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The sound of sunlight

The sound of sunlight
The sound of sunlight
In films as disparate as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Greenaway, 1975) and Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007), sunlight is given an aural presence of considerable distinction. Perhaps only the tradition of the nocturne – ‘a dreamy musical piece’, as the OED has it – has acquired such a recognizable audio palette. This essay began as an investigation into an oddity in film sound: the sonification of an essentially silent phenomenon. It has become instead a little journey into the curious relations between sound, subjects and an environment hostile to both, the desert, as it has been represented in three films – The Garden of Allah (Richard Boleslawski, 1936), Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) and Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005) – over a seventy-year period.
0036-9543
118-128
Cubitt, Sean
aad644d3-3b69-4ca8-a999-9b0f809eb729
Cubitt, Sean
aad644d3-3b69-4ca8-a999-9b0f809eb729

Cubitt, Sean (2010) The sound of sunlight. Screen, 51 (2), Summer Issue, 118-128. (doi:10.1093/screen/hjq005).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In films as disparate as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Greenaway, 1975) and Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007), sunlight is given an aural presence of considerable distinction. Perhaps only the tradition of the nocturne – ‘a dreamy musical piece’, as the OED has it – has acquired such a recognizable audio palette. This essay began as an investigation into an oddity in film sound: the sonification of an essentially silent phenomenon. It has become instead a little journey into the curious relations between sound, subjects and an environment hostile to both, the desert, as it has been represented in three films – The Garden of Allah (Richard Boleslawski, 1936), Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) and Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005) – over a seventy-year period.

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Published date: 2010
Organisations: Winchester School of Art

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Local EPrints ID: 300144
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/300144
ISSN: 0036-9543
PURE UUID: 1884a5de-a2be-4ecf-bb84-0244fa53acf7

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Date deposited: 20 Feb 2012 14:17
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 10:24

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Author: Sean Cubitt

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