Cinema’s greatest achievement is its manipulation of time and sound. Every frame contains a single frozen moment that can be sped up, slowed down, and repeatedly returned to. Foley artists and sound designers define our relationships to the noise of everyday life. Do horse hooves trotting through Central Park sound like empty coconut shells on a table, or vice versa? Movies create a world of illusion, where even the most ordinary objects, people, and places are full of magic.
In addition to a new commission by Sophie Clements, the exhibition features a collection of cinema “firsts”. Coincidentally all developed in the Bay Area, these include the early photographic experiments of Eadweard Muybridge and Dolby® original noise-reduction processing hardware. Exhibition signage features the Dolby timeline “A Short History of Cinema Sound,” chronologically connecting these “firsts” with the present day. Sophie’s ribbon-screen installation becomes a culmination of cinema technology seen through the artist’s lens.
Sophie Clements
To celebrate the magic of cinema and cinema sounds, the Dolby Gallery hosted a film screening. Exhibition artist Sophie Clements and a small group of San Francisco-based artists, curators, and film experts selected short films beloved for their visuals and sound.
