The Auditory Setting: Environmental Sounds in Film and Media Arts

Description

The Auditory Setting introduces and investigates how narrative and a sense of place are constructed in film and media arts through the reproduction and mediation of site-specific environmental sounds, or 'ambience'. Although this sonic backdrop acts as the acoustically mediated space where a story or event can take place, there has been little academic study of sound's undervalued role in cinematic setting and production. Drawing on theories of narrative, diegesis, mimesis and presence, and following a varied number of relevant audio-visual works, this book is a ground-breaking exploration of human agency in mediating environmental sounds and the nature of the sonic experience in the Anthropocene. Title page Copyright Contents FIGURES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1 THE FIRST SOUND AND THE CURIOSITY 2 THE AUDITORY CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICATION 3 KEY CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 4 APPROACH AND METHOD PART 2 SONIC TRAJECTORIES 5 MONAURAL SOUNDTRACKS AND RECORDING (SONIC) REALITY 6 STEREO SOUND AND THE EXPANDED SPACE 7 DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND AND THE MIMETIC SITE PART 3 ON LOCATION AND OTHER STORIES 8 LAND, FIELD, MEADOW 9 FOREST, JUNGLE 10 VILLAGE, RURAL ENVIRONMENT 11 INDOORS 12 RIVERBANK, BEACH, ISLAND 13 STREET, PUBLIC SQUARES, URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD 14 PUBLIC TRANSPORT 15 AIRPORT 16 UNDERWATER, OUTER SPACE PART 4 CRITICAL LISTENING 17 MAPPING THE AESTHETIC CHOICES IN SOUND PRODUCTION 18 AUDITORY PRESENCE AND BETTER PRACTICE 19 THE GOD OF SMALL SOUNDS 20 EMERGING TRENDS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS/MEDIA CITED INDEX