Abstract
This chapter considers some of the ways that sound forms an important aspect of sport by paying attention to how the senses play roles in performance and consumption – a range of topics that is almost always taken for granted, if not actively ignored, throughout sport studies. Nevertheless, a casual perusal of sport makes it abundantly clear that even the simple act of spectating at a local sporting contest encompasses more of the sensorium than “watching sport”. The auditory is a crucial element of any sporting experience. From the distinctive syncopated pattern of a table tennis rally to the visceral grunt of the front rows locking horns in a rugby scrum, the experience of playing and watching sport is made up of a number of unique soundscapes. A soundscape is a distinct form of “auditory weather” that contributes overall to each unique sporting experience. As the acoustical environment changes, sometimes dramatically and suddenly, in a sports event, it drastically affects the overall experience and atmosphere. Thus it behoves us to push for the development of an acoustemology (Feld 1996) along the lines of meteorology, a scientific approach that explicitly addresses how “sound is central to making sense, to knowing, to experiential truth” in sporting environments.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies |
Editors | Michael Bull |
Publisher | Routledge |
Chapter | 38 |
Number of pages | 9 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315722191 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781138854253 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2 Nov 2018 |