Audio and Ma

No, not Ma as in Mother. Ma as in the Japanese term for negative space. In ancient Japanese culture what is not there is just as important as what is there. There was a really great program on the BBC about it. For example in the practice of Ikebana, the space between the flowers is viewed with as much importance as the flowers themselves. This idea crops up all over the place. One example would be that when learning music you are often taught that the rests are just as important as notes.

You can utilise the concept of Ma when designing loudspeaker systems. The areas that aren't audience areas are just as important as the areas that you are trying to fill with sound.When 90% of your audience are hearing more reverberant field than direct sound it's important to make that reverberant field sound nice. Therefore what hits the walls needs to sound nice, what hits the ceiling needs to sound nice, and you never know which gap between seats the show director will stand in!

Just a thing to think about: Audio and Ma.