Paper short abstract:

This work is a soundscape of the Sanja Matsuri festival in Tokyo, drawing on the long tradition of soundscape work from R Murray Schafer to Augoyard & Torgue, the work is inspired by filmmaker, editor and sound designer Walter Murch.

Paper long abstract:

This work is a soundscape of the Sanja Matsuri festival in Tokyo, drawing on the long tradition of soundscape work from R Murray Schafer to Augoyard & Torgue, the work is inspired by filmmaker, editor and sound designer Walter Murch.

Murch is responsible for many innovations in cinematic sound, from mainstream technologies such as the effective use of Dolby Stereo in Apocalypse Now (1979) to more experimental sound montage in Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Lucas's THX1138 (1971).

One of Murch's techniques involves sounds being collected and recorded from a range of sources; these are subsequently re-recorded in another space to add colour and grain to the recordings: a bundle of environmental cues which are subliminally perceptible, but noticeable when absent. This sound installation asks several questions about how we perceive architectural space with all of our senses working in concert with one another, what can we understand about a space from its sounds alone?