Other creative works
[SILENT] FILMS and captions: a surreal approach to implied soundtracks in video and text-based works
2024
Abstract
Research Background
In popular film and video forms, audio has been almost ubiquitous since the advent of the talkies (Buhler 2018; Buhler & Neumeyer 2016). However, the lack of audible soundtrack is a common experience for those with hearing issues or those viewing in muted spaces or forms. Captioning to visually convey voice, music and sound has been common practice since intertitles in the silent film era but is gaining new popularity and attention for accessibility equity and media consumption trends (Berry 2024; Chion 2017; Deaville 2024; Nguyen et al. 2026; Zdenek 2011). The challenge of how to translate music and sound design into captions is both technical and creative (Zdenek 2015). This project asks how can a creative approach to captioning explore meaning making practices of implied soundtracks in video and text-based work without sound?
Research Contribution
[SILENT] FILMS is a 7min DIY video installation with a text-based companion work [SILENT] FILMS – OPNCAP that experiments with translation in form. Designed without sound, both works use creative captioning to communicate dialogue, music, sound effects/design, encouraging an audience to create the soundtrack from their own cultural references and sonic memory. The novel approach to captioning uses surreal humor and parody to persuade specific intertextual relationships and choices of sonic semiotic resources. Both works build on industrial knowledge and scholarship of film, music and sound design, and the creativity and techniques of captioning.
Research Significance
The video installation was competitively selected to feature at Light Industry’s Arts and Manufacturing Showcase event July 2024 QLD, with over 300 hundred people in attendance including local and state government representatives and delegates from Creative Australia. [SILENT] FILMS – OPNCAP was submitted for consideration to prestigious Q1 journal TEXT in 2026. Additional creative works and articles exploring captioning and soundtracks are currently in development.
Details
- Title
- [SILENT] FILMS and captions: a surreal approach to implied soundtracks in video and text-based works
- Authors
- Briony Luttrell (Researcher) - University of the Sunshine CoastHannah Joyce Banks (Researcher) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Date published
- 2024
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Healthy Ageing Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991080798602621
- Output Type
- Other creative works
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