Sound, listening and the moving image

Abstract

Purpose

As an artist working with sound and the moving image, an in-between space is revealed, a flux between two distinct mediums that intersect as temporal experience and sensory synchronisation. The audio–visual relationship is a pattern of constantly shifting moments of connection and discordance, an ephemeral dance of timing and rhythm that binds together to create a cinematic expression of time and event. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the author will consider the audio-visual event and the space that exists between the visual and the sonic via the frame of my own art practice. Through this context, the author will examine audio–visual relations from practice through to presentation, challenging the belief that sound is merely a support for the moving image and propose that it is an equal if not driving force in the audio-visual contract. The author will also investigate sound-based disciplines that the author utilize in my own work, all of which highlight the materiality of sound and how it can be engaged to directly affect the production and installation of moving image works in a gallery context.

Findings

Utilizing listening in this way has revealed surprising or overlooked connections that visually the author would otherwise have not acknowledged. It has helped link together interests across geography and cartography by expanding on what is not seen and can only be heard, and therefore revealing a new space of information. And it has emboldened the author to investigate the geographies of sound by supplying a way to follow associative connections across a range of environments.

Originality/value

This paper is an original work that is related to the author’s current doctoral research that considers how listening expands visual comprehension.

Citation

Stanton, P. (2019), "Sound, listening and the moving image", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 65-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-12-2018-0019