Embodied Crosstalk and Psycho–technological Spaces: applying embodied image schema theory to the audiovisual language of Enemy (dir. Villeneuve, 2013)

TY - GEN

T1 - Embodied Crosstalk and Psycho–technological Spaces: applying embodied image schema theory to the audiovisual language of Enemy (dir. Villeneuve, 2013)

AU - Bridges, Brian

AU - Melvin, Adam

N1 - A version of this paper was presented at the Music and Visual Cultures International Conference, Maynooth University, Ireland, 21st–23rd July. Reference text: Adlington, R. (2003). Moving beyond motion: Metaphors for changing sound. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 128(2), 297-318. Brower, C. (2000). A cognitive theory of musical meaning. Journal of music theory, 44(2), 323-379. Godøy, R. I. (2003). Motor-mimetic music cognition. Leonardo, 36(4), 317-319. Godøy, R. I. (2006). Gestural-Sonorous Objects: embodied extensions of Schaeffer's conceptual apparatus. Organised Sound, 11(02), 149-157. Graham, R. and Bridges, B. (2015) Managing musical complexity with embodied metaphors. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). Louisiana State University. Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press. Johnson, M. (2007). The Meaning of the Body: the Aesthetics of Human Understanding. University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. Basic Books. Ward, M., 2015. Art in Noise: An Embodied Simulation Account of Cinematic Sound Design. In: Coëgnarts, M and Kravanja (ends), Embodied Cognition and Cinema, pp.155-186. Leuven University Press.

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - Embodied image schema theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; 1999) posits that the forms of familiar bodily gestures and interactions inform relationships within our conceptual and metaphorical systems. It has been applied in various domains, from linguistic metaphor to visual arts (Johnson, 2007) and common practice music theory (Brower, 2000). However, although the language of the film soundtrack is frequently described in gestural terms, embodied image schema theory has not been extensively applied in this field. In seeking to apply this theory to cinematic models, Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013) presents a potentially interesting and representative exemplar. The soundtrack’s omnipresent musical construction is drawn from a palette of sonic–musical gestures which are restated in a variety of timbral guises and across a range of diegetic and audiovisual contexts, even encroaching upon the film’s dialogue. The frequent exaggeration of technological sounds, from the hums of computers and fluorescent lights to the percussive march–like insistence of mobile phones is mirrored across the anacrusis–like gestures of the score, resulting in an audiovisual/multi-modal integration that directs the viewer’s sense of psychological/affective tension and definitions of personal, emotional and technologically–dominated spaces. Of equal relevance is the diversity of approaches, from singularly pitch–dominated/timbrally homogenous gestures, integrated sonic–musical scores in which timbral structures dominate, and the composed amplification of certain diegetic sounds. The perspectival spaces of the soundtrack are also unstable and oscillating, with external and internal/psychological world vying for attention; the soundtrack’s crosstalk succeeds in reinforcing the film’s uncanny hyperrealism. In doing so, the sonic language forms the glue that provides contingent order to the ‘undecipherable chaos’ to which the film aspires. More generally, the application of image schema theory to cinema may help us to better interrogate contemporary sound–design–dominated soundtracks.

AB - Embodied image schema theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; 1999) posits that the forms of familiar bodily gestures and interactions inform relationships within our conceptual and metaphorical systems. It has been applied in various domains, from linguistic metaphor to visual arts (Johnson, 2007) and common practice music theory (Brower, 2000). However, although the language of the film soundtrack is frequently described in gestural terms, embodied image schema theory has not been extensively applied in this field. In seeking to apply this theory to cinematic models, Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013) presents a potentially interesting and representative exemplar. The soundtrack’s omnipresent musical construction is drawn from a palette of sonic–musical gestures which are restated in a variety of timbral guises and across a range of diegetic and audiovisual contexts, even encroaching upon the film’s dialogue. The frequent exaggeration of technological sounds, from the hums of computers and fluorescent lights to the percussive march–like insistence of mobile phones is mirrored across the anacrusis–like gestures of the score, resulting in an audiovisual/multi-modal integration that directs the viewer’s sense of psychological/affective tension and definitions of personal, emotional and technologically–dominated spaces. Of equal relevance is the diversity of approaches, from singularly pitch–dominated/timbrally homogenous gestures, integrated sonic–musical scores in which timbral structures dominate, and the composed amplification of certain diegetic sounds. The perspectival spaces of the soundtrack are also unstable and oscillating, with external and internal/psychological world vying for attention; the soundtrack’s crosstalk succeeds in reinforcing the film’s uncanny hyperrealism. In doing so, the sonic language forms the glue that provides contingent order to the ‘undecipherable chaos’ to which the film aspires. More generally, the application of image schema theory to cinema may help us to better interrogate contemporary sound–design–dominated soundtracks.

KW - cinema

KW - soundtrack

KW - audiovisual

KW - embodiment

KW - embodied cognition

KW - music cognition

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - Unknown Host Publication

ER -