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Re: New Soundscapes & realism

Subject: Re: New Soundscapes & realism
From: "Volker Widmann" volwid
Date: Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:52 am ((PST))
I would like to second Davids statement.

We should never forget that nature recording is an ART!
And as such it is artificial.
So by transferring any kind of reality onto a whatever medium, this very re=
ality is filtered by the artist's mind (and the technical framework of the =
medium).
So, even the most natural nature recording by definition only is an artifac=
t - it is not nature.
It may convey the feeling of the "real thing" adequately, but if it does so=
, it is due to the skill and "art" and intention of the recordist.
One could call this cheating, I would call it art.
So any nature recording is not about reality, but about the recordist's ide=
a of reality.

The magnificent Walter Knapp (and others) explained this extensively here o=
n the list in the past.

Volker

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:03:03 -0000
> Von: "Avocet" <>
> An: 
> Betreff: Re: [Nature Recordists] New Soundscapes & realism

> All art is artifice and involves key decisions of what to include and
> what to exclude. In the case of wildlife recording, and filming for
> that matter, including anthropogenic material is a matter of artistic
> judgement. There are no truly wild places left and no truly wild
> animals living free from either human encroachment or human
> protection. Excluding the human element could be regarded as more of a
> misreprentation than including it, even if it is regarded as
> irrelevant or perhaps especially if it irrelevant but the truth.
>
> Wildlife has to coexist with anthropogenic interference and
> certainly the fish in the hold of the distant boat didn't have their
> say in whether or not the boat was irrelevant to their seascape. Is
> there a distinction between selection by timing, editing, or
> eliminating non-wildlife sounds by filtering? Anyone with a live mic
> knows that anthropogenic sounds are almost everywhere, so is it not
> more honest to portray the wildlife as having to live with these
> sounds, including the train roaring through their landscape? I'll tell
> you what Mark's train did for me - it gave me a vivid sound image
> portrait of that bit of countryside.
>
> The recent BBC series 'Frozen Planet' came in for criticism for not
> captioning a polar bear sequence which included shots of a newborn cub
> in captivity. An edited film uses artifice from start to finish, often
> cutting together sequences spaced widely in location and in time. Take
> notice of coat patterns in films portraying the life of one supposedly
> singular animal. The word "cheating" is often used by filmmakers
> because that is how interesting films are put together. I can usually
> tell which sounds have been dubbed on later and which were recorded
> sync, like birds in the tops of trees on a very long lens with
> expertly dubbed matching close sound. Adventure documentaries are
> prone to showing a heroic figure battling on alone against the odds,
> not drawing attention to the fact that he or she is obviously being
> followed by a film crew. A series on flight currently being shown here
> uses trained birds filmed from a microlite to link sequences.
>
> I see no harm in some occasional honest realism, like
> including distant motors or close trains which would still
> have been part of the "natural" soundscape even if edited
> out.
>
> It's an interesting debate and it brings to mind a film my
> wife set up in China about integrated agriculture and the good
> use the Chinese were making of some long-ravaged parts of
> their land. However the Tiananmen Square massacre intervened
> between shooting and cutting, and a very different film got
> shown using the same shot footage. Which was truest?
>
> David
>
> David Brinicombe
> North Devon, UK
> Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
>

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