Spatial perception and diegesis in multi-channel surround cinema

Abstract

This article addresses the challenges that are connected to the current use of the concepts ‘diegetic’ and ‘non-diegetic’, when sound cinema may reach an audience from many channels and directions. It poses the question: ‘How can we relate to the division between diegetic and non-diegetic sound within a challenging multi-channel digital surround world, where cinema sound totally envelops the audience?’ The article argues that the transition area between our perception of the space in front of us and the space behind us is seamless - in a perceptual-cognitive sense. Inside the transitional area between these two fields, there exists a hybrid area, wherein audiences partly support their experience with memory and partly with visual perception. This hybrid area links together our experience of the space in front of us, and our experience of the space behind us. In the movie theatre this condition is most likely to affect the ability of the audience to integrate sound from the surround speakers into the diege...