Dario Llinares

Podcasting as Liminal Praxis: Aural Mediation, Sound Writing and Identity

Podcasting has been adopted by a host of academics, writers and artists in ways that both enhance, but also diversify from, their primary field of interest or mode of communication. In this chapter Dario Llinares, film academic and co-creator of The Cinematologists Podcast, reflects on his own experience of podcasting production, presentation and dissemination, and analyses interviews with a range of such podcast adopters, to conceptualise the ways in which the medium provokes a self-reflexive interrogation of one’s identity as a mediated and mediating subject. Through an exploration of podcasting praxis—the enactment and subsequent acquisition of knowledge through materialised audio practice—Llinares examines how a range of podcasters assess the effects of working in this audio format, particularly in terms of its potential challenge to the logocentric basis of information communication. Furthermore, Llinares argues that podcasting represents a regeneration of the dialectical possibilities of audio and, concomitantly, reopens debates as to how the form and process of mediation are fundamentally implicated in the formation of knowledge.

Introduction: Podcasting and Podcasts—Parameters of a New Aural Culture

In this introductory chapter, the editors set out the technological, industrial and cultural contexts which have facilitated the emergence of podcasting and podcasts as a ‘new aural culture’. Drawing on their own experiences as podcast producers, listeners and theorists they explore the unique circumstances through which podcasting has evolved into a discreet form, despite existing in a simultaneously symbiotic relationship with a host of mediums. The introduction also sets out the parameters of podcast studies and introduces the book’s chapters as developments of the previous nascent research, while furthering avenues of enquiry reflective of podcasting’s increasingly influential status in the digital media landscape.

Cinematologists: Knowing Sounds

Abstract Knowing Sounds is an experimental podcast exploring the possibilities and outcomes of using the podcast medium as a creative practice underpinned by conceptual thought to produce and disseminate academic research. The podcast, which more specifically can be defined as an audio essay, is split into three sections. The first is an experimental collage of music, dialogue and sound effects from a selection of films interwoven with excerpts from audience members who attended The Cinematologists live screenings. It is designed to open up questions as to the potential for a sonic landscape to tap into the ‘cinematic imagination’ without the use of images. We thus play with aural engagement creating a space for the listener to actively negotiate the binary between the abstract emotions and intended rational meaning inferred through listening. The second section is a spoken analysis of the potential of podcasting as an academic form exploring how the mechanics sound production and dissemination in the digital age can challenge the powerful logocentric link between knowledge and writing. We also interrogate the structural formation that, paradoxically, has given rise to the ubiquity of podcasts in mainstream culture but has undermined its potential development. Furthermore, interweaving illustrative references, we analyse specific film podcasts and how they utilise a developing grammar of sonic writing to expand cultural discourse. The final section brings together other contributors to the journal of disrupted media practice commenting on their alternative methods of production and exhibition aimed at unsettling assumptions about the relationship between practice and theory.