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[Commlist] CfP Sound/Space: Sonic Spaces in Film and Audiovisual Productions

Tue Sep 28 19:35:33 GMT 2021






*CfP Sound/Space:*

*Sonic Spaces in Film and Audiovisual Productions*

*A Two-day Symposium*

*Thursday April 14 to Friday April 15, 2022*

*ENS Louis-Lumière, Cité du Cinéma, Paris / Saint-Denis*

Organized by Antoine Gaudin (Université Paris 3 Sorbonne nouvelle, IRCAV)

and David Roche (Université Montpellier 3 Paul Valéry, RIRRA 21)

in collaboration with Giusy Pisano (ENS Louis-Lumière)

 “One only experiences space that one can also hear,” Béla Balázs wrote at the turn of the 1930s in his theoretical investigation into the expressive potential of sound film. In /Entendre le cinéma/ (2010), sound engineer Daniel Deshays noted that working on the sound of a film always entailed working on the relationship between an object and a place and, generally speaking, on the creation of a sensible relation to the space of the world. In spite of the eighty-year gap and of the fact that one emphazed response and the other composition, both Balázs and Deshays express the same profound faith in *an intimate relationship between sound and space in film*.

And yet, *this question has received little critical and theoretical attention*, even though this relationship is fundamental in all audiovisual works, and works like /M./ (Lang, 1931), /A Man Escaped/ (Bresson, 1956), /India Song/ (Duras, 1975) and /Sound of Metal/ (Marder, 2019) have brought it to the fore. This can be put down to the tendency of film and media studies to give pride of place to the questions raised by images, but also to the fact that space itself, whether in objective sciences or in our natural perception, is often comprehended as a visual phenomenon. Considering spatial issues from the perspective of sound, which is what R. Murray Schafer did in his 1979 /The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Sound Design/, thus represents a fairly unheard of project.

The primacy of the visual in film and media studies reproduces the hierarchy of the senses which, for many human beings, positions sight as the main source of information about one’s environment and relegates hearing (and the other senses) to the secondary role of “supplement.” Thus, every evolution in sound technology has triggered its lot of discourses on the capacity of sound to reinforce the “realism” and “presence” of filmed space. Reducing sound in film and audiovisual productions to the function of naturalist “backdrop” leads us to ignore *the impact it may have on our representations and our experiences of space*, beyond what is expressed through the images alone. It is also a missed opportunity to emancipate our approaches to cinematic space from the visual categories inherited from writings on the other arts—the painterly landscape, the architectural decor, the theatrical scene—in so far as *the relations between images and sounds deployed in film and audiovisual productions are endowed with an expressive potential that is specific to these media*.

The question of space in film and audiovisual productions should clearly not be limited to what our eyes can see: the decisive role of sound gives way to another experience in which *the audio and the visual together produce a global sense of space that affects and engages our bodies* (by calling on proprioceptive, tactile, thermal and other dimensions). Of course, images should not be entirely dismissed from any consideration of cinematic space—after all, a soundtrack is never entirely “autonomous,” as Michel Chion (1985) reminds us; rather, we aim to foreground the paramount contribution of sounds in the audiovisual composition and materialization of cinematic space. The symposium will thus endeavor to answer an evident question with complex implications: *how do sounds participate in the spatial experience of films and audiovisual productions on the sensory, cognitive, political and cultural levels? *

*Noises*—ambient sounds or what Chion (1990) calls “territory sounds”—seem to play a central role in the creation of an audiovisual space, whether they belong to what composer Bernie Krause (2013) calls the biophonic, geophonic or anthrophonic categories. “Elements from the sonic decor” (Chion 1990) also play an important role, associated as they are with specific environments (car horns blaring in a city, for instance) or in nighttime spaces where sight is limited and noises are “exalted” (Jankélévitch 1983) (as in the long blackout sequence of /ABC Africa/ [Kiarostami, 2001]). But with this symposium, we would like to invite increasing attention to *the less obvious spatial effects and implications of the two other main types of sound*. Indeed, *voices* can express the acoustic atmosphere of a fictional place (like Xanadu in /Citizen Kane/ [Welles, 1941], where the voices of a divided couple resonate in the emptiness), establish specific spatial relationships because of their localization (the “acousmatic” reach of Dr. Mabuse’s offscreen voice, or the “close listening” position encouraged by the voice-overs of Patricio Guzman’s documentaries), and circumscribe a given place regionally through the use of accents and dialects. The other type of sound, *music*, can also contribute to the construction of a given environment, whether it is nondiegetic (as in /Spiegel im Spiegel/ [2002] d’Arvo Pârt or at the beginning of /Gerry/ [Van Sant, 2002], in which it expresses the hot dry air of the desert) or translates from within the diegesis the physical dimension of a place (the “ecosystem” of the club in the final scene of /Mektoub, my love/ [Kechiche, 2017]) as well as its cultural and social dimensions (the use of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” throughout /Do the Right Thing/ [Lee, 1989]).

