Auditory Affordances of Game Pass Shelter (South Africa): Implications for Performative Practices and Multisensory Engagement with San Rock Art

Abstract

Sensory research on San rock art has often focused on whether acoustic effects influenced the selection of places to be painted or engraved. This article addresses the issue from a different perspective by examining the auditory affordances of Game Pass shelter, one of the most iconic rock art sites in southern Africa. Using impulse-response measurements adapted from room acoustics, we analyzed reverberation, clarity, definition, and sound strength within the shelter. The results show that Game Pass is acoustically “dry,” with low reverberation and local reinforcement of direct sound through early reflections. Rather than producing spectacular sonic effects, the site offers conditions in which sounds involved in performative practices could remain clear while gaining presence at specific listening positions. Although these measurements do not demonstrate that specific performances took place at the shelter, they indicate the kinds of sonic practices Game Pass could have supported. More generally, the study suggests that the acoustic significance of painted shelters may lie less in unusual phenomena than in how their auditory affordances facilitate performances involving sound and contribute to multisensory engagement with rock art.