The Sounds of Shadows and Light: Science Fiction and the Supernatural

Abstract

The ability for sound to create worlds of possibility, mystery and pure fantasy is part storytelling across all media. At the root of this is our own sense of mortality, and the fear—or promise—of the unknown. Given infinite possibility, sound enables a freedom of imaginative expression that knows no bounds. Sir Oliver Lodge believed that the ‘ether’ was the key to all communication between living and dead. Konstantin Raudive sought to capture voices of the dead on magnetic tape, and Luigi Russolo saw connections between the spirit world, art and music. From scientific speculation to the science fiction in the radio work of Orson Welles and sound in the films of Stanley Kubrick, there are no wrong answers when it comes to sound.