Attention can also be paid to a practice that is becoming increasingly common, the creation of a “sonic continuum” (Dallaire 2012); composed like an organic whole, such soundtracks blur the distinction between voice, noise and music and trouble the boundary between sounds that are « in », « off » or offscreen. Paradigmatic instances of this approach to the soundtrack include /L’Homme qui ment/ (Robbe-Grillet, 1968) and /Elephant/ (Van Sant, 2003); in these films, which abound in free sonic occurrences, it is not so much the nature of sounds and their localization (the semantics of sound) that is at stake as their materiality and texture (sound as phenomenon).

Focus can also be put on *the spatializing impact of the treatment of the sound signal*: reverb and delay, the play on the distance from and proximity to the sound source, variations of intensity, and what Rick Altman (1992) calls “sonic perspectives” (the roaming camera scenes of /Scarface/ [Hawks, 1932] and /Frenzy/ [Hitchcock, 1972] come to mind), the sonic signature of a place (the capture of “room tone,” which is poked fun at in /Living in Oblivion/ [DiCillo, 1995]), and sometimes even of a shot (as in the glass box scene of episode 1 of /Twin Peaks: The Return/ [Showtime, 2017]).

This symposium will also encourage *interest in the creative decisions bearing on the creation of cinematic space during the various stages of sound production while working on a film or an audiovisual production* (sound recording, creating sound effects, using soundbanks, sound mixing). In so doing, the importance of the sound crew (the perchmen, engineers, composers and sound designers) in composing a soundtrack will be put in relief, thereby underscoring *the wide variety of spatial options chosen during production and post-production* (shooting in studio or on location, direct or postsynchronized sound, etc.).

Attention to technique and technology may provide a welcome opportunity to examine *the exchanges and draw comparisons between practices common in cinema and audiovisual media and of those common in other media* such as radio and the music industry—/Apocalypse Now/ (Coppola, 1979) provides a famous example of a film whose soundtrack responds to the technique and aesthetics of record production. “*On the air” sounds* (Chion 1990) in particular can carry this transmedia legacy with them, all the while expressing other “spaces” (public, national, social, etc.) within the diegesis.

Beyond matters of composition, special attention will be paid to proposals that attempt to *resituate cinematic and audiovisual spaces within their reception contexts*. Studies of how *the criteria of realist spaces based on sound* may have evolved and varied depending on the historical eras and geographical and cultural areas in which they emerged are particularly welcome. Equally welcome are talks  emphasizing the impact of *the* *acoustic technology that allows us to watch and listen to films and audiovisual productions*, from the collectivity of movie theater audiences (the position of speakers, the type of paneling that is used, etc.) to more familial or individual devices (TV, computers, smartphones), for which sound is often “adapted“ (for instance, the high compression ratio used for television productions).

In the end, *each significant (r)evolution of sound technology* (microphones, amplifiers, multi-track recording and mixing) *has brought about profound changes in the expression of cinematic space, *from the experiments of the early 20th century to the invention of Dolby, which created a “superframe” (Chion 1990) and endowed silence with a paradoxically “heightened presence.” This is patent in the quality of sound itself (increased dynamics, abroadening of the sonic spectrum, the possibility to distinguish and distribute sound sources more precisely or to enhance the sensation of  emptiness), as well as in the quality of the images themselves (for instance, ambient sounds have been made it possible to do without the traditional master shot [Altman 2014]).

