How can sound be used to not just support story, but to tell story itself?
We often think of sound design for theatre and film as simply underscoring and complimenting what is happening on stage or screen, but I think its much more interesting to think about how sound could be telling its own story alongside the primary text perhaps juxtaposing, expanding or adding new meaning or emotion to existing elements of the story.
Ophelia Deroy also talks about cross-modal correspondences. When sitting in a theatre, or watching a film – sound can tap into an audience’s perception across a number of sensory experiences.
“Research shows how sound design taps into our deep, natural communicative instincts. The sound of an object tells us what it is and imbues it with meaning and emotion” Sarah Angliss. “Sound effects in theatre or films… are not just mere sounds… they contribute meaning” Ophelia Deroy (Knock Knock)
Deroy’s research and expertise speaks to how sound design imbues object with meaning and emotion, and how sound can shift, add layers to and make more complex an action, object or emotion on stage, screen or within the acousmatic dimension.
For example, a telephone ring could be designed to be high pitched, fast and alarming, creating a sense of tension, pace and anticipation; as opposed to a low-pitched, dulcet and slow ringing which would create a more relaxed feeling. This is the same object and event, but the sound attributes a different meaning, feeling and sensory experience. We would be signalled to expect a different message on the phone. The audience would also likely physically have an increased or decreased heart rate depending on which sound was chosen.
This shows how much sound influences our perception of storytelling, and is storytelling within itself.
Sound is often also deprioritised, the aural dimension being the last thing people often think of when approaching visual forms of storytelling. I would argue that even in the world of radio, audio drama and podcasts – people pay more attention to the indicative content of the script, interview or dialogue than the qualities of the sound itself.
Sound can also sometimes abstract time in interesting ways. Since storytelling is very time-based, and sound exists quite differently in time, sound for stage can add a different temporal element to storytelling. It does this in ways that other design elements can’t. It stretches across time and can even potentially disrupt colonial stories which exist on the basis of colonial time.
In conclusion, I think people often take for granted how much sound influences our perception of actions and events, but sound imbues the world and the worlds we create with so many different meanings, feelings and stories. We would all be remiss to not start really listening, and to consider sound more seriously.