Sound and Image

Ways of Reading. Visual Music Course Development at OCADU

by Robert Appleton

Ways of Reading. A course at OCAD University conceived and taught by Robert Appleton using sound, text and image.

Frozen Soundscapes in Control (Anton Corbijn) and Radio On (Chris Petit), Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2009, December 9 (1)

by Tom Whittaker

Whittaker, Tom. Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film. In: Stone R. & L. Shaw ed(s). Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester, University of Manchester Press. 2012

by Tom Whittaker

Archives du projet En dedans et dehors du studio

by Andra McCartney

Archive d'un projet de recherche avec quelques liens sonores

Archives du projet En dedans et dehors du studio

En dedans et dehors du studio était un projet de recherche... more Archives du projet En dedans et dehors du studio

En dedans et dehors du studio était un projet de recherche multi-universitaire basé à l'université Concordia et financé par le CRSH. Le projet, réalisé durant les années 2000 à 2005, avait comme objectif d'observer et de documenter les méthodes de travail d'un nombre de productrices sonores issues de disciplines diverses. Les participantes ont pris part au projet à travers la tenue d'ateliers et d'entrevues, ainsi qu'en soumettant des extraits de compositions sonores. Ce document fait donc office d'archive du site web associé au projet de recherche, et sur lequel on retrouvait les différentes méthodes et philosophies des productrices sonores dans le but de les rendre accessible à d'autres productrices, ainsi qu'aux chercheurs et chercheuses en études féminines. On y retrouve aussi de un certain nombre de liens conduisant aux différents matériaux sonores recueillis durant le projet.

Le projet En dedans et dehors du studio, supervisé par Dr Andra McCartney de l'université Concordia (Montréal, Québec, Canada), a exploré les relations entre genre, technologies musicales, performance et processus créatifs des artistes sonores et compositrices. L'équipe de recherche était composée de Dr Beverly Diamond, Dr Kip Pegley, Dr Ellen Waterman, Dr Owen Chapman, Anne-Marie Ennis ainsi que Lisa Gasior. Les participantes au projet qu'on retrouve dans ce document incluent Hildegard Westerkamp, Hélène Prévost, Nancy Tobin, Marian van der Zon, Shelley Craig, Diane Leboeuf, Susan Frykberg, Pascale Trudel, Diane Labrosse, Sarah Peebles, Monique Jean et Claire Piché.

In and Out of the Sound Studio conference on gender and technology

by Andra McCartney

Report on the In and Out of the Sound Studio conference, held at Concordia University in July 2005. Includes bio, abstracts and discussion. Some abstracts in English, some French. Mike Alleyne | Michele Anderson | Diane Ballon | Wende Bartley | Katherine
Binns | Hannah Bosma | Éveline Boudreau | David Cecchetto | Owen
Chapman | Sylvie Chenard | Andrea-jane Cornell | Shelley Craig | Elizabeth
Curry | Stacy Denton | Marcelle Deschenes | Beverley Diamond | Shona
Dietz | Chantal Dumas | Jennifer Eisler | AnneMarie Ennis | Victoria Fenner |
Chantal Francoeur | Michelle Frey | Anna Friz | Lisa Gasior | Mark Harris |
Mara Helmuth | Randolph Jordan | Kathy Kennedy | Lara Kohl | Jessica
Landry | Chantal Laplante | Diane Leboeuf | Charity Marsh | Andra
McCartney | Cherie F Moses | Michelle Nagai | Kip Pegley | Claire Piché |
Hélène Prévost | Sam Routley | Anna Rubin | Jacky Sawatzky | Karen
Sunabacka | Charlotte Scott | Oana Spinu | Rae Staseson | Nancy Tobin |
Barry Truax | Karen Vanderborght | Marian van der Zon | Doug van Nort |
Ellen Waterman | Hildegard Westerkamp | Airi Yoshioka | Andrea Young

In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in... more In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from July 25-29, 2005. The conference brought together independent artists, professors and students from across Canada, the United States and beyond to deliver papers, give lectures and perform their work. The event included a number of concerts featuring the participants, as well as a keynote address by Hannah Bosma, a researcher of women and electrovocal music in the Netherlands. The conference was part of the In and Out of the Sound Studio multimedia project, headed by Concordia professor Dr. Andra McCartney.

