Acousmatic
Created on : December 11, 2023 15:05 | Last updated on : December 11, 2023 15:07
Denotation
Acousmatic sound is sound one hears without seeing their originating cause - a invisible sound source. Offscreen sound in film is acousmatic, relative to what is shown in the shot. In a film an acousmatic situation can develop along two different scenarios: either a sound is visualised first, and subsequently acousmatized, or it is a acousmatic to start with, and is visualized only afterward.
Description
Acousmatic sound originates from an unseen source and is perceived by the listener. Acousmatic media include radios, phonographs, and telephones that broadcast sounds without revealing their source.
Acousmatic sound in a movie that isn't directly visible in the frame is referred to as offscreen sound. An acousmatic situation in a movie can unfold in two ways: either the sound is pictured initially and then becomes acousmatic, or the sound is acousmatic initially and becomes visual only later.
Broadly speaking, any sound—natural or artificial—can be categorized as acousmatic if its source is hidden from view. The French author and composer Michel Chion has also used the phrase to describe the usage of off-screen sound in motion pictures. More recently, musician and scholar Prof. Denis Smalley has developed some of Schaeffers' acousmatic principles in the paper Space-form. Since the 2000s, fixed media compositions and pieces have been referred to as acousmatic, especially in North America.
Theorist of French cinema sound, Michel Chion (1994) states that an acousmatic scenario might occur in a movie in one of two ways: either the sound is originally acousmatic and its source is exposed later, or the sound is observed first and then becomes "acousmatized."