“Sightless Sounds”

by Annika Nambiar

 

It was a game of tug of war and one side was rapidly losing ground. Sight always seems to take precedence over sound when confirming what is present. However, a showboat traveling down the Mississippi River inspired the first “Foley” session in 1927 which seemed to overturn this idea (Film Sound). To compete with Warner Bros’ movie with dialogue and singing, Jack Foley’s employer, Universal Pictures, wanted to complete Show Boat with sound. Foley assembled a team to add incidental sounds like clapping or cheering as the orchestra was playing, inspiring the “direct to picture technique” (Trunk et al., 2012). This technique transformed over time from using multiple shoes to simulate people walking into reversing a burp and looping it to mimic a submarine to using key chains with footsteps to imitate chained legs (Film Sound).

In the introductory paragraph of The Noblest of Senses, Jay uses 21 visual metaphors to show how ocularcentrism throughout history has been so pervasive that it influences language today. He also credits the wide variety of visual practices and inspiration for the creation of technology to this historical fascination with the eye and its abilities (Jay, 2009). However, as someone who is blind, Leona Godin shares an alternative perspective to this ocularcentrism in popular culture; she states that blindness translates into a “lesser way of perceiving the world,” but metaphorically, it seems to get in the way (Godin, 2o22). While this claim could be taken in many directions, religious, natural, or confirmatory, it perfectly sets up the exhibit before you. This video will present sounds and the variety of objects or action it could be associated with, however, it is up to the participant to determine what object or action created the sound. When interacting with this exhibit, think about how sight is used as a confirmatory sense to determine what the other senses, like sound, interpret. How reliable is your sight truly?

 

 

Citations:

GODIN, M. LEONA. There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. S.l.: VINTAGE, 2022.

Jay, Martin. “The Noblest of Senses.” Essay. In Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press, 2009.

The story of Jack Foley. Accessed April 22, 2022. http://filmsound.org/foley/jackfoley.htm.

Trunk, Mary, Edward Higgins, Michelle Draycott, Bridget Dowd et al. “Jack Foley and the Art of Sound.” Irish America, January 26, 2012. https://www.irishamerica.com/2012/01/jack-foley-and-the-art-of-sound/.