The influences of sonic sensory awareness through the production and consumption of screened nature documentaries

Abstract

Multiple commercial and technological factors influence the soundscapes experienced by audiences of nature documentaries. As a genre, nature documentary is a consensual term for fauna and wildlife screened programmes whose storylines need very specific audio and visual data content. Often what audiences hear in these documentaries echoes what they see. However, this illusion of perceptual unity between sight and sound can be exposed by examining the asynchronous production of moving images and sounds. The paper provides a discussion of the ways in which the commercial production practices of nature documentaries reveal aspects of sonic environments in relation to human modes of perception. As well, it examines the production constraints generated by technologies that enhance sonic perception and alter engagements of sound-makers and audiences. This account examines the phenomenological practices of listening to sonic nature and the audiovisual assemblage integral to screened representations of nature. Audience experiences of nature documentaries highlight the perception of a hyper-real environment that might ultimately obscure the sonic landscapes found in nature.