Soundtrack, The - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2012

In this article, Michel Chion’s notion of hyperacousia (a character’s hypersensitivity to sounds, including inaudible ones) is used as the basis of analysis for sound design in The Unbelievable Truth (1989) by Hartley and Greenberg (2010) by Baumbach. I argue for the significance of hyperacousia to film character construction, as well as audience identification with these fictional personalities. In particular, I consider point-of-audition as a counterpart to point-of-view shots. Murray Smith’s cognitive approach to character identification is drawn on and developed from the perspective of the audioviewer’s access to subjective sound. Hyperacousia is suggested as a valuable channel for audience identification with a character, particularly marginalized ones, as well as a means through which sound can create an increased sense of interiority, something generally considered difficult to achieve in cinema. I argue that, in both films, a feature is made of the subtle sound effects, and that dialogue plays an important role in signposting these for the audience.

This article investigates game music aesthetics through considering how music encourages player immersion. In a first-person shooter (FPS), the issue of immersion is highlighted because of the restricted perspective. The article develops the concept of musical ‘texturing’ to explore the ways game music deploys strategically chosen musical signifiers, importing associations that can support signification on the visual level, or fill in gaps left on the other textual levels (dialogue, visual, etc.). The result creates the sense of depth, implied detail and rounded context within the surface level of gameplay activity. Texturing is particularly valuable for the FPS in order to encourage player engagement. The term ‘epic’ describes the narrative vertigo between an intimate personal level of storytelling and a broad backdrop, which acts as a motivation or plot device for the manipulation of the personal story. This is similar to the experience of the FPS: from the avatar’s personal viewpoint, the backdrops/settings are not of immediate importance, other than for the contexts they provide the player – the sense of being part of a larger story or world. Through using musical texturing to create an epic construct, the FPS encourages immersion. Epic texturing is a recurring aesthetic trope, explored here with reference to Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Doom (1993), GoldenEye 007 (1997), Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), Half-Life 2 (2004) and Bioshock (2007).

Dot, a videogame with no winner (2011) is an audio-visual performance with synchronized sounds and images, played by a ‘game console’ built and programmed by the author, and controlled by retro videogame (Nintendo) joysticks. The instrument is completely autonomous and works without the need of a computer, using only a projector and a sound system to play its content. Five people from the audience are invited to play the performance along with me, adding a random aspect so that I no longer have complete control of the work. This article passes through the complete creative process of the performance, showing the artistic concept, aesthetic considerations and some generative techniques used to add some randomness to the process so that the show is different each time it is performed.

From nine years of research and hundreds of hours of video footage, audio interviews, and still photographs, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) is Abbie’s feature-length documentary-in-progress focusing on one woman: Heather, evolving over time, from one identity to another – Sister Amata – as she integrates into a religious order that follows an ancient rule. Chosen is a collaborative endeavour; Abbie lent HD video cameras to Heather/Sister Amata, a painter and former blogger, and to the nuns. Set within the enclosed community, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) tracks the nuns’ public and private performances in a highly ritualistic space – a rich material culture focused on the spiritual realm; the liminal phase that is the process of becoming (Heather attempting to construct a new individual and cultural identity, and becoming Sister Amata); the belief that one is ‘chosen’ and questions of fate and agency; and the certainty of adopting the rigid lifestyle of an ancient rule, contrasted by the nuns’ acceptance that they will not know the results of their sacrifice until the afterlife.

In George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), Martin Scorsese creates a homage not only to the ‘great man’, but also to the memories of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as seen through the eyes of those who shaped the era, represented through a palimpsest provided by contemporary media, memoirs and interviews. Although the documentary offers the authenticity of ‘insider’ accounts, it might be seen more usefully as a biopic, which chronicles broader historical movements through an individual’s story, and a meta-memoir, which self-consciously encourages the audience to reflect on their own achievements, failures and legacies. Rather than embedding this film in a conceptual framework of celebrity culture, we view the film with an emphasis on the affective dimension of historical representation through memory. The film can thus be seen as a work that refocuses the fans’ gaze from Harrison’s life back on themselves.

In the Field: The Art of Field Recording, Cathy Lane and Angus Carlyle (2013) Axminster: Uniform Books. 240 pp., ISBN-10: 0956855962, ISBN-13: 978-0956855961 p/bk, £12.00