This week’s reading about  “‘Perspective’ in Speech, music, sound” explains the importance of creating sonic “layers” to enrich our listening experience. By choosing between lo-fi or hi-fi sounds and adjusting their amplification, the artiste is able to mix multiple sounds together and direct their order of importance: figure, ground or field.

I remember, my acting teacher had said that our sense of smell is the most powerful tool for actors to drop into character. From the audience’s perspective though, we hardly engage our nasal glands. In a conventional theatre/cinema setting, I think the viewer’s sense of hearing becomes the most powerful tool to empathise with characters in the story, especially having watched The Illustrated Auschwitz (Jackie Farkas,1992) during our Cinema Screening (Contextual Strand).

The Illustrated Auschwitz utilises an audio recount of a survivor from the infamous concentration camp, accompanied by visuals of objects and snippets from Wizard of Oz. Even though we never see the protagonist’s facial expression and body language, her speaking voice is enough to paint a colourful picture of her experiences, successfully evoking sympathy from the audience.

There is also an intimacy and connection viewers have with the character. Jackie Farkas and Liam Egan achieve this by amplifying her soft and hoarse speaking voice to close the social distance between speaker and listener. We are drawn to feel as though we are in an enclosed space where she is physically within our grasp, vulnerable and generously sharing her story.

This technique is effective in drawing listeners in. I hope to incorporate this in PB3. Similar to The Illustrated Auschwitz, the project is a recount of someone’s experience.