and Dan Simmons (the National Physical Laboratory), pianist GéNIA and film artist Ravi Deepres. This report was compiled by Ciarán O’Keeffe, on behalf of the Soundless Music team. Copyright the Soundless Music (Infrasonic) project.

The team would like to thank Dr Emma Greening, Louise Clark, Gaëlle Villejoubert, and Dr Mike Page for their contribution to the analysis of the data, outlined in this report. We would also like to thank the sciart Consortium and National Physical Laboratory for their generous support which made this project possible.