The Future is Past - Sonic Scrying in Film

Cinema’s visions of possible futures hold tales of both dystopian and utopian scenarios and we are willing to accept either a destination which is built upon and alongside our cultural and architectural history, or one that has cleared away former and familiar iterations to show us a fate of metal and glass, the go to materials of our technological white hot destiny.

While our visions may change and be based upon aesthetic guesswork, the sonic environment plays a different role for us as spectators and indeed as consumers. It is the sound of the future which is most central to our understanding and experience of the now and possible then. Our relationship to film sound, its prophesies and our embrace of its augury is an overlooked element of cinema. It is sound which grounds the leaps of visual faith that film provides and it is sound that finds it place within our present far more quickly than any aspect of a future driven mise-en-scene.