Maastricht University

Graduate Student, Social and Cultural Sciences

Thesis Title: Moving Sound: Soundscapes of Urbanity in Film

About

Jasper Aalbers obtained a BA degree Cum Laude in Theater, Film and Television Studies, and his RMA in Media Studies in 2008. Both at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He also took courses in Film Studies at University College Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland.

Since September 2008 he is appointed as a PhD researcher at the University of Maastricht, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in the department of Technology and Society Studies. In the context of the NWO funded ‘Soundscapes of the Urban Past’ project he is researching the representation of city sounds in film, especially in films set in Amsterdam, Berlin and London.

Other interests are (self)(re)presentation of politics in media, and the history and theory of early cinema

In his research Jasper examine historical urban soundscapes in film, in order to identify the conventions and repertoires of city sounds used by filmmakers. City sounds can be used to locate a scene or film in a particular city, and they can be given a significant role in the development of the narrative. The identification of conventions and repertoires will be carried out through an analysis of a body of films set in Amsterdam, Berlin and London in the 1930s, the 1950s and the 1990s.

This research is part of the ‘Soundscapes of the Urban Past’ project, in which staged sounds in various media (texts, radio plays and, in this study, films) are approached as cultural heritage, as a unique entrance into the experience and evaluation of the city. Of course film sound, due to its staged and mediated character, must not be mistaken for a historical record. On the other hand: the highly conscious and intentional process of selecting and mixing film sound – motivated by popular film’s drive towards perceived realism – constitutes a sound track that reflects which sounds were (considered to be) on people’s minds: The sounds that were considered characteristic for the city in which the film is staged, or for urban environments in general.

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