Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The introduction lays out the basic theoretical framework for acoustic profiling, a method for listening to films by way of acoustic ecology (and vice versa). On the one hand, a sound ecology of the cinema entails the application of acoustic ecology’s prescribed listening practices to film sound studies. On the other hand, a new way of thinking about acoustic ecology is born of film studies, a way to consider acoustic ecology’s practice through film studies’ long history of dealing with problems of fidelity and realism through recording technologies. This intersection of fields offers a necessary critical discourse for handling the challenges inherent in navigating acoustic ecology’s media practices. The four dimensions of acoustic ecology are described as documentation, analysis, prescription, and composition, and it is explained how these can intersect with a variety of standard concepts in film sound theory. In turn, this introduction explains how the films analyzed across the book will demonstrate, enact, and challenge these dimensions through their mediality, a mode of reflexivity that emphasizes the role of media technologies in engaging with, rather than acting as barrier to, real-world space. The films expose the myths inherent to the discourse of fidelity and invite audiences to reflect upon their approaches to the audiovisual construction of space so they may carry this reflection to the world beyond the frame of the screen and its surrounding walls. The intersection of acoustic ecology and film sound studies can make films work as both extensions of acoustic ecology and means for critically rethinking the field.