The Auditory Setting

• Defines the generally underexplored but well-used terms 'ambient sound' and 'ambience' – terms that denote an often unnoticed but significant element in the organization of sound in film and media productions
• Traces the use of ambient sound in film and media art production through various technological trajectories leading to the contemporary milieu of digital sound systems
• Takes a critical attitude towards the notions of diegetic sound, mimesis, presence, artistic transformations of soundscapes and technological innovations
• Questions the conventional assumptions about sound in film and audiovisual media art (e.g. image-based relationships), and intends to shift the focus on the notion of sculpting a site’s presence in the diegetic world of media productions as a vital narrative strategy
• Draws inputs from prominent media artists and practitioners and their works across the globe as well as from this author’s practice
• Includes examples from Indian, European and American films and many artworks from around the world

The Auditory Setting introduces and investigates how narrative and a sense of place are constructed in film and media arts through the reproduction and mediation of site-specific environmental sounds, or ‘ambience’. Although this sonic backdrop acts as the acoustically mediated space where a story or event can take place, there has been little academic study of sound’s undervalued role in cinematic setting and production. Drawing on theories of narrative, diegesis, mimesis and presence, and following a varied number of relevant audio-visual works, this book is a ground-breaking exploration of human agency in mediating environmental sounds and the nature of the sonic experience in the Anthropocene.