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In his study of the ontological status of sound in cinema, Michel Chion points out that his interests lie with the human voice; more specifically, Chion is interested in that form of (human) voice in cinema which is "neither entirely inside nor clearly outside" (4). In other words, Chion seeks to theorize the ontology of voice as that particular sonic event which does not fully coincide with the representation of its material-objectival cause in the visual domain. Borrowing from Pierre Schaeffer, Chion uses the word "acousmatic" to signify the partial status-in the experiential field of the human subject-of the voice in its ontological and experiential manifestation. Following Chion's discussion of the significance of "acousmatic voice"- especially that of a female acousmetre-in cinema, a particularly salient example of the power of the acousmatic voice might be found in the 1960 pseudo-documentary The Savage Eye (Dir. Ben Maddow). However, in order to properly understand the ways in which the acousmatic voice is employed in this film, one needs to first take a detour through the topography of the acousmatic voice.
Although it might appear, prima facie, that Chion's formulation insists on the placement of the acousmatic voice within the aural/oral register only, it soon becomes clear that Chion's conceptualization of the acousmatic voice engages the aural/oral register with the visual register. However, the nature of this engagement-and consequently the ontological status of the acousmatic voice-is deeply problematic, as Chion's elaboration on the "complete acousmetre" points out: it is "the one who is not-yet-seen, but who remains liable to appear in the visual field at any moment" (21). The acousmatic voice, according to this formulation, is that which stages an aural "missed encounter" in the visual domain; it is a point in the field of vision that is yet to reveal itself to the subject. Given this paradoxical juxtaposition of the visual and the aural/oral registers, one wonders about the locus of the acousmatic voice.
It is in context of this structural paradox that one understands the significance of the "neither-nor" condition that Chion posits apropos the locus of the acousmatic voice. The acousmatic voice, as such, exists precisely in this in-between locus: ontologically, it is neither fully sonic, nor is it fully visual. However, critical to our...