Deacousmatization
Deacousmatization (CHION 2009, 473) occurs when an acousmêtre (a character whose presence is only audible, not visible) becomes visually materialized. The most frequent cases of deacousmatization occur when an acousmatic voice can eventually be attached to the body (or machine) that produces it.
Usually, such moments of materialization, or embodiment, put an end to the uncanny, often threateaning qualities of the acousmêtre: the voice that seemed to come from nowhere, once embodied, becomes human, thus vulnerable. A most exemplary case of the process of deacousmatization occurs in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939, USA) as Toto the dog moves the curtain, revealing who is really behind voice of the WIzard.
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952) opens with such a process of deacousmatization. First, an acousmatic voice is being heard (we cannot locate its source on the screen). At the end of this sequence, the source of the voice is revealed: an anchorwoman talking into a microphone. The treatment of the point of audition explains the changes in the aural quality of this voice (first bathed in reverberation, then heard at a "normal," conversational volume, implying we're listening to her at a normal distance).
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