Audiology for Beginners is a playful (though somewhat impractical) attempt at delivering a hearing test over the airwaves. The typical sounds of the hearing test – sine tones at specific frequencies and masks of white noise used to obscure voices – also happen to be the foundational building blocks of electronic music. These ideas and the palette of sounds generated from this source material are combined in a piece that is part radiophonic composition and part genuine attempt at a workable over the air hearing exam.
Audiology for Beginners was first broadcast on WGXC 90.7 FM in the Greene and Columbia Counties of New York State in 2014 with subsequent broadcasts on Resonance FM, Resonance Extra and Radiophrenia. The work was completed during a residency at the Wave Farm study centre in Acra, NY.