John Huntington is an entertainment technologist, and runs a great blog called control geek. John and I met a few years ago because we share an interest in how best to scare people in Haunted Houses. Each Halloween he gets his students to build interactive exhibits as part of a Haunted Hotel, and then films members of the public screaming in terror (details here). He has just sent me this wonderful audio piece that is a brilliant demonstration of just how much of our perception is driven by ‘top down’ expectations. Enjoy….
P.S. – Answers to the Monday puzzle tomorrow.
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February 24, 2009 at 12:33 am |
That’s brilliant! I always wanted to translate the Latin, but now I don’t have to!
It really made me laugh!
February 24, 2009 at 12:45 am |
“Leaking foot when near berries.”
I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe.
February 24, 2009 at 12:51 am |
Absolutely bloody brilliant!!
February 24, 2009 at 2:27 am |
I once wrote to the comedian who produced this and they gave me permission to use it in lectures – by Adam Buxton, ‘Songs of Praise’ when discussing ‘backmasking’:
http://podblack.com/?p=202
You might like to consider it? Contains the ‘real’ lyrics in that post too.
February 24, 2009 at 2:38 am |
Wow, this is great. As someone who works in creating and mixing sound for TV and film, I am always fascinated by the way one’s audio perception is easily led by other senses.
Another similar effect is the ‘McGurk’ effect, demonstrated here:
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=DDD9F1C2-9CDB-8C68-07EEC88298E0F5CE&sc=rss
This kind of perception clearly accounts for a lot of the famous ‘backmasking’ examples in Rock music, too. The notion of ‘you hear what you want to hear’ couldn’t be more true.
I’d love to know of any serious academic research into the psychology of audio perception. There’s lots of ‘tips and tricks’ and ‘rules of thumb’ that I’ve picked up along the way in my professional capacity, would love to see some experiments to confirm things.
‘Quirky’ enough for Richard’s future interest, perhaps?
Carl.
February 24, 2009 at 5:50 am |
Thanks for the comment on my site, Carl! This beer is for you:
http://podblack.com/?p=1257
February 24, 2009 at 11:05 am |
Reminds me of a similar one that I saw a couple of years back:
The song “Barbie Girl” sung in Dutch and “translated” to English subtitles.
February 24, 2009 at 4:57 pm |
Brilliant!
Oh I’m so glad someone linked to the Adam Buxton stuff, he makes me laugh so hard I have tears in my eyes.
He did another one as well:
There’s also a sign language one he did which isn’t related to audio illusions but will make you wet yourself.
February 24, 2009 at 11:19 pm |
As a pareidoliologist I love this sort of thing.
February 25, 2009 at 12:55 am |
[...] Great audio illusion John Huntington is an entertainment technologist, and runs a great blog called control geek. John and I met a few years [...] [...]
February 25, 2009 at 12:25 pm |
Reminds me of a Maxell ad of a few years back in which a befuddled would-be Rastafarian holds up his ‘subtitles’ for a particularly patois reggae song (of course blaming his incomprehension on having recorded it with Brand X, instead of Maxell.)
March 4, 2009 at 8:57 am |
[...] got some confetti stuck up my ass’, but is not certain. My guess is that this is like the audio illusion from a few posts ago – that is, lots of phrases will appear to be a perfect fit. But is that [...]
March 4, 2009 at 8:25 pm |
reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N2viKl3tdU&feature=related
March 6, 2009 at 2:55 pm |
Ahh haha! The best is around 1:40. When the music gets real intense and “SALSA COOKIES!!! WINDMILL COOKIES!!!”
Great Job on this one!