Gravities, trajectories and Postcards: the heard space in intermedial performance.

As this is a short essay, I will get straight to the point. In doing so I expose that fact that I am audile , and believe that sound is a significant part of the audio-visual contract of live performance. Actually, I would argue it to be more foundational than that: ‘A head space in which the seen bathes’ (Chion 1994) . However, considering sound to be of such a foundational influential (the heard space) in intermedial performance ( … in which the seen bathes) presents significant challenges to those wishing to incorporate it in their work. This is particularly relevant to composers/ sound artists wishing to engage with intermedial performance, and intermedial performance-makers wishing to include sound-based media in their works. The challenge for both of these performance-makers is there is no sound-specific intermedia model with which to discuss and apply the affect and inter-effectivity of sound-media on experience within intermedial performance. This essay, therefore, introduces my conceptualisation of how we can get-to-grips with the affectual qualities of sounds within the audio-visual contract of a live performative experience.