Listen up! Phatic thresholds and sound interface design

Abstract

This article points to the long-standing and significant role that the sound interface plays in shaping the ways we attend to media by considering its phatic function. Employing a reverse engineering approach, the article consists of an analysis of historical transformations in the regimen of attention produced by sound media to date, followed by discourse analyses of scientific and industry communities of digital sound interface design. Introducing the term “phatic alignment” to describe how media and humans are arranged in space and adjusted to communicate with one another, this article points to the increasing hold of the digital sound interface over the user’s attention and identifies the premises affording this trend. The article argues that in abstracting the human ear as an automated “phatic threshold” that regulates the user’s attention, digital sound interface design situates the user in constant attentiveness to media and sets the stage for next-generation communication technologies.