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No. 7 (2024): Sound: the sound dimension of everyday life between visual arts, machines, electronic music. Theoretical, practical and cultural perspectives (Vol. 1)

Posthuman aurality. Extended bodies and technophysiology in the immersive listening practices

DOI
https://doi.org/10.54103/connessioni/26642
Submitted
October 3, 2024
Published
2024-12-31

Abstract

Over the past decades, the aural dimension has been the focus of a large number of contemporary theatrical experiments. In this essay we aim to highlight the aural experience of partaking audience involved in theatrical practices employing listening devices, generally referred to as headphone theatre. This kind of practices is often tied to binaural recordings that address an auralisation process of the spaces and events surrounding the participating subject in order to generate an immersive effect. After first introducing some key operational concepts such as, for example, immersion, interactivity, presence, aurality, the performances The Encounter (2018) by Simon McBurney/Complicite and Viola’s Room (2024) by Punchdrunk will be investigated. Above all, we will outline how the aural dimension is capable of redesigning the performative space by actualising aesthetic perception through emplacement. Finally, we will examine how the technological devices adopted in these performative experiences can be considered as effective prostheses that play a fundamental role in the multimodal apperception of performance. Headphones as a technological device becomes a somatic agent which modifies the spectator’s perception, enhancing the experience of space according to an eco-ontological approach.

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