The In and Out of the Sound Studio project aimed to establish a greater sense of community among women sound producers separated by geographic space, occupation or disciplinary boundaries, and aimed to make the working methods and philosophies of women sound producers accessible to emerging and established artists, as well as scholars in the fields of communication studies, women's studies, cultural studies, media studies, and music. The conference was held in cooperation with SSHRC, the NFB, CIAM, Studio XX, CKUT, and the SAT.

Rules for Listening to Time: Hours of Infinity

by John Kannenberg

Artist statement for three projects: "One Hundred Hours of Infinity," "Twelve Hours of Infinity: Amduat," and "An Hour of Infinity – the exhibitions and performance comprising my MFA thesis project "Hours of Infinity."

The solitary acts of drawing and listening are inextricably linked; they both observe and record each other.
more The solitary acts of drawing and listening are inextricably linked; they both observe and record each other.

The three projects comprising Hours of Infinity are based upon an imprecise drawing method that causes mistakes to be embedded within the work by separating the creator from the physical act of drawing, all the while maintaining focused attention on the sonic aspects of the experience – the sound of the pencil against the paper, and its merging with other sounds within the surrounding space. The visual symbols I have chosen to depict with this process have represented infinity within various cultures over long spans of time; thus there is a calculated contradiction inherent within the small size and impermanent materials of these drawings, between their own ephemerality and the eternity they represent. Incorporating in their construction elements of classical Egyptian and Greek philosophies, mindful meditation, and proofs from mathematical theory, these works investigate the timelessly beautiful imperfection inherent within the human experience of the Infinite. The drawings themselves are weightless objects, etched documents, their grooves and lines indicative of the sounds of specific durations of time: imperfect, absurd, fragile symbols for something believed to be symmetrical, profound and everlasting.

Etnografía, imagen y sonido en el Norte Grande de Chile

by Gerardo Mora Rivera

Autor: Gerardo Mora
Revista Nómadas, N°35, pp. 167-181 (2011)
Universidad Central
Bogotá, Colombia

Este artículo revisa la presencia de la imagen y el sonido en el lugar etnográfico tradicional denominado “Norte... more Este artículo revisa la presencia de la imagen y el sonido en el lugar etnográfico tradicional denominado “Norte Grande de Chile”. Dicha presencia está condicionada por la concepción del Norte como árido, su visualización como un “paisaje sin sujeto” y el privilegio del pasado étnico como tema de interés. Para cerrar, enfatiza la pertinencia de incorporar etnografías en sonido en la antropología, a partir del análisis de una serie de producciones fonográficas, en algunas de las cuales participó el autor.

Neste artigo analisa a presença de imagem e som no lugar tradicional etnográfico chamado "Norte Grande de Chile". Tal presença é condicionada pela concepção do norte como árido, sua visualização como um "paisagem sem sujeito" e o privilégio do passado étnico como seu tema principal. Para fechar, enfatiza a relevância de incorporar etnografias em som em antropologia a partir da análise de uma série de produções fonográficas, alguns dos quais envolvem o autor.

This article reviews the presence of image and sound in the traditional ethnographic place called "Norte Grande de Chile". Such a presence is conditioned by the conception of that North as arid, its visualization as a "landscape without subject” and the privilege of ethnic past as its main topic. Finally, it emphasizes the relevance of incorporating ethnographies in sound in anthropology from the analysis of a serie of phonographic productions, some of which involved the author.

Trends in Contemporary Hollywood Film Scoring: A Synthesised Approach for Hong Kong Cinema

by Robert Ellis-Geiger

Sobre a relação entre os media

by Rodrigo Duarte

Happy New Era. Graphic Design in the 21st c. Robert Appleton. Zhuangshi Magazine, Tsinghua University, 2012

by Robert Appleton

Review: ‘James Tobias, Sync: Stylistics of Hieroglyphic Time.’

by Andy Birtwistle

published in Screen, vol. 52, no. 4 Winter (2011),pp.528-531.

Emily Brown is now single: a hyperreal mythology created through a series of intermedia art events (Masters Thesis)

by John D'Arcy

Submitted as part of MA in Sonic Arts, QUB 2011.

View the video of the work here: http://vimeo.com/28971382

This document reveals the events that took place following the break-up of Emily Brown and Stephen Kelly - a fictional... more This document reveals the events that took place following the break-up of Emily Brown and Stephen Kelly - a fictional couple created by John D’Arcy. After each making over 300 friends on Facebook, the couple aired the private moments of their break-up online and in public spaces during the week August 14th-21st in South Belfast, Northern Ireland. The series ‘Emily Brown is now single’ explored a range of techniques for presenting narrative in public spaces, including sound, video, fly-posting, interactive software, found objects, live performance and a flash mob. Each event in the series is discussed here in detail, including script and technical requirements, context within existing practice, and reactions of the public. Documentation techniques are also discussed, along with reflections on the project and considerations for future development.

