Sound All Around

The other day as I motioned with my finger to press the speaker keyboard button on my laptop, it dawned on me that the international logo symbolizing sound has three simple curved lines, and this graphic design mimics any ancient Greek and Roman amphitheater's ascending seating rows. Amphi is Greek for 'both sides’, or 'around'. The ancient Greeks constructed semi-circular seating tiers to optimize the amplification of sound waves. This basically is the ancients original version for surround-sound. The high-acoustical vibrations were not only due to the structure’s round design but also because the vertical portion of the seating rows act as walls and sound amplified when it reverberates or bounces off of hard surfaces such as the marble or limestone amphitheaters. I have traveled throughout Greece and to the great amphitheater of Epidaurus where I sat on the highest row at the very top of the theatre and the furthest away from the orchestra where a person on the stage floor tore a piece of paper from that great distance as if the paper was next to my ear. All this came to mind from seeing a modern designed logo on a piece of electrical hardware. The next time you see a social motif such as the iconic symbol speaker button and touch it, you’ll actually be connected to the evolution of civilization where art and history -art history- is all around our modern-tech world.