EXPLORING MATERIALITY BY CONSTRUCTING THE VISUAL THROUGH SOUND

Abstract

This thesis provides an autoethnographic account of my exploration into sound and its capacity to shape the experience of materiality in audiovisual media. I demonstrate through film and installation works how different sound and image combinations facilitate ways of viewing that blur the boundary between seeing and hearing to form imaginative and engaging sensory experiences. The project expands on phenomenological frameworks examining the connection between embodiment and cinematic experiences, by positing how sound materiality is capable of manipulating the processes through which experience is formed. I argue that synchronous sound heightens or skews the experience a viewer has of visual objects, depending on the level of congruence observed between their respective materialities. The project has implications for the development of sound in video and artistic virtual reality works, where scoring techniques are sought to enhance immersion and expressive embodied experience. This project will be of particular interest to creative coders in the Processing and Csound community who seek to incorporate sound or visuals into their art works