View the video of the work here: http://vimeo.com/28971382

Uroskie - Sonic Arts & Audio Cultures (Journal of Visual Culture)

by Andrew Uroskie

Ethical questions about working with soundscapes

by Andra McCartney

Keynote presentation at World Forum for Acoustic Ecology conference in Koli, Finland, June 2010. A shorter version of this paper has been published in the Soundscape Journal.

When soundscape composers, documentarians and artists work with soundscapes, they are expressing relationships to the... more When soundscape composers, documentarians and artists work with soundscapes, they are expressing relationships to the place of work and its inhabitants and visitors, to the sounds listened to, recorded from or projected into the place, and to the audience of the work. Each time a soundscape composer designs a soundwalk or a theatre piece, an installation or broadcast work, relationships with the world are expressed through how the maker treats the place, the sounds and the audience. Does the maker want to reveal particular sonic aspects of the place as it is, as it used to be, as it might be? Does the composer want to create an ideal place through sound and if so, what are the characteristics of this imaginary place and what ideas and values inform this utopic creation? How does the composer treat the sounds? How prominent are the composer’s treatments in relation to the sounds originally heard in that place, and what are the characteristics of this electroacoustic ecology? What are the dominant and masked sounds in the piece and how do they interact? What connections are there in the work between what is heard in the piece and the place of recording? Does the maker imagine the audience as deafened into numbness and needing to be awakened to true listening by the composer or soundwalk leader’s approach to the soundscape? Do we imagine the listener is ignorant and needing enlightenment? Do we think of the listener as possessed of original and unusual ways of listening, contributing to an expanded awareness of how to work with soundscapes? What are the ethics of this expression, and how are these ethics informed by underlying ideologies of sound, of sound production, and of sound ecology?

Zvukomontaž v fil’me Garmon’ (1934) Igorja Savčenko In: D. Zakharine (ed.): Welt der Slaven, Schwerpunkt: “Stumm oder vertont. Krisen und Neuanfänge in der Filmkunst um 1930”, Vol. LIV 2009, 2, p. 309-325.

by Natascha Drubek

On the First Soviet Film Musical by Igor‘ Savčenko (Savchenko).

"А вот более утонченное — правда, современное — выражение сомнения в адекватности «Гармони» требованиям идеологии: по словам советолога Н.Друбек-Майер, можно лишь удивляться тому, что реабилитация простонародного музыкального инструмента происходит именно тогда, когда деревня должна быть электрифицирована и радиофицирована, не говоря уж о коллективизации как разрушении привычной народной жизни. По крайней мере знаем, что «отцу народов» «Гармонь» не нравилась." (Михаил Собуцкий, Игорь Андреевич и социализ, «Зеркало недели» №39, 14 октября 2006)
http://zn.ua/CULTURE/igor_andreevich_i_sotsializm-48066.html

Sound Montage in I. Savchenko’s Musical The Accordion, 1934
“NATASCHA DRUBEK-MEYER analyzed the genre of the... more Sound Montage in I. Savchenko’s Musical The Accordion, 1934
“NATASCHA DRUBEK-MEYER analyzed the genre of the early Soviet musical in the first half of the 1930s, a time when the mere use of sound in film was still considered experimental, no matter how a/synchronous its relation to the image was. A close reading of Igor Savchenko’s collectivization musical Garmon (Accordion, 1934), the very first Soviet musical film, showed the principal difference in the role that music played within the film narrative in Soviet and American musicals. Even the level of “musical numbers” reaffirmed the Soviet emphasis on montage, where music (as well as sound in general) is not motivated by the plot, does not ensue from the diegesis of the film but rather occupies a status of its own. Drubek-Meyer also emphasized the different use of noises, such as the thumping of machines or the sound of rainfall, which, in the American musical, serve rather as a gate or intro to the musical numbers, whereas in the early Soviet tradition they become acoustical objects of their own semantic significance.” (Jana Klenhova on H-Soz-u-Kult, October, 2007, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=28677

