Static in the System (eBook)

Noise and the Soundscape of American Cinema Culture

Meredith C. Ward (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
256 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-97119-6 (ISBN)

Infos

In this rich study of noise in American film-going culture, Meredith C. Ward shows how aurality can reveal important fissures in American motion picture history, enabling certain types of listening cultures to form across time. Connecting this history of noise in the cinema to a greater sonic culture, Static in the System shows how cinema sound was networked into a broader constellation of factors that affected social power, gender, sexuality, class, the built environment, and industry, and how these factors in turn came to fruition in cinemas soundscape. Focusing on theories of power as they manifest in noise, the history of noise in electro-acoustics with the coming of film sound, architectural acoustics as they were manipulated in cinema theaters, and the role of the urban environment in affecting mobile listening and the avoidance of noise, Ward analyzes the powerful relationship between aural cultural history and cinemas sound theory, proving that noise can become a powerful historiographic tool for the film historian.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Noise and the Concept of
the Cinema Soundscape
1. Songs of the Sonic Body: Noise and the Sounds of
Early Motion Picture Audiences
2. The Film Industry Lays the Golden Egg: Noise,
Electro-Acoustics, and the Academy’s Adjustment
to Film Sound
3. “Machines for Listening”: Cinema Auditoriums as
Vehicles for Aural Absorption
4. Cinema Theaters as Antiquated as “Edison and His
Wax Cylinders”: Mobile Technologies and
the Negotiation of Public Noise

Conclusion: Noises We Will Be Hearing Soon

Appendix
Notes
References
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.3.2019
• Reihe/Serie: California Studies in Music, Sound, and Media
• Reihe/Serie: California Studies in Music, Sound, and Media
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Musiktheorie / Musiklehre
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: America • American Culture • Architectural Acoustics • aural cultural history • avoidance of noise • Built Environment • Cinema • cinema theatres • Class • electro acoustics • film going culture • film sound • Gender • history of noise • Industry • Listening Cultures • mobile listening • motion picture history • Movies • noise manifestations • Sexuality • Social power • sonic culture • Soundscape • sound theory • theories of power • urban environment
• ISBN-10: 0-520-97119-1 / 0520971191
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-97119-6 / 9780520971196