It would thus seem that *“sonic space” in film and audiovisual productions is not entirely a matter of sound but, more generally, of mise en scène and editing* (e.g., the clear-cut acoustic breaks between sequences in films like /Safe/ [Haynes, 1995] and /Tropical Malady/ [Weerasethakul, 2004]). Beyond the composition of the soundtrack itself, a decisive question pertains to *how a particular arrangement contributes to the creation of a special place or space for audiences*, and how we are invited to hear and listen to them. It is possible to argue that contemporary Hollywood blocksbusters like /Gravity/ (Cuarón, 2013) and /Arrival/ (Villeneuve, 2016), because they are set in fantasy or non-terrestrial environments, share the ambition of certain 20th-century experimental and avant-garde films (Jordan Belson, Bill Viola, Derek Jarman) of creating audiovisuals spaces that are quite simply “unheard” of, i.e., that have no equivalent in natural perception; however, it remains to be seen whether the spectacular regime that constitutes their framework allows for the same perceptive attention to sonic creations.

Speakers are invited to *combine technical, aesthetic and cultural perspectives* on film and audiovisual productions and a focus on a wide variety of works (fiction, documentary, experimental cinema, video installations, amateur films, family films, series, music videos, etc.). Proposals in English or French, including a 300-word abstract, along with a brief bio blurb and works cited section, should be sent to the conference organizers ((antoine.gaudin /at/ sorbonne-nouvelle.fr) <mailto:(antoine.gaudin /at/ sorbonne-nouvelle.fr)>, (david.roche /at/ univ-monpt3.fr) <mailto:(david.roche /at/ univ-monpt3.fr)>) by November 30, 2021. The symposium is a collaboration between the IRCAV laboratory in Paris and the program “Films and series: Politics of Audiovisual Forms” within the RiRRa21 laboratory in Montpellier.

Our keynote speaker will be *James Buhler*, Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of /Theories of the Soundtrack/ (2018) and co-author of /Hearing the Movies/ (2016).

*Possible themes include:*

- the evolution of sound technology and spatial rendering in film and audiovisual productions;

- the poetics and politics of sonic space;

- the spatial stakes of recorded and fabricated sounds;

- “signature sounds” in indoor and outdoor, daytime and nighttime spaces;

- the spatial dimensions of the treatment of the sound signal;

- how sonic spaces solicit embodied spectators:

- sonic space and visual mise en scène;

- sound ecology and the politics of sound;

- the spatialization of sound in reception contexts (movie theaters, video installations, etc.)

- noises, music, voices and spaces;**

- /sound design/ in film and audiovisual productions;

- the relationship between sound spaces in film and other media (recorded music, radio, etc.);

- the film or audiovisual production as a space of listening.

*Scientific Committee*

James Buhler (University of Texas at Austin), Serge Cardinal (Université de Montréal), Pietsie Feenstra (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Chloé Huvet (Université d’Evry Paris-Saclay), Giusy Pisano (ENS Louis-Lumière), Emmanuel Siéty (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle).

*Selected Bibliography*

Adjiman, Rémi. “Les usages des ambiances sonores dans les films de fiction.” /Communications/, vol. 102, no. 1, 2018, pp. 137-151.

Altman, Rick. “Technologie et représentation : l’espace sonore.” In /Histoire du cinéma : nouvelles approches/, edited by Jacques Aumont, André Gaudreault and Michel Marie, Publication de la Sorbonne, 1989, pp.121-130

--- . “Sound Space.” /Sound Theory, Sound Practice/. Routledge, 1992, pp. 46-64.

---. “Establishing Sound.” /Cinémas/, vol. 24, n. 1, 2014, pp. 19-33.

Balázs, Béla. /Early Film Theory: Visible Man and the Spirit of Film/. Berghan Books, 2011.

Barnier, Martin and Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan (ed.). /Cinémas/, « Nouvelles pistes sur le son : histoire, technologies et pratiques sonores », vol. 24, n. 1, 2014.

Bridgett, Rob. /Leading with Sound: Proactive Sound Practices in Video Game Development/*.*  Focal Press, 2021.

Buhler, James. /Theories of the Soundtrack/. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Buhler, James, David Neumeyer. /Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History/. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Cardinal, Serge. /Profondeurs de l’écoute et espaces du son : cinéma, radio, musique/. Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2018.

