ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY AND THE CINEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF ARCHITECTURAL SPACE: STRAINS OF R. MURRAY SCHAFER'S ACOUSTIC DESIGN IN THE FILMS OF JACQUES TATI.

摘要

R. Murray Schafer's 1977 book The Tuning of the World examines the study of our sonic environments, how they have changed since the industrial revolution, and the effects of these changes on human experience. His goal is to implement the project of Acoustic Design: to develop awareness about the way modem spaces create and shape sound, and move towards the design of such spaces with an appreciation for how their sound affects their inhabitants. French filmmaker Jacques Tati made a career out of fashioning cinematic explorations of the sonic differences between old-world community spaces, urban environments, and the increasing sprawl to suburbia in the 50s and 60s. The culmination of the director's work can be found in his 1967 film Playtime, and it is here that we find a virtual template for Schafer's project of Acoustic Design and the ideologies inherent within. This paper examines Playtime through The Tuning of the World, demonstrating the theoretical and practical connections between both texts so that we might better understand each in light of the other. Without suggesting any direct influence of either of these men on the other, I believe that Schafer's work offers the best means through which Tati's use of sound can be understood as the foundation for the ideologies expressed in his films. In return, I suggest that Tati's aesthetic explorations of the cinematic representation of architectural space yield fascinating inroads into the real-world application of Acoustic Ecology.