Memoria. Between Thailand, Colombia, Scotland. Point of audition and ambient sounds

Abstract

This paper, as presented in its oral presentation version, aims to analyse the interaction between the concept of point of audition, noise and ambient sounds. To do so, we will focus on the feature film Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021). Our interest resides in demonstrating the possible relationship between the main character and ourselves, as spectators, by sharing an uncertain point of audition which moves between subjective and objective sounds. Our hypothesis resides in the fact that such uncertainty about the point of audition, as felt by the main character and extended to the spectators, relativizes dichotomies in film theory regarding actual spatial or subjective location of sounds. Our analysis intends to open up possibilities for different results regarding sound reception and identification.

Keywords
contemporary cinema; sound; point of audition; ambient sound; transnational studies