---. “Médiation ou modulation sonore ?” /Cinémas/, vol. 9, n. 1, 1998, pp.95-115.

Cenciarelli, Carlo. /The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening/. Oxford University Press, 2021.

Chion, Michel. /Le son au cinéma/. Étoile, 1985

---. /Audio-vision: Sound on Screen/. 1990. Columbia University Press, 2019.

---. /Un art sonore : le cinéma/. Cahiers du cinéma, 2003.

---. /Des sons dans l’espace : à l’écoute du /space opera. Capricci, 2019.

Chouvel, Jean-Marc and Makis Solomos (ed.). /L’Espace : musique/philosophie/. L’Harmattan, 2000.

/Cahiers du cinéma/, “Écouter le cinéma,” n°749, November 2018.

Collins, Kasey. /Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games/. MIT Press, 2013.

Dallaire, Frédéric. “Son organisé, partition sonore, ordre musical : la pensée et la pratique cinématographique d’Edgar Varèse et de Michel Fano.” /Intersections/, vol. 33, n. 1, 2012, pp. 65-81.

Deshays, Daniel. /Entendre le cinéma/. Klincksieck, 2010.

Doane, Mary Ann. “The Voice in the Cinema: the Articulation of Body and Space.” /Yale French Studies/, n. 60, 1980, pp.33-50.

Gaudin, Antoine. /L’espace cinématographique : esthétique et dramaturgie//./ Armand Colin, 2015.

Hanson, Helen. /Hollywood Soundscapes: Ffilms, Sound Style, Craft and Production in the Classical Era/. Bloomsburry, 2017.

Harpole, Charles H. “Ideological and Technological Determinism in Deep-space Cinema Images: Issues in iIeology, Technological History, and Aesthetics.” /Film Quarterly/, vol. 33, n. 3, 1980, pp.11-22.

Huvelle, Didier and Domique Nasta (ed.). /Le son en perspective : nouvelles recherches / New perspectives in sound studies/. P.I.E./Peter Lang, 2004.

Jankélévitch, Vladimir. /Music and the Ineffable/. 1983. Princeton University Press, 2003.

Jullier, Laurent. /Les sons au cinéma et à la télévision : précis d'analyse de la bande-son/. Armand Colin, 1995.

Kracauer, Siegfried. /Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality/. 1960. Princeton Universirty Press, 1997.

Krause, Bernie. “The Voice of the Natural World.” TED Global, 2013. <https://www.ted.com/talks/bernie_krause_the_voice_of_the_natural_world/transcript?language=fr#t-1025 <https://www.ted.com/talks/bernie_krause_the_voice_of_the_natural_world/transcript?language=fr#t-1025>>. Accessed 18 Sept. 2021.

Lankjaer, Birger. “Spatial Perception and Technologies of Cinema Sound.” /Convergence/, vol. 3, n. 4, 1997, pp.92-107.

Lastra, James. /Sound, Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity//./ Columbia University Press, 2000.

/Ligeia/, “Art et bruit : théâtre, magie, cinéma, musique, radio, opéra, performance, ciné-danse,” n°141-144, 2015.

Maury, Corinne. /Du parti pris des lieux dans le cinéma contemporain/. Hermann, 2018.

Millet, Thierry. /Bruit et cinéma/. Presses de l’Université de Provence, 2007.**

Ondaadtje, Michael. /The/ /Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing/. Knopf, 2004.

Pisano, Giusy. /Une archéologie du cinéma sonore/. CNRS, 2004.

­---. “In Praise of the Sound Dissolve: Evanescences, Uncertainties, Fusions, Resonances,” In /Indefinite Visions: Cinema and the Attractions of Uncertainty/, edited by Martine Beugnet, Allan Cameron and Arild Fetveit, Edinburgh University Press, 2018, pp. 103-16.

Rosario, Filipa and Ivan Villarmea Alvarez (ed.). /New Approaches to Cinematic Space/. Routledge, 2019.

Schafer, R. Murray. /The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World/. 1977. Destiny Books, 1993.

Thomas, Benjamin. /Faire corps avec le monde : l’espace cinématographique comme milieu/. Circé, 2019.

Weis, Elizabeth and John BELTON (ed.). /Film Sound: Theory and Practice/. Columbia University Press, 1985.

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