Six propositions on the sonics of pornography

Pornography (and all its contentious pleasures, contested politics and attendant problematics) is enjoying a fresh wave of academic attention. The overwhelming majority of these studies, however, focus on the visual discourses of sexually explicit material. This risks the sonic dimensions of pornography being overlooked entirely. Yet porn is anything but silent. This speculative article maps out some of the ways in which the sounds of pornography (and the pornography of sound) might be approached in the analytical context of gay male culture. Not only do the texts of porn contain assorted sounds (dialogue, soundtracks, non-verbal noises of participation, background and accidental audio), they also seek to prompt sounds (not least the non-verbal noises pornography seeks to elicit during the moments of its consumption) and sometimes depend on sound alone (telephone lines that allow access to recorded narratives or ‘live’ chat). Pornography speaks in particular accents, it mobilizes particular music, it dances to particular tunes and it relies on the pants we hear as much as the pants we see. If queer cultures have their own distinctive worlds of sound, then the sonic armouries of porn play a prominent role within them

Sonic diegesis: reality and the expressive potential of sound in narrative film

Perspectives and approaches from electroacoustic music are applied to support a phenomenological understanding of the role of sound in film, whereby all sounds are presented as potential drivers of cinematic diegesis. Building upon notions of the non-diegetic fallacy (Winters 2010, Kassabian 2008) and extending these concepts from film music into an examination of all sound, conventional classifications of sound into binary (diegetic / non-diegetic) and tripartite (Voice / Music / Sound Effects) divisions are challenged. Such divisions are argued as limiting to an understanding of the full expressive potentials of sound, failing to reflect the filmic experience, by assigning limited functional roles to specific types of sound. Notions of “reality” are core to this exposition, with existing analytical distinctions operating in relation to an assumed objective reality, a transparent mimesis, which fails to take into consideration the subjectivity of the audience nor the diegetic potential of mimetic sounds. However, with reference to specific examples drawn from mainstream cinema – Gravity [2013], Dunkirk [2017] – and creative practice research ¬– coccolith [2016] – the expressive potential of sound is demonstrated to be embodied by all sound types, with the apparent realism of mimetic sounds belying their significant diegetic power. Indeed, the illusory realism of mimetic sounds is argued as core to their communicative action and affect, extending audiences’ own experiences of sonic phenomena. Approaches to the analysis of sound within narrative film contexts are demonstrated and posited as affording deeper and more nuanced readings of the role of all sound in the construction of filmic diegesis

“O Canto Amador”, Portuguese Translation of “Artless Singing”

Sumário - Qual é o papel do som na cultura audiovisual?; O canto amador; A música das telas e suas múltiplas funções; Escutas sobre a Guerra do Iraque; Artifício, banalidade, utopia e luta de classes nos musicais de Jacques Demy; O cinema e os estudos de som - novas perspectivas sonoras para o filme; Palavras, canções e carros - músicas de abertura e as sequências de créditos nos filmes; 007 a favor do videoclipe - as sequências de abertura dos filmes de James Bond como experiência sonora e visual; Videoclipes, canções e som - experiência, técnica e emoção em \u27Brilho eterno de uma mente sem lembranças\u27; \u27We Dance to the Beat\u27 - audioimagens, regimes audiovisuais e novas poéticas do videoclipe; Som nos jogos, do ruído à imersão sonora; Dream World - ambiências sonoras e visuais como formas narrativas em Laurie Anderson

The State of Film Music Criticism

Part of a special section on music in film. The writer discusses the state of film music criticism. The aims of film music criticism, she feels, are to call attention to, and hopefully improve, the quality of film music as music; to serve as a guide to the film-music CD market; to examine how a particular score works in the film it was composed for; a guide to trends in film music; and as a key to what is being portrayed in the film. She goes on to examine film music periodicals, periodicals on film and music, the place of film music criticism in mainstream film criticism, and books on film music

Narratologiska aspekter av filmmusik

Study of how film music is employed in terms of narrative

Glass-Whispering

Lino Tagliapietra is arguably the world\u27s finest living glassblower. Raised on the island of Murano, the Venetian glass center, Tagliapietra began learning the trade at the age of 11 from Muranese masters and had earned the title of maestro by age 21. He first came to Seattle in 1979, and openly shared his unsurpassed experience, understanding, and knowledge of traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques with artists in the United States. In return, he gained an appreciation for the American artists\u27 quest for creative expression through experimentation and individual creativity, pushing him beyond his excellence in execution and into the realm of studio art

Places and Play in Agnès Varda\u27s Cinécriture

Agnès Varda has been making films for more than 50 years. Claudia Gorbman looks at Varda\u27s work within the context of the French New Wave, and describes how Varda\u27s method of cinema writing has fueled her work, in which she seamlessly weaves elements of documentary and narrative together into films that explore time and place with her unique sense of playfulness