Knowing Sounds

We contributed to the Journal of Media Practice’s Disruptive Media special edition in 2016. Our contribution was, you’ve guessed it, a podcast. The episode is a reflection on our process and practice over the course of doing The Cinematologists, an aurally experimental discussion of film culture and the culture of film podcasting and an investigation into the academic application of podcasting, featuring interviews with Disruptive Media contributors.

The episode is below, followed by:

  • Links to academic references, cited podcasts and contributors.
  • Audio response from one of the peer reviewers.
  • Audio response from us, to the peer review process
  • Audio blogs about what we’ve done and how it all went.

For more information on the Disruptive Media project click here

Knowing Sounds is an experimental podcast exploring the possibilities and outcomes of using the podcast medium as a creative practice underpinned by conceptual thought to produce and disseminate academic research. The podcast, which more specifically can be defined as an audio essay, is split into three sections. The first is an experimental collage of music, dialogue and sound effects from a selection of films interwoven with excerpts from audience members who attended The Cinematologists live screenings. It is designed to open up questions as to the potential for a sonic landscape to tap into the ‘cinematic imagination’ without the use of images. We thus play with aural engagement creating a space for the listener to actively negotiate the binary between the abstract emotions and intended rational meaning inferred through listening. The second section is a spoken analysis of the potential of podcasting as an academic form exploring how the mechanics sound production and dissemination in the digital age can challenge the powerful logocentric link between knowledge and writing. We also interrogate the structural formation that, paradoxically, has given rise to the ubiquity of podcasts in mainstream culture but has undermined its potential development. Furthermore, interweaving illustrative references, we analyse specific film podcasts and how they utilise a developing grammar of sonic writing to expand cultural discourse. The final section brings together other contributors to the journal of disrupted media practice commenting on their alternative methods of production and exhibition aimed at unsettling assumptions about the relationship between practice and theory.

Link to Knowing Sounds on Soundcloud w/ interactive academic referencing notes embedded

Link to PDF of academic sources cited in and related to Knowing Sounds

Cinematologists Episodes cited:

Episode 1: Repo Man

Episode 6: Goodbye Dragon Inn

Episode 11: Tony Manero

Episode 16: In The Mood For Love

Episode 18: The Trial

Episode 23: Blue Steel

Episode 28: Old Joy/I Am Belfast

Podcasts Discussed:

The Film Comment Podcast

The Film Programme, Radio 4

Greg Proops Film Club

The Longform Podcast

The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast

You Must Remember This

The Ezra Klein Show

The Cinephiliacs

Contributors to the Journal of Media Practice, Disruptive Media edition, featured on the podcast:

Janneke Adama

Zachary J. McDowell, PhD

Dr. Lyle Skains

Emma Walters

The next section looks at the peer review process for the Journal. First up is an audio response from one of the reviewers, Bernard Geoghegan:

Below is our response to both Bernard’s review and another text based, anonymous, peer review:

The final section is a collection of audio blogs recorded throughout the process of making Knowing Sounds:

Knowing Sounds: Blog 2

Below you can find the second of our work in progress blogs. This one looks at the process of compiling the podcast and features heavily on Dario’s reflections as he has been the creative inspiration and practitioner behind the endeavour. Enjoy.

Knowing Sounds: Blog 3

In the latest blog, we discuss the lengthy and complex recording of the second section of the podcast plus we get an update from Dario on how the editing is going.

Knowing Sounds: Blog 4

In the final blog of the first phase of the project, we reflect on the process of compiling the final version of the podcast and wonder about phase two; peer review.