‘Listening Back’: Exploring the Sonic Interactions at the Heart of Historical Sound Effects Performance

Abstract

Article:Keenan, Fiona orcid.org/0000-0003-2046-9036 and Pauletto, Sandra orcid.org/0000-0002-9404-851X (2017) 'Listening back': exploring the sonic interactions at the heart of historical sound effects performance. ReuseItems deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. 'LISTENING BACK': EXPLORING THE SONIC INTERACTIONS AT THE HEART OF HISTORICAL SOUND EFFECTS PERFORMANCEFiona Keenan and Sandra Pauletto KEYWORDS sound design , sound perception, sonic interaction design, Foley, sound performance, historical sound effects ABSTRACTThe cinematic sound design practice of Foley developed from a rich history of performative sound design through materials, objects and mechanical devices created for theatrical performance, magic lantern shows and silent cinema screenings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Now, as virtual and digital methods become available in film sound design production, it is time to evaluate the contribution of these historical sound design methods through the discipline of Sonic Interaction Design (SID). Exploring the use of everyday objects and sound effects devices in the creation of a soundtrack allows us to 'listen' back and forward simultaneously. Our knowledge of historical sound practice can be updated and new practices can be generated, at the same time deepening our understanding of sound for screen that is performative in nature. This article investigates the interactivity inherent in historical sound effects performance through a case study of a mechanical and digital wind machine reconstruction, and explores its potential to inform new interactive digital methods for sound design.

Evaluating a sonic interaction design based on a historic theatre sound effect

“…This work extends the methodology used in prior research in the field of SID, which examined the enactive qualities of Luigi Russolo's intonarumori family of early twentieth century acoustic noise instruments in order to recreate them as digital models (Serafin & De Götzen , 2009). The gesture of rotation afforded by the theatre wind machine is itself linked to the production of different sound effects (wind, rain and crashes) (Keenan, F., & Pauletto, S. , 2017b), giving any interface produced as part of this work the potential to control additional digital sounds. It is also unclear how such a repetitive and simple action such as the continuous rotation of a handle could create a perceptually rich interaction with a resulting sound.…”

“…The research presented in this paper is concerned with the interactive potential of digital sound but takes a unique approach to this design problem by examining historical theatre sound effects as a ready-made collection of interfaces that successfully afford truly embodied encounters with acoustic sounds. We propose that studying these designs, creating working examples of them and then modelling them digitally will reveal more about what makes theatre sound effects so intuitive and rich as sonically interactive devices, helping to inform further strategies for continuous interactions with digital sounds (Keenan, F., & Pauletto, S. , 2017b).…”

“…The sound of thunder was produced by shaking a long metal sheet hung behind the stage (thunder sheet), while the sound of rain was produced by turning a crank handle to rotate a barrel filled with metal ball bearings (rain machine), for example. Our examination of historical sources on theatre sound effects has shown that, in the absence of an established notation system, performances of these historical interfaces were developed using an approach much like Franinović's (2013) proposed enactive sound design (Keenan, F., & Pauletto, S. , 2017b). This is a Sonic Interaction Design (SID) strategy which engages with the potential of ergoaudition, or listening to self-produced sound (Chion , 2010) to facilitate learning in a sonic interaction.…”

“…Historical sources do not explain the origin of the theatre wind machine design, and so this bears further investigation. While the earlier stages of the design work underpinning this study have been described in detail elsewhere (Keenan & Pauletto (2016, 2017a, 2017b), the final state of the digital model will be briefly summarised here to aid the reader's understanding.…”

Connecting sound design future with historical creative practices: developing digital tools by modelling historical sound effects

“…Examining a specific object [11], utilising ethnographic techniques such as in-studio observations and interviews, may be particularly useful. This may help to uncover the complexities of the accumulation of tacit knowledge as part of both the design and play processes combined ( [12][13][14]). Furthermore, workshop-based methods have been employed to study sound-gesture relationships [15,16], and to prototype sound interactions from everyday objects [17][18][19].…”