Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-230) and index.
Contents:
Introduction : noise and the concept of the cinema soundscape -- Songs of the sonic body : class, gender, noise, and the sounds of early motion picture audiences -- The film industry lays the golden egg : noise, the electro-acoustics industry, and the academy's adjustment to film sound -- "Machines for listening" : cinema auditoria as vehicles for aural absorption and the rise of musical listening -- Cinema theaters as antiquated as "Edison and his wax cylinders" : mobile technologies, listening to films and television, and negotiating public noise -- Conclusion : noises to which we have been listening in cinema culture, and others we will be hearing soon.
Summary:
"Static in the System analyzes the relationship between American aural cultural history and cinema. Focusing specifically on the field of cinema culture--the envelope that surrounds and conditions our experience of cinema as an art form--Meredith C. Ward discusses how the aural culture of a given time period has enabled certain types of listening cultures to form. Analyzing which forms of listening have been dominant in various periods, she also discusses how noise--that commonly used but little-understood term--helps us to make sense of the ongoing conflicts underlying these moments, and where we have, historically, set the limits of 'desirable' and 'undesirable' sound"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.