Sound Symposium EC

     The lecture I attended aimed to talk about a “new” kind of sound, which uses sounds normally used as background noises as score. David Barker and Pacho Velez started off their talk by redefining the elements of sound in a way that best relayed their ideas using known terms. This did not sit well with many audience members that attended the symposium, who ended the conference by lashing out and criticizing the men on the principles of their discussion. They used several scenes as examples to help define their versions of the words foley, ambiance and score.

Their example they drew upon most to express their ideas was a clip from the film Castello (2011). The scene showed a man in a well-lit factory like setting unpacking and repacking boxes full of lobsters. Barker and Velez described the sound of the lobsters being placed on the table as (their definition of) foley and the noise of the room, which was the sound of a possible HVAC system as the ambiance. However to describe their 4^th category of sound or new idea of score they pulled upon the sound of unraveling tape that was present throughout most of the scene, while the we as the viewers saw no tape.

Their argument was that the tape possibly acted as a new idea of score, setting the mood and revealing an invisible meaning.

The audience however was unimpressed with this revelation. Proclamations of “been there done that” or “been their seen that” seemed to be the general consensus. Other arguments came up that the word foley was being misused and a possible better term for what they were describing was diegetic sound (to which the men had no comment). An audience member even went as far to say that it was disrespectful to the incredibly difficult task of foley and to foley artists everywhere.

While it was clear to some (me at least) that Barker and Velez did not intend to disrespect foley artist, most of the conversation post presentation seemed to revolve around this issue and not what they talked about.

I personally understood their intent. While it angered many elders of the craft I think they focused on the wrong elements and could have brought healthy critique and advice to these men. They seemed to want to start a discussion on how background sounds can be put together to operate as score in a way to start a new trend or fashion in films.