Звукомонтаж в фильме «Гармонь» (1934) Игоря Савченко

- Судьба «Заявки» о звуковом кино 1928 г.
- Звуковое кино в 1934 г. в СССР (модели реалистически-синхронного звука и самoбытного звукового ряда
- «Гармонь» как жанровый гибрид
- Фильм «Гармонь» и два типа американского мюзикла
- Мелодия из бытовой интонации в «Гармони»
- Не танец, а музыка...
- Визуализация ритма (Америка) и ритмический звук как аттракцион (СССР)
- Звуковые образы в первом советском музыкалном фильме
- Заикание Тимоши Дудина
- Гармония - гармонь - «Гармонь»
- Удается ли музыкальное раскулачивание?
- Идеологическая и семантическая функция звуков
- «Гармонь» как экранизация поэмы Жарова
- Звуковое кино после 1936 г. в СССР : Красный Голливуд

(Die Ton-Montage im Film Akkordeon, 1934, von I. Savčenko).

A general rule for sensory cue summation: Evidence from photographic, musical, phonetic and cross-modal stimuli.

by Michelle To

To, M.P.S., Baddeley, R.J., Troscianko ,T., & Tolhurst, D.J. (in press). A general rule for sensory cue summation: Evidence from photographic, musical, phonetic and cross-modal stimuli. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B Biological Sciences.

Music and natural image processing share a common feature-integration rule.

by Michelle To

To, M.P.S., Troscianko, T., & Tolhurst, D.J. (2009).  Music and natural image processing share a common feature-integration rule. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 2481-2486.

"Vortex. Visual Aural Textual. One Language." An interview by Majid Abbasi

by Robert Appleton

Also published in Farsi in Neshan Magazine, Tehran. Chinese translation in progress.

"Vortex. Visual Aural Textual. One Language." is my development of a single language of the visual, aural... more "Vortex. Visual Aural Textual. One Language." is my development of a single language of the visual, aural and textual, mediated by technology.

Sounding Alien: Touching the Future

by Sean Redmond

New review of film and television studies, March, 2011

In this paper I examine two particular aspects of sounding science fiction film: first, the ulterior, Othering sounds... more In this paper I examine two particular aspects of sounding science fiction film: first, the ulterior, Othering sounds of the alien, whether it is creature, object, technology or environment; and second, the soundscape that accompanies or underscores the type of space travel that crosses temporal and spatial thresholds. In both instances of sounding science fiction film I suggest that human limits are reached and breached, leading to a deterritorialization of the self and a hearing that touches the future which is a moment of pure becoming. I focus on the womanly sonority of the alien to suggest that patriarchal and heterosexist sound devices can be ultimately corrupted. In the analysis of sounding space travel I suggest that science film can create a series of moments in which one experiences the double sublime. This spectacular rendering of a liquid chaos enables the viewer to experience the logic of sensation beyond bodily integrity. In this paper my over-arching position is one that hears in science fiction film the profound potential of a radical alterity that exists beyond the sonorous limit.

From the" Hegemony of the Eye" to the" Hierarchy of Perception": The Reconfiguration of Sound and Image In Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven

by Charlotte Crofts

Peer-reviewed draft prior to corrections / typographical setting, published in Journal of Media Practice, 2:1, 19-29.

Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) has been hailed as 'one of the most beautiful films ever made', but the film's... more Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) has been hailed as 'one of the most beautiful films ever made', but the film's immense cinematic beauty has detracted from the impact of its experimental soundtrack. Drawing on interview material with editor Billy Weber (who worked on all three of Malick's films), the original screenplay of Days of Heaven and detailed sequence analysis, the paper examines the film's manipulation of the traditional relationship between sound and image. Indicating that Malick's experimentation with sound largely developed in post production, Weber confirms that the dialogue-heavy screenplay was transformed in the cutting room with the addition of Linda Manz's haunting voice-over. Ridding the film of dialogue created a different emphasis on sound and Weber's states that he and Malick were disappointed that this aspect of the film was critically overlooked. This article redresses this lack of critical recognition, whilst arguing that it is reflective of the general under-theorisation of sound within a body film theory and criticism which tends to emphasise the visual image. With reference to Jean-Louis Comolli, Mary Ann Doane and Kaja Silverman, amongst others, I underpin my discussion of sound in Malick's film with a look at the wider context of the marginalised position of sound within film theory.

Cited in Thomas Deane Tucker and Stuart Kendall (eds),Terrence Malick, Film and Philosophy, Continuum Int. Publishing Group, 2011.