SLAM

SLAM, “sounds like a movie”, puts forward an idea of collective memory in film culture in a semi-historical approach combined with a personal path through film sound as a tool of story-telling. The composition hops from film to film in a chain of associations either driven by the sound itself or by the film per se. Occasionally, it reverts to the common strategies of 5.1 sound systems in order to emphasize the fictional qualities of the scenes in use – sometimes by maximizing their atmospheres, other times by highlighting a certain aspect of the sonic data but without neglecting or overcoming the original sources. Along the process, the sounds unfold different layers of understanding: from the materiality itself evoking the period in which they were created (analog textures, old-school compressions, digital characters) to the process that a reduced listening experience pertains to. It works with a fine line between what “sounds like” something that is collectively recognized, individual memories and, as always, a sonic liberation of narrative constrains. SLAM is both an étude au cinema as much as an ode to sound-film, while being, literally, cinema for the ears.

Sara Pinheiro (1985) is a sound-maker. For film and video-art, she does sound recording, editing, foley and mixing. In her solo practice, she makes acousmatic pieces, usually for multichannel performances, radio broadcasts or installations. She is a member of the live-coding group K-o-l-e-k-t-i-v and collaborates with the Bystrouška Sound Studios, in Prague. Pinheiro graduated in Cinema (Lisbon, 2008) and holds a Master of Music in Sonology (The Hague, 2012), where she is a guest lecturer. She has been part of the teaching committee at CAS – FAMU since 2013. Her academic work is practice-based research under the name of “Acousmatic Foley”. She is currently a PhD student at The Department of Music, Drama and Performance at Bangor University (UK), under the Parry Williams scholarship.