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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2024

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Summary

Abstract: Chapter 1 introduces the historical, conceptual, methodological, and theoretical framework of research into Indian film and media arts sound production. Setting the book’s scholarly tone, several concepts are discussed as key research entry points. Critically listening to the trajectories of sound production in India, a hypothesis is proposed exploring technological innovations and shifts that have led to manifold sound recording and presentation advances through various production phases. In this chapter, historical trajectories are studied to understand the shifts in various differing yet concurrent sound practices used to engage audiences. Critical observation, reflection, and analysis of passages of sound from representative Indian film and audiovisual media works, specifically from the three phases of sound production identified, are made to qualify these claims.

Keywords: Indian cinema, sound studies, realism, media aesthesis, media art history, film sound

Background Sounds

In the autumn of 2006, I was a final-year student of audiography at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), a prestigious institute for film education in India. I was invited to speak about my experience as an emerging sound art practitioner and my concerns regarding the use of sound in cinema at a conference titled Sound Cultures in Indian Cinema. The conference was held with the intention of launching an Indian film sound research programme in the Department of Film Studies at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. I presented a student paper at the conference, which was later published in the Journal of the Moving Image (2007). The paper was my first critical intervention within the field of (film) sound research and, as such, allowed me to enter academic debates around sound in film and audiovisual media as an active sound practitioner and artist.

This intervention was significant for several reasons. Firstly, as a sound practitioner, that is, one who explores the medium of sound for aesthetic, cultural, and artistic purposes, as well as one who theorizes about it, I was able to offer novel insights into the ongoing academic debates in film sound research, which, up to that point, had been based on mostly non-concrete ideas about sound recording and design in films by seasoned academics, who were not sound practitioners themselves.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sound in Indian Film and Audiovisual Media
History, Practices and Production
, pp. 9 - 44
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
  • Book: Sound in Indian Film and Audiovisual Media
  • Online publication: 20 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551668.001
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  • Introduction
  • Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
  • Book: Sound in Indian Film and Audiovisual Media
  • Online publication: 20 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551668.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
  • Book: Sound in Indian Film and Audiovisual Media
  • Online publication: 20 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551668.001
